The clear and present danger of irresponsible cyclists

The bane of powered vehicles

Beyond the terror of devil dogs that I wrote about recently, it is electric-powered bicycles and scooters that have become a menace on our roads. That fact that the human-powered element of pedalling or scooting means that the concentration of thought and process in the engagement of muscle is diverted elsewhere and that, in itself, becomes a kind of distraction.

Blog - Opinion: Public safety is paramount regardless of your cuddly dog

The bicycles or scooters whiz off at speed with the riders literally oblivious of the responsibility and due concern that comes with being in charge of such a vehicle. That and their inclination to ignore traffic and road usage rules along with pedestrians being terrorised on the pavements makes them a clear and present danger to others and themselves.

An uncaring cohort for safety

What baffles me and I have written about this having lived in Amsterdam is how riders can ply busy streets or pavements at night without lights. Usually, the riders are in dark clothing, and you are usually unaware of their proximity to you until they are so close, you have to avert a collision if they are totally uncaring.

I could go on about my concerns and bugbears, but the reason for this blog is a rather close encounter for which I should curb the urge to be dramatic even as my recollection of it leaves me in a shudder as to how it could have been a lot worse and it does not bear thinking of apart from lifting up hands in gratitude for being spared an inauspicious ending.

What just happened?

I was at a bus stop leaning on the inside wall of the enclosure with a foot out speaking to my friend on the phone, when suddenly I had a knock on the outside of my left knee and sudden surge of pain over the top of my midfoot, the shock with a directed gaze to a young man crashing off his bicycle as he came to find out if he had hit me.

“Are you crazy?” I shouted out at him, a bystander who saw everything was totally nonchalant that I wonder if I had taken the full impact of that collision whether she would have bothered to help or call for any help. She was in a Tesco supermarket top, my views of that are best left off this blog.

An entrenched lawlessness

However, the lawlessness of the whole encounter and how one was ill-equipped to find any sort of redress and sanction just left me wanting to nurse my bruises than do much else as very little would have been learnt by the cyclist as I upbraided him.

He was riding a hired electric bike on a busy road against the traffic, and he decided to cut away unto the wide pavement to take another shortcut over the pavement to ride against the traffic avoiding an intersection or junction. As he tried to mount the pavement, he hit the kerb, lost control, and ran into me and crashed some 10 metres further on before coming over to find out if I was okay.

He would have done this weaving through obstacles and dangers, hardly slowly down to assess the full risk of any manoeuvre, a young exuberance overwhelming any sense of caution or responsibility to others, daring to do rather than caring at all, I could have lost it and decked him, but that was unnecessary.

But for the grace of God

As he left to pick up his bicycle and ride away, I remembered I was still on a call with my friend and continued the call. However, when I thought about it this morning, this chap is probably doing an electrically propelled 30 mph or 48.2 km/h. A full-on collision or if I had been pinned against the wall of the bus stop could have wiped me out, needing hospital care. It was a close shave.

There is no doubt that the law has to catch up with this the road usage of electrically propelled bicycles and scooters, I also wonder of a new set of rules need to be written and there is no doubt that policing with the strict enforcement of the said rules is essential for adherence and deterrence. There have been too many accidents, some resulting in fatalities and many attributable to irresponsible road usage. It needs to be addressed with alacrity.

You can be minding your own business and out of nowhere danger invades your space, it is the grace of God that keeps us. For that, we are very thankful.

Nigeria: Angels in road construction

Worldwide wrestling

I dare say that this borders on what I will call the superfluity of spirituality but it is probably par for the course in Nigeria where frustration, exasperation, delay, inertia, bureaucracy and corruption militates against getting things done.

With ease, when things are so muddled up, such man-made and man-caused circumstances can for those in the know be classified under categories that the Bible so clearly enunciates and is known by heart to many a praying Christian.

In Ephesians 6:12 - For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (KJV)

In 17^th Century English, I might have lost my readers so maybe the Message in contemporary English might enlighten us “This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.” Ephesians 6:12 (The Message)

A road in ruin

I do not think I am any the wiser with this attempt but it serves as the lead in to an issue in Nigeria with regards to the first toll road called the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

It is 105 kilometres long and it opened to traffic in 1978, though I remember people bribing military officers who stood guard at the main toll areas of the road to use it in late 1977.

In any case, it has fallen into abject disrepair from usage and neglect that the federal government adopted a novel way [1] of getting it repaired. In what is a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract that will span 25 years, the concessionaire will repair the road, add two lanes on either side and install gas lighting – gas lighting? Well, Dusk to dawn gas lighting down the length of the expressway with the lien to levy tolls and seek other revenue through advertisements.

The concessionaire is the Bi-Courtney Group and the project will cost upwards of NGN 90 billion ($600 million) which is quite an outlay for a local company that hopes to recoup its cost over 25 years.

An Amen waiting for a prayer

The Chairman of Bi-Courtney Highways Services Limited paid a courtesy call [2] on the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God whose Redemption City religious meeting place and residential area is sited along the road where it became evident that the concessionaire might have bitten off more than it can chew because banking services in Nigeria do not as a matter of course provide loan terms of that kind of duration and this is hampering the necessary activity of the repairs of the road.

The widening of the road has created a whole series of legal challenges from those affected who might find their properties subject to compulsory purchase orders (Eminent Domain - US), all this from the foolishness of the concessionaire, through their hope of getting financing and the legal minefields of compulsory purchase will constitute the categories listed above as the weight of immovability might well be unearthly and beyond the work horse requirements of construction equipment put at full throttle.

It is in that context that one is left to holler the loudest Amen to the prayer of the General Overseer as the news headline indicates, “God will subdue forces against completion,” and I believe he means the completion of the project.

An unfathomable situation

Now, at face value, the Chairman, Dr Wale Babalakin (SAN) [3] is no doubt a smart lawyer having obtained both his LLM and PhD from the University of Cambridge and he has a commendable legal record, however, this project smacks of a level of Nigerian braggadocio that leaves you breathless; none of the well-heeled banks for all the legal sophistry he can muster in Nigeria seem to be ready to form a consortium to bankroll this project.

How the Bi-Courtney Group could not have had serious backers for this job before securing the concession is just beyond belief, then the 55 legal cases which all can drag on at snail’s pace in Nigeria’s sometimes soporific judicial system you begin to realise that you need the hand of God and angels in their thousands of thousands all with trumpets and heavenly strains of praise that would make the earth tremble and melt to get things done.

Impossible human doers

The Redemption City can host over 1 million adherents at monthly religious events which somewhat makes one wonder how they have endured the decrepit state of the road with equanimity, docility and possibly resignation except for their resort to the mountain moving power of prayer.

On a human level, with the resources we have on earth to observe, to agitate, to persuade, to protest, to require and to obtain; one would have expected a pressure group of the 1 million adherents and the other plaintiffs at risk of losing their land to set forth a court action to remove the concessionaire and have the concession renegotiated to necessitate the easier financing of this project on different terms and probably by another contractor.

A miracle like no other

I for one expect a miracle, one that definitely defies every human explanation that Redemption City had better be ready to host the billion, a road all paved in gold like we were told in Sunday School of heavenly paradise, this gold being so durable and perfect, it cannot be chipped or removed, yet will survive all weather and traffic putting the autobahns of Germany in the shade.

People may use the road, it will be safe no matter how careless the driver is and those who cannot ply the road for the gleaming sensation of the gold can just look at the road with every consumