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Hiya! Just a quick intro :) I lived in Nigeria for more than half of my life (so far) before moving to England and I have seen the best and the worst of both worlds. I was greatly inspired by the #OccupyNigeria protests and this blog is my way of #occupying. A lot of us compare African countries to the Western countries and I will mainly be talking about the positive things that I have observed and learnt in my few years of living here. Payme’s 2Cents is for all who dare to dream to see changes in their lifetime. It is for those who dream to see environments where 'helping' thrives. I will be giving my2cents worth on how we can work towards getting things to change for better. It would be great to know your opinions, so please leave comments. Remember to keep sharing posts that you enjoy. Follow @payme_my2cents. Thanks a lot for visiting!!! Enjoy my2cents :).

Monday 2 July 2012

July 3rd...The Month After



"...and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him."

1 Thessalonians 4:14b

The carelessness of it all shook me to the core; that part about “it could have been prevented” kept floating in my head for days. 

Nigeria is a cause I believe in. There was a period of time that it looked like we had awful news daily. It was bomb blasts and then the tanker explosion with about 27 cars I think. June 3, while at church, my TL was filled with the news of the most recent bomb blasts, feeling numb, I went to bed and then woke up to gory pictures of the Dana Crash. I am sure that at that point a lot of Nigerians like me were at a loss. I kept thinking “when is this going to end?” I could not help the tears as more news about the circumstances of the crash kept coming out. First, it was that the plane was to be repaired before detouring to pick passengers in Abuja, then the one about how it was on the ground for about 20 minutes before exploding etc. etc. As time went on, although no one knew the exact circumstances surrounding the crash, the general consensus still appeared to be “it could have been prevented”.

The flight’s manifest was out and I could see families on the flight. Losing one person was bad enough but these were real people with loved ones and friends. How do you console a man who lost his wife and kids? How? Different people started talking about people they knew on that flight and it just never crossed my mind that I would also know someone. Her name was misspelt on the list that I had read - Adetunbi Adebiyi was written and not Adekunbi Adebiyi. It became more real, someone I had seen, spoken to, laughed with, been around was gone, just like that, in the most harrowing manner and “it could have been prevented”. 

I could not get it, how human beings put money first at the expense of others’ lives. Sadly, Dana is not the only one. It happens daily right? The sudden thought about the reality made me weak. It is not just about the few ruling class, the remaining of the 160 million are at fault too! Every day, out in the streets, man’s inhumanity to man is a norm. It is just that with Dana, a lot of people knew someone who knew someone that was on that flight. This is not about the government alone, it is about the kids you accepted fees from as a teacher but refused to teach properly; it is about the bricklayer who used substandard building materials to construct properties he was well paid for; it is about the mechanic, who all in the name of “I want them to come back”, does a patched work on a vehicle and then pronounced it fit for use.

The medical doctor who makes life hell for his subordinates and the bin man who clogs gutters in a bid to hurriedly dispose wastes also have no rights when it comes to faulting Dana. This is because all of the actions listed above and many more are detrimental to people, maybe not on the same scale as Dana, some of these might not lead to death and usually a lot of us will not know or be linked to the victims when they are numerically few. However, in one way or the other, it is not just the government that is killing us, it is not the government who looted the houses that the plane crashed into, we are killing one another. This is why it is so difficult to face and fight the government. No thief can soundly accuse and deal with another thief. 

Kunbi is my face for Dana, other people have different faces for ill occurrences that you and I might not have heard of. I really do hope that in times like this, our resolve to do things as they should be done, with no quick fixes and short cuts will be strengthened. Do your bit to stop the preventable losses.

Behind the numbers are real people, with real families and friends.

RIP DanaCrashVictims. 

RIP ADEKUNBI ADEBIYI





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pemi you're so right about the blame being on Nigerians on all stratas! The teacher teachng nonsense at school produces unfit so_called 'professionals' who ruin lives daily. The people takng bribes start when they're still at low positions like most Nigerians, then they get to the top and their corruption becomes full blown. So yes, every Nigerian still doing wrong is to blame. We can only keep hoping (while we work towards it) that eventually, noo matter how many decades it takes, 'change's gonna come'.

Anonymous said...

"Most of Nigerians are, swimming against the tides of trouble that even the world knows nothing about, our nation is sliding, human lives have been reduced to nothing, decayed infrastructures and hopelessness reigns, yet our rulers have descended so low in the dirt of corruption and injustice that almost defied solution.
If we borrow the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. he said "Injustice anywhere
is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
This moment our people need not only a bit of noise making or talk shops committees but honest encouragement from leaders to do just that is expected right- and that which will make the goal of a prosperous united Nigeria. May God save Nigeria and Nigerians from the torment of our ineffective rulers and mismanagement of our resources" "
Message from.....THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT