In many parts of the world, family trips
are enjoyed by family members. Children look forward to them and
parents enjoy the company of their children. Many families save towards
these trips because such trips encourage bonding and leave good memories
capable of lasting forever in the minds of each family member.
But insecurity and the poor state of Nigerian roads are robbing many Nigerian families of this wonderful experience.
Rather than travel as a family, many Nigerians, Saturday PUNCH
found out, would prefer to separate themselves even when going to same
destination. Some even choose to go on different days to escape death
since they don’t know when the roads will choose to drink blood
“You are never absolutely sure you will come back alive when you travel on Nigerian roads,” Mr. Gbenga Olarinoye, said.
People like Olarinoye have developed the
culture of separating their families anytime they want to travel, and
they opted for this because of tragic cases of families perishing
together either in accidents or bomb blasts.
Olarinoye recalled the two incidents
that informed his decision not to travel with all members of his family
at the same time. “The first was 13 years ago when a woman who had gone
to visit her in-laws in Modakeke, Osun State, in company with her five
children, perished with them on her way back.
“The second incident was during the year
2000 widely publicised multiple auto crash that led to an inferno which
claimed about 40 lives at the toll-gate area on the Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway. Newly married couples and whole families perished in that
accident. Since then, I resolved not to travel along with all members of
my family anymore.
“Anytime I travel, I ask my eldest child
to stay at home. I do that so that in case of any eventuality, and
should everybody die in an accident, she should be able to look after
the family’s interest,” he explained.
But for Mrs. Esther Afolabi, her worries are not just about the bad roads, but issues such as rape, kidnappings and abductions.
The Ibadan-based resident has three girls.
She said, “Usually, our whole family
does not travel together. I am too careful and always very
security-conscious when I am travelling.
“Nigerian roads cannot be trusted.
Insecurity is also there. For instance, I don’t allow my children to
travel with strangers or even male relations because I read stories of
abductions and rapes almost everyday.”
In the case of Lanre Olubode, who got
married less than two years ago, the culture of ‘never-travel-together’
with your family which he inherited from his parents, is worth
continuing.
He said, “When we were young, my parents
never allowed all of us to travel in the same vehicle. I did not really
understand why my parents were fond of doing that at the time.
Sometimes, they would insist that one of us should stay back and I was
always angry when it was my turn to stay back.
“When I grew up and started to hear
reports of how Nigerian roads claim the lives of whole families, I saw
the sense in that precaution. I can assure you that my family too will
never travel in the same vehicle on any journey so long as the condition
of our roads remains the same.”
Olubode said even his siblings had
adopted the practice. He recalled a recent journey he embarked on with
his brother and his wife.
“My brother took the younger child and
left the older one behind. But the older child became sick from crying.
He did not understand why his father left him behind,” he explained.
Mrs. Adebimpe Adepeju-Atofolaki is also
one of those Nigerians that do not travel with the entire family members
in same vehicle.
“Lailai! (‘never!’),” she said, when asked if she could travel with all her family members in the same vehicle.
Like Olarinoye, a tragic incident that
occurred when she was an undergraduate informed her decision not to
embark on family trips.
Adepeju-Atofolaki said, “When I was a
student at the Obafemi Awolowo University in 1989, the parents of a
fellow student paid a visit to her in company with her siblings. On
their way back to Lagos, the whole family perished. The lady nearly ran
mad.
“That incident scared me. My parents
really did not bother about such issues when I was growing up because we
rarely travelled as a family. But I have seen and heard a lot of
stories on tragic occurrences where families of six, five or seven
perish in auto crashes. Apart from road accidents, what about travelling
by air? We all remember the woman who lost all her kids in the Dana
plane crash.
“I value my family and we took this
decision not because we don’t believe in the efficacy of prayer, but we
have just come to understand that on Nigerian roads, one cannot be too
careful. It is not just the bad roads, what about security situation on
the roads?”
The fears expressed by these families
are not out of place considering the poor roads and other security
issues that Nigeria battles with everyday.
