USE YOUR HEAD OR LOSE IT

London, UK

Many hospitals in the UK are built with a good dose of reality. I found that most of the hospitals have a cemetery attached to them. The cemetery was either in front, across the road or behind the hospital. This is important and evidence of some degree of sensible planning. Because, for people who go into a hospital, its either you go back home or perhaps cross the road to the other side!

Lagos, Nigeria

In Nigeria, we are a little different. We do not believe that people can die in hospitals. Therefore many hospitals have their mortuaries hidden somewhere and not easily identified. Many and none that I can recall have a cemetery attached. Which is good, since we should not always copy what the Englishman does?

Where we do well is that when we build roads we display an uncanny sense of similar reality. Take for instance the huge artery called Ikorodu road in Lagos. It is built within the city and in now, a largely residential area. So, people are almost forced to have to cross the road. As they say, the grass is greener, and there is always something to do on the other side!

So therefore, people cross the road and get knocked down. What are we to do? Ha, I know, let us build a hospital close by. Hence, the National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi was born. If you get knocked down, no problem, there is a hospital close by for managing your head injury and fractures. Smart! Igbobi is full to the brim and dripping wet with accident victims.

Use your head or lose it

I saw a great picture showing a Fulani chap herding his cattle across the road over the pedestrian bridge. Under the same bridge, Nigerians are running across the road! You will see the young, the old, couples and pregnant women take their lives in their hands and chance death. It seems to me that cows are smarter.

How long will it take to go over the bridge? How long will it take to get knocked down? How many people are knocked down daily? What are the percentages? Just do the sums in your heads and don’t bother to send me the answers. However, all I know is that you only need one failure to succeed in meeting the Almighty. Or you could end up in one of our fabulous hospitals.

Hospitals in Nigeria are no fun and they are expensive to boot. The pain and misery that emanates from hospitals is enough to darken the skies and cause a torrential rainfall. They are not places you want to visit unless you have a good reason. The reason could be that you are a single pastor and looking for a wife among the nurses. Some pastors see visions at night and get text messages from God that a particular nurse has been chosen for them. Usually, the nice beautiful nurse they saw the last time they came to preach on the ward. Very smart! Use what you have to get what you want.

Sorry, I digressed!

Don’t lose your head

Town planners and estate developers will love this article. Perhaps government officials in the Ministry of Road and Transport will also find it a bit interesting. Who knows? But, I cannot be truly sure about them because even if they have good intentions, their hands are often tied behind their backs!

What is true, to a small extent is that the government is making serious attempts to stop people from crossing the highways and getting killed. Barricades and central dividers are constantly being erected and yet, constantly being pulled down by the natives as people continues to perish on our roads. This approach is therefore not working!

We need innovative approaches other than building more pedestrian crossings, or more barricades. Our town planners and developers need to look closely at this as a big problem and do something about it. Painting Zebra lines on the roads is also simply not the answer. Nigerians do not respect Zebra crossing and believe it’s made only for Zebras.

Running across the road is dangerous. Crossing the road in any busy town is a risky operation, crossing major highways within our cities is an invitation to increase patronage at the hospitals. I am sure that the long term answer is segregation of the pedestrian from the traffic. How can we prevent the pedestrian from crossing the road just about anywhere? How can we give them the right incentive to cross in complete safety over the pedestrian crossing or at certain crossing points? I hope our university dons, students, business people and entrepreneurs will evaluate the problem and come up with better and practical solutions.

Do we have to beg people not to cross the roads? Do we have to block off access to the roads in major residential areas? Do we need the Police and other forces to physically prevent people from killing themselves? Can we simply ask that you be sensible and make the right choices?

Use your head or lose it!

NB: Please share and publish this widely. Let us get a few more people to keep their heads.