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