Dance Of Death

You can call it, ‘The Ibadan one-way brouhaha’, if you wish. Truth is that it was a brouhaha. Pure madness. Craziness. Absurdity. Insanity. Idiocy. Imbecility. Stupidity of the highest level. A dance of death. I can go on and on and on without exhausting the words to describe the incident.

It wasn’t the first. It happened in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Wednesday, 21st May, 2025, all because of a minor traffic build-up with less than 50 cars along the Banex-Kado Kuchi Road. There were a few saints. Just a few. The rest were madness personified. All shades of cars; rickety, expensive and even, “push me I go cars”.

My colleagues in uniform were not missing; with marked vehicles of all shades, they displayed insanity not known in the uniform circle. In other climes, the uniform connotes patriotism, discipline, sense of order, professionalism, decency and respect for laws, but that is not the case in our clime except for a handful, though.

Ask my friends who live on the City Gate-Bill Clinton Drive along the Airport Road and hear their sad testimonies on how vehicles belonging to some uniform services, private cars, trucks, plus okada (commercial motorcycles), tricyclists (keke), including pedestrians outdo one another in this dance of shame and death.

Dare you pull any aside and your life gets threatened by gun-wielding security operatives whose lives I guess are beyond destruction. Even pedestrians are prepared to assault you for daring to caution them against personal suicide. Kugbo, Karu, Nyanya route is another theatre of madness. So too is Kubwa Expressway where pedestrian bridges have become artworks to be admired.

From as early as 5am till mid-day, it is like a scene from the yet-to-be released Nollywood’s, Partition of Africa movie, with every power struggling for a piece of the cake. This time, however, the piece is not the cake but the morals and sanity that are perhaps left. The data from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on crashes and deaths nationwide and on specific corridors abates not the insanity.

Let me pause and thank my sisters on Television Continental (TVC) morning programme, “Speak Your Views”, hosted by Morayo Afolabi Brown, Yeni Kuti, Obiajulugu Ugboh, Temitope Mark Odigie, and Akashat Nymat. They were thorough. No holds barred. They spoke like mothers and Nigerians with a conscience. Callers who defied network challenges were bold as they expressed anger at the madness of a father which led to his son’s death. So too were some security personnel who questioned the policeman’s decision to shoot in a crowded scene without following known rules of engagement.

Should I rehash the scene? This is what I read and heard. According to the Oyo State government, the father was driving against traffic. When the incident happened, a policeman working with the Oyo State Road Traffic Management Authority in an attempt to apprehend him, shot at one of the tires, missed and hit the boy. The driven vehicle, according to the statement was tinted.

Across the nation, there were cries of crucify the police. No, justify the police. Sorry, the father needs to be prosecuted. But like the story of adultery in the Bible where Jesus dared those without sins to throw the first stone, I dare all of us; Christians, Muslims. Unbelievers, Pagans, Civilians, Uniform Personnel, Politicians, PAs and SAs to Chief Executives, business tycoons as well as bike riders. Can we truly deny not being part of dancers who flout rules at will and endanger lives?

In Chris Kehinde Nwandu’s report, headlined, ‘Ibadan shooting: Why I didn’t stop for traffic officers’, father of deceased student said his son had an exam by 8.30am and if he had stopped, the police officers would have delayed his son. He also said he wasn’t aware that they were trying to stop him until they hit his vehicle.

What killed the young son was unsafe driving behaviour. Not police bullets. A 2014 study by Vitalis Ukoji revealed that unsafe driving behaviours accounted for up to 90 percent of crashes in Nigeria, such as inappropriate speeding, lack of knowledge of traffic regulations, drunk driving, dangerous driving, driver fatigue, inappropriate overtaking and speed. Curious at why we do what we do, I surfed the net and other sources.

While surfing for information on what traffic behaviour says about a nation, my findings were mind-blowing. Experts were unified in concluding that traffic behaviour including adherence to rules and safety practices offers insights into a nation’s or people’s culture, values and level of social order. It reflects individualism vs collectivism and attitudes towards authority.

Let me break this down further. Available studies suggest a strong correlation between national culture and road safety performance. Countries with higher levels of individualism tend to have fewer road fatalities, potentially because individuals prioritise their actions and rules more according to ResearchGate.
Studies reveal that attitudes towards traffic regulations and safety practices significantly impact driving behaviour. Furthermore, on risk perception, individuals who perceive a higher level of risk in traffic tend to engage in safer behaviours, while those who perceive low risk may be more likely to take chances. The father in question, like most drivers perceived low or no risk and that is why he dared traffic/police officers

On negative driving behaviours, experts note that unsafe driving behaviours, like speeding, drunk driving and dangerous overtaking, can reveal a lack of respect for safety regulations and a disregard for the wellbeing of others. This manifests daily across the country and even among the so-called lettered and privileged few.

Still curious, I sought to seek further clarification on why we drive the way we do. What value do we place on the life of an individual? What really is safety? Just then I stumbled on a lovely expose titled, ‘Why Safety Culture Starts Before The Ignition Turns On’, in The Safety Herald in LinkedIn. Despite my years in road safety education, my eyes opened to certain truths about why a father with a son in his car would disobey traffic officers in the name that he was hurrying to avoid being delayed by the police, so his son could fulfil his dream of becoming a lawyer. What sort of lawyer?

Back to the piece. The writer started with a subtle eyeopener, saying that when we think of road safety, our mind probably goes to driving against traffic like the father did, seatbelts, speed limits, distracted driving or driving under the influence. In reality, safety culture should start much earlier – before the engine roars to life. It actually should start in the mind.

This is because every action, such as the action of the father who refused to stop when flagged by traffic officers on the road, stems from a belief, a habit, or a value. To therefore cut crashes, as the leadership of the Federal Road Safety Corps under Shehu Mohammed, the Corps Marshal is currently doing, we need more signages, stricter penalties, improved infrastructure as well as appropriate technology. But above all, we need to shape how people think and behave before they drive.