TRAILERS OF TROUBLES

I want to tell you a story. A story of grace and miracle. It carries with it the proof of the existence of a Divine Power. Without this divine Power, yours sincerely would have been six feet under. Lost and forgotten. But God kept me. So there; I once visited my cousin. After the enjoyable time we spent together, it was time to take my leave. She accompanied me to the point where I had to cross the road to continue my journey home. And after doing all the necessary checks on the road, I bade her farewell and made to cross the road.

A truck from nowhere emerged from the adjoining route and was headed towards me. It was the shout from my cousin that drew my attention. Somehow, a force pushed me across the road. I escaped death by the tooth. As usual, the truck driver moved on, without a word. He was driving on the wrong side. The one they call ‘one way’. That was the reason I didn’t notice him.

This same force recently came to the rescue of Ibukun Laughter. The lone survivor of the fatal road accident that claimed the lives of eight students. The force saved her from the trailer monsters that almost sniffed out her life. It seems she was rightly named ‘Laughter’. Instead of crying, for her, it was laughter. Her name was the stem for her triumph over death. No wonder Rick Riordan author of The Lightening Thief crooned “Names have power”. Maybe he had also felt the effect names could bring on a situation.

Heavy duties vehicles may be useful yet at the same time terrible. But the recklessness of the drivers of these vehicles are supreme. No one can beat the state of the art carelessness wielded by these drivers. They somehow have a perverted fulfilment in driving at the wrong side of the road. This warped form of satisfaction recently led to the death of some students.

These truck drivers divert at ease and make careless decisions when they drive. They are like the politicians who surrounded the President Jonathan regime. They were neither here nor there. Today in PDP and before sunset in APC. They were peripatetic political prostitutes. They seemed to be lost and most times were truly lost. They were ignorant of the lyrics of Patrick Rothfuss, “We understand how dangerous a mask can be; we all become what we pretend to be”. Pretense may be a smart virtue in politics. But when ignorance meets pretense, it is an emergency.

Among these truck drivers, not all are bad. Some still drive the road with remorse and a level of soberness. While others drive with drunkenness and recklessness. But whether with soberness or altered minds, they tend to have a knack for driving on wrong lanes. Meanwhile, only a handful of them are experienced, while a large chunk are just test driving; they are young, green horned and foolish. They express this foolishness at the expense of lives. Mostly young talented ones.

The most recent of their casualties are the dead students of OOU. These students had decided to take rest for the semester. But they got a different rest. Instead of a short refreshing rest, it was an eternal rest. Rest that engineered pain and more pain. Reports had it that majority of the dead were just in their beginning years. They were yet to experience the jingles and the highlights of the tertiary institution. They were nipped in the bud.

But how can we stop this menace? Menace that has been with us from ages past. How can we eradicate our roads from these catastrophic trailer drivers? It seems these drivers have always been anti-student. Some years back, they had killed a very good friend of mine on her way from Lagos to write her POST UTME. The trailer had collided with the driver on neck breaking speed. Smashing everyone to death except one. The survivor was also a friend. She is now happily married and never always want to remember her sad experience. It was still another case of a psychotic ‘one way’ drive.

Another sad experience, was that of a youth corper, who almost lost his legs to these road vampires. Still a head on collision and another case of a ‘one-way’ drive. But we do have road safety officers. They are supposed to be the custodian of our roads. Why would they only mount road blocks in the city disturbing our commercial busses for documents that may have no significant effect? There seem to be a lot of ‘whys’ to the incidence of trailers and their loads of troubles. Whatever be the cause of this perverted road use, it must be stopped. The government must ensure alternative route are created by construction companies when our roads are being repaired. Road officials must ensure that whenever there is a need for motorists to share a lane they must not drive above a certain speed limit.

Now that the change the people sought for is here. We need the change to reflect in our transport sector. “The type of change” says Gilbert Alasa “that would not tolerate the barefaced abuse of people’s right to life”. We need our roads to be safe. Safe for students to ply.

May the soul of those students rest in peace. Amen. May God deliver us from these trailers of troubles. Amen. And lastly, to those politicians who decided to loot the treasury instead of repairing our roads, may you reap bountifully the terrible effects of bad roads. Amen… Can I hear a louder ‘AMEN’?
Ezekiel Efeobhokhan
400 level Pharmacy.