M.K.O Abiola was a popular Nigerian from the yoruba ethnic group and he was known in his lifetime as an aristocrat, successful businessman, publisher, social activist, politician and most of all a philantrophist who supported the causes of human needs and social development. Even in death, Abiola's legacy speaks for itself and it is a pity that his businesses have not lived on and just like every other Nigerian entity, they die in their prime and have never succeeded a generation but I sincerely hope this jinx will not affect the new generation businesses and corporations.
M.K.O Abiola is mostly known by my generation as the man who won the 1993 Presidential elections in two-thirds of the states in Nigeria and even won the election in his opponent's (Bashir Tofa) state. That election has been declared by both national and international observer's as the freest and fairest election that has been conducted in Nigeria. However, as fate and my countryman Gen. Ibrahim Babangida will have it, he annulled the election and in other series of events, Gen. Sani Abacha took over government and imprisoned Abiola on grounds of treason. Whilst Abiola was detained, the international community lobbied the Nigerian government for his release, and his release was premised on a condition that Abiola should renounce his mandate which he refused to do. Consequently, Abiola died on suspicious grounds while in prison on the day he was due to be released.
It is a great idea to honour and seek to immortalise such a man who had the morals to stand, and died for what he believed, in a society where we have gone bankrupt in character and morals. However, the problem with this strategy is that neither the day he won the elections nor the day he died has ever been declared as a public holiday by the federal government. The federal government has also not erected a statue in honour of M.K.O as done in honour of Martin Luther King (Jr) by the United States government. Every year, Martin Luther King is honoured and celebrated by his countrymen for his service to the nation and in my opinion, this is what the Nigerian government needs to do.
Renaming a great university like The University of Lagos after him will only, set back the only university that can rightly be tagged "The only pride of Nigeria". It is not only sufficient to say that the university has succeeded to build its name, brand, goodwill and standards, but it has given Nigeria its greatest products. Renaming the university will only set it like a 100 years back and I honestly hope that the legislators will not amend the Act seeking to change the name of the university.
Moreover, let us not forget that there is already an educational institution in the south-west named after this icon of social activism. Also, there is M.K.O Abiola Park/Gardens and M.K.O Abiola Stadium in the south-west. It therefore brings to my mind that renaming a south-west university after Abiola seems to relegate the man to being an icon for the south-westerners only to the exclusion of other parts of the country to whose mandate the man believed and held onto till his death.
I believe that since it is 'Democracy' we are celebrating, then the voice of the masses should matter and this renaming...ish will be boycotted and laid to rest.
p.s. Mr President, we are waiting on you to tackle other substantial issues which affect our livelihood and live the mundane things alone. The dead will bury the dead.
Ciao,
Love you all.
Tola Elesho
22 May 2012
Hey you all,
First of all, a big thank you to everyone for reading my blog. I see the statistics and it is mind-blowing (makes me really happy). I appreciate your time and I will like you all to get more involved by clicking on the "join this page" link to the right hand side of my blog, post comments and in coming weeks I will give opportunities to people who want to write on different issues to do their write-up on my blog. Thank you all again and do not despise the days of humble beginnings.
Ok people, there are several issues affecting us as individuals and citizens of particular countries that I want to talk about and "Accidents in Nigeria" is one of them. Some people may wonder "what is the purpose of discussing this on my blog" but the truth is that I made up my mind a long time ago not to live in regrets and/or to keep complaining like everyone else does but rather contribute my quota to human development. So to everyone in a place of authority in Nigeria or to that Special adviser or that member of the legislature or that person aspiring to get there, here are tips on what you need to consider.
It is a known fact that statistics are not readily available in Nigeria and even where they are, you cannot trust those statistics as evidenced in the disputes following the last country wide census. However based on what I have been able to gather, Out of 193 countries, Nigeria has been ranked second highest in fatality rates arising out of road accidents and according to the Nigeria's Health Minister, out of a 100,000 Nigerians, 162 are lost to road accidents and like every other thing that puzzles me about Nigeria, it is still not properly regulated.
A family friend of mine died recently in a car crash and the police officers informed my brother that he was driving drunk and I am still amazed at how the officers arrived at that conclusion when they obviously do not have any equipment to test if he was driving under the influence of alcohol. I think it would be useful to Nigerians, if police officers at road blocks had breathalyzer's and they could administer alcohol level test on driver's and for that to happen, we need to set the acceptable standard of alcohol consumption for driver's.
If am not asking for too much, I guess Nigerian police officer's too should be able to determine the driving speed of driver's on streets, one carriage ways, dual carriage ways and highways with the necessary devices.
To tackle this issue, Nigeria needs to utilise other transportation options and move from just motoring to other forms of transportation which had always existed, whilst ensuring safety. As usual, the different legislative houses need to review our laws(they need to be compatible with this age and time) we need to stop living in the 60s and 70s.
To everyone reading, determine to be a part of the solution and not the problem, "Do not drive under the influence of alcohol".
You all should have a great day and more thoughts coming.
p.s. to those in the UK, what are you all doing for the Queen's diamond jubilee (please invite me for street parties n bbqs)
Cheers,
Tola Elesho
First of all, a big thank you to everyone for reading my blog. I see the statistics and it is mind-blowing (makes me really happy). I appreciate your time and I will like you all to get more involved by clicking on the "join this page" link to the right hand side of my blog, post comments and in coming weeks I will give opportunities to people who want to write on different issues to do their write-up on my blog. Thank you all again and do not despise the days of humble beginnings.