Crisscrossing the nation’s 910,770 sq.
km of land mass on its poor roads, which have also served as havens for
armed robbers is not easy.
It is very common to read reports like:
“Family of seven die in car accident,” “Family of five perish in auto
crash,” or “Tears as father, mother, four children perish in crash
fire.”
In April 2003, a bus belonging to the
transport company, the Young Shall Grow, was consumed in an inferno
along with its passengers on the Benin-Ore Expressway.
A truck had a burst tyre on a bad
portion of the road, and hit a stationary fuel tanker. Among the victims
was a family of four; a woman and her three children.
Just last year, a medical doctor, Mr.
Ralph Omojefe, his three children and an uncle died on the Benin-Ore
Expressway while returning from Lagos, after seeing off a relation
travelling to the US.
In February 2014, a final year student
of Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu Ode, died alongside three
other members of her family, which included a toddler, along the
Abeokuta-Sagamu Expressway when one of the tyres of the Nissan pickup van they were riding in, burst due to a bad portion of the road.
The same February, Mr. Alex Akinwale,
who was the Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Nigeria
Television Authority chapter, Akure, died alongside his wife and
daughter in an auto crash.
The list goes on and on. Expectedly these occurrences leave imprints of fear in the psyche of Nigerians.
Experts have provided perspectives which
suggest that the situation on Nigerian roads could have a more lasting
negative effect on the family structure.
A sociologist, Mr. Monday Ahibogwu,
explained that the phobia that bad roads and insecurity create for
families was capable of eroding the level of confidence that families
have in moving as a group.
Ahibogwu said, “People now face the
reality that their whole family may become victims of kidnap, and or may
be wiped out in an accident.
“You should also take into cognisance of
the fact that accidents do not happen only on bad roads. They happen on
good roads as well. But as a precautionary method, people believe that
separating their families would ensure that the whole group is not wiped
out in case of any eventuality.
“There are some experiences one would
get on a road trip that one may not be able to get by other means. The
fear of what could happen on the road creates psychological pressure on
families.”
Ahibogwu explained that the inability of
the government to diversify transportation in Nigeria was destroying
the overused roads.
He said a large percentage of the nation’s economy was road-driven.
“Because we do not have an effective
rail system, the roads will continue to be bad. Take the Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway for instance, apart from the bad portions of the road, some
parts of it are undulating and force vehicles to ‘dance’ when plying the
road. People become apprehensive about being thrown off the road. Most
of the bad spots too have become harvesting points for criminals,” the
sociologist said.
This assertion brings to mind a 2011
robbery incident, which led to the death of 14 passengers of a bus along
the Abuja-Lokoja highway. The passengers were reportedly robbed and
asked by the robbers to lie face down on the highway. But a luxury bus,
whose driver was trying to escape the robbery scene, overran the robbery
victims, crushing them in the process.
The Federal Emergency Road Maintenance Agency recently promised a “massive rehabilitation” of federal roads in the South-West.
When Saturday PUNCH contacted the
South-West II Zonal Coordinator of the agency, Mr. Oladipo Fagbamila,
to shed light on why Nigerian roads have become a thing to be dreaded by
Nigerian families, he said he was driving. Though he promised to call
back, he had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.
The report of a 2013 poll conducted by
NOIPolls stated that 71 per cent of Nigerians believed that the
country’s roads were unsafe.
However, motor accidents spokesperson
for the Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Jonas Agwu, believes bad roads
are not the main cause of the road crashes in the country.
He said, “There are three dimensions of
road safety; the road, the vehicle and human factor. Of all these, it is
the human factor that is responsible for more deaths on the highway.
“There are more deaths on the road than
those who die of malaria and other related diseases. The number of
deaths increases every year as a result of human factors.”
He was reported recently as saying that
henceforth, road transport fleet operators that record five deaths in a
quarter of a year would be prosecuted. Access and attempt UTME Past Questions Online in CBT format - Earn up to N10,000 when you refer 50 candidates to our portal
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