Sundays Are No Longer Safe in Lagos
Sundays as work free days are always peaceful for most people and in particular the Christians who throng their churches for fellowship and worship in their Sunday best and also visiting themselves and others to exchange greetings and gifts of mutual kindness. Sundays are free of the usual hustle and bustle of business days with traffic wardens and law enforcement agents having little or nothing much to do. But not anymore in Lagos as chilling reports of the victims of daring armed robbers and hired killers have left residents of the commercial hub of Nigeria in fear and trembling. Only last Sunday morning unknown gunmen attacked and shot a young couple Mr. Duke and Mrs. Tina Adigwe in their jeep in Surulere, and left them with gunshot wounds with their two little children wailing helplessly before the police arrived. Mrs. Tina Adigwe died of gunshot wounds before she even got to the nearest hospital whilst her husband Duke was bleeding from his own gunshot wound as doctors and nurses at the Randle General Hospital responded quickly to save his life in the emergency ward. It was also on a Sunday that a young man was attacked and killed in front of his church by armed robbers using the popular “Okada” motorbike taxi which is now what highway robbers and other criminals use for their operations in Nigerian towns and cities, including the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists on rampage in the northern states. The grief-stricken bereaved families, relations, friends, associates and others in Lagos are now sacred of going out on Sundays. If it is no longer safe to go to church or visit on Sundays, then things have really fallen apart in Nigeria as Nigerians are no longer at ease if I may use the titles of the popular novels of the famous writer Chinua Achebe who is also the author of The Trouble With Nigeria. And indeed Nigerians are facing many troubles in every region and the future looks bleak in the present terrifying circumstances of flagrant acts of corruption and lawlessness threatening the existence of the most populous country in Africa.
The police must no longer be caught napping on Sundays and other days since the evil armed robbers, hired killers, kidnappers and terrorists can attack their targets anytime anywhere. And law abiding people should help the police to keep all nooks and crannies of our streets under constant surveillance and report suspicious looking characters and suspicious movements to neighbourhood vigilante groups first to alert others and then report to only trusted security intelligence agencies and the armed forces within the vicinity. But vigilantes should not fall into the wrong hands who have abused and misused some vigilantes to witch-hunt and destroy rivals and innocent people by mobbing and lynching them after false accusations without handing the suspects over to the police.
Moreover, the Lagos State government and other state governments must stop paying lip service to the provision of modern medical facilities, because if the emergency rooms or wards of the public clinics and general hospitals are well equipped with modern life saving medical facilities as provided in other civilized modern states, many unfortunate deaths would have been prevented as the victims would not have died from their wounds or trauma.
A modern ER should have the following:
Defibrillator
Laparascopy System
12 channel ECG
Surigal Liposuction Unit
Humidifier
Portable Ventilator
Incubator
Neonatal and Infant Ventilator
Transport Incubator
Film Viewing Light Box
Halogen Lamp
Electrocautery Machine
Mobile Examination Lamp
Surgical Table
Phototherapy Lamp
IV Pump
Surgical Light
Autoclave
Laryngoscope
Electric Surgical Table
IMAGING
Examination Micrscope
Mammogram X-Ray
Multiparameter Monitor
X-Ray
Blood Pressure Monitor
CR Reader
Neonatal Monitor
Whole body bone densitometer
Prism Exophthalmometer
Ankle Densitometer
Ophthalmoscope
3-D Ultrasound
Indirect Ophthalmoscope
Real Time Color Dopler Ultrasound
Electronic Scale
Arch in C
Portable X-Ray
Electronic Thermometer
Ultrasound
Anesthesia System
Wolf X-Ray equipment
The life of every law abiding citizen is a priceless asset to the survival and welfare of everyone else in every community and everyone must be committed to the survival and welfare of the next person in our common ecosystem for our mutual existence.
Nobody has the right to attack or take the life of another person when you can never give or restore the precious life the maker and owner God has given each of us and made the greatest sacrifices from Adam to Jesus Christ and continues to make more sacrifices through others till date to preserve and save you and I.
Everybody deserves a good life, whether rich or poor and no matter your race, class or creed.
We must get rid of anyone who does not want another person to live in peace and unity, because such an evil person is an enemy of our collective survival and welfare on earth.
Saving the life of every law abiding citizen is not only the duty of the police and other law enforcement agencies, but also the responsibility of everyone in every community 24/7.
~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Tuesday August 21, 2012, Lagos, Nigeria.
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