Ok people, there are several issues affecting us as individuals and citizens of particular countries that I want to talk about and "Accidents in Nigeria" is one of them. Some people may wonder "what is the purpose of discussing this on my blog" but the truth is that I made up my mind a long time ago not to live in regrets and/or to keep complaining like everyone else does but rather contribute my quota to human development. So to everyone in a place of authority in Nigeria or to that Special adviser or that member of the legislature or that person aspiring to get there, here are tips on what you need to consider.
It is a known fact that statistics are not readily available in Nigeria and even where they are, you cannot trust those statistics as evidenced in the disputes following the last country wide census. However based on what I have been able to gather, Out of 193 countries, Nigeria has been ranked second highest in fatality rates arising out of road accidents and according to the Nigeria's Health Minister, out of a 100,000 Nigerians, 162 are lost to road accidents and like every other thing that puzzles me about Nigeria, it is still not properly regulated.
A family friend of mine died recently in a car crash and the police officers informed my brother that he was driving drunk and I am still amazed at how the officers arrived at that conclusion when they obviously do not have any equipment to test if he was driving under the influence of alcohol. I think it would be useful to Nigerians, if police officers at road blocks had breathalyzer's and they could administer alcohol level test on driver's and for that to happen, we need to set the acceptable standard of alcohol consumption for driver's.
If am not asking for too much, I guess Nigerian police officer's too should be able to determine the driving speed of driver's on streets, one carriage ways, dual carriage ways and highways with the necessary devices.
To tackle this issue, Nigeria needs to utilise other transportation options and move from just motoring to other forms of transportation which had always existed, whilst ensuring safety. As usual, the different legislative houses need to review our laws(they need to be compatible with this age and time) we need to stop living in the 60s and 70s.
To everyone reading, determine to be a part of the solution and not the problem, "Do not drive under the influence of alcohol".
You all should have a great day and more thoughts coming.
p.s. to those in the UK, what are you all doing for the Queen's diamond jubilee (please invite me for street parties n bbqs)
Cheers,
Tola Elesho
8 May 2012
To lawyers and others, take a decisive action today!!!
Hello Everyone,
How has your week been ? Still on the last topic of discussion NIGERIA: MY DEAREST COUNTRY and our attitude/ what we are doing to make the situation better.
One of the reasons why America is one of the sanest places to live is because of the high rate of legal actions against government, corporations, private persons and the correlating damages been awarded by the courts.
As a people, we need to hold the Nigerian government (State and Federal) more accountable through the law : the next time someone dies in an accident caused by a parked/broken down truck on the highway lets sue the government...when someone trips on the road for a pot-hole which the government ought to fix and has a broken leg or whatever just sue the government. When the government pays out large chunks of money in legal actions, then they will take decisive actions about some of these issues and regulate them. We can even sue the government over failure to protect its citizens with the ever increasing bombings of Boko Haram. the law provides for different avenues of holding the Nigerian government accountable and we just need to explore them.
This goes out to the lawyers and others who have the wherewithal to sustain my proposition, take up a case that you can hold the government accountable for some of its failures as a Pro-Bono case and to those who have the wherewithal, pay a lawyer to sue the government today for some of the failures.
I know my idea seems a little bit far-fetched, but we need to do something and while we fold our arms in silence because danger is not near you, remember the more people it gets to, the closer it gets to you. Remember that judges have children and relatives that have been killed by some government inefficiency and they are counting on citizens to do something.
p.s. I drafted this post a week ago and i just heard Fashola sacked 778* doctors *(figures not confirmed by me) for embarking on an industrial action. This is appalling and I wish we all can assert our rights and make this power drunk officials accountable.
Cheers everyone,
Tola Elesho
How has your week been ? Still on the last topic of discussion NIGERIA: MY DEAREST COUNTRY and our attitude/ what we are doing to make the situation better.
One of the reasons why America is one of the sanest places to live is because of the high rate of legal actions against government, corporations, private persons and the correlating damages been awarded by the courts.
As a people, we need to hold the Nigerian government (State and Federal) more accountable through the law : the next time someone dies in an accident caused by a parked/broken down truck on the highway lets sue the government...when someone trips on the road for a pot-hole which the government ought to fix and has a broken leg or whatever just sue the government. When the government pays out large chunks of money in legal actions, then they will take decisive actions about some of these issues and regulate them. We can even sue the government over failure to protect its citizens with the ever increasing bombings of Boko Haram. the law provides for different avenues of holding the Nigerian government accountable and we just need to explore them.
This goes out to the lawyers and others who have the wherewithal to sustain my proposition, take up a case that you can hold the government accountable for some of its failures as a Pro-Bono case and to those who have the wherewithal, pay a lawyer to sue the government today for some of the failures.
I know my idea seems a little bit far-fetched, but we need to do something and while we fold our arms in silence because danger is not near you, remember the more people it gets to, the closer it gets to you. Remember that judges have children and relatives that have been killed by some government inefficiency and they are counting on citizens to do something.
p.s. I drafted this post a week ago and i just heard Fashola sacked 778* doctors *(figures not confirmed by me) for embarking on an industrial action. This is appalling and I wish we all can assert our rights and make this power drunk officials accountable.
Cheers everyone,
Tola Elesho
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