Every year in Nigeria, many people lose their lives rather needlessly. To curb this epidemic of needless and endless deaths, the government must improve on the amount of safety Nigerians can enjoy in their daily lives.
Nigerian families know a remarkable amount of death every year. For families with young children, especially those families who contribute a fair amount to Nigeria’s 133 million poor, preventable and curable diseases that shouldn’t ordinarily constitute a handful routinely take their children away from them leaving them helpless and forcing them to go through life with broken hearts.
For families who boast of personnel in any of Nigeria’s security agencies knee-deep in the fight against insurgency, death has often come suddenly and violently to shatter their hearts.
For families in communities caught in the crossfire of terrorism, death and devastation have hardly failed to hover around in the last decade.
For many other Nigerians, death has come to them at home, on their farms, on the roads and just about everywhere else to further plunge Nigeria’s precarious life expectancy into further uncertainty.
Only recently, in a bid to flush out terrorists, the Nigeria Air force undertook an air raid at a market in Mutunji village in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State. The air strikes which took out dozens of the bandits who were planning on invading neighbouring villages also spelt the end for about 68 residents.
In recent days, scores have also been killed in raids on IPOB camps in the Southeast by security agencies.
This year too, many people have collapsed under the weight of collapsed buildings as well as other freak accidents. The deaths have mounted as the dead have piled up while Nigeria remains that country where life could be extinguished in the fraction of a second.
Does life really count in Nigeria? What quality of life do people enjoy here in Nigeria? Admittedly, it isn’t high. People live one minute in Nigeria and die the next minute.
Is it unsurprising then that those who have the means are desperate to flee the countries for safer places where they can be assured of the relative safety of themselves and their children.
Because death lurks in practically every corner of Nigeria, those who can seek out. Many of those who stay back do so because they are simply trapped with only very little space for maneuver.
Nigeria must become that country where people can enjoy long and thoroughly fulfilled lives. To become that country, the quality of life simply has to improve.
The government must ensure that exercises like air raids meant to secure people do not result in their death.
Healthcare must also be improved for families and their children. Nigerians need to stop dying from preventable and curable diseases.
Security must also be improved on Nigerian roads. The quality of those roads must also be constantly upgraded as must the quality of vehicles that ply them.
If Nigeria is to become that country where the roads are safe for everyone, then needless accidents must be cut off from the roads.
To become that country the founders, fathers and families of Nigeria long dreamt of and still dream of even today, Nigeria would have to reduce needless deaths to the barest minimum and the time is now.
Kene Obiezu,
Twitter:@kenobiezu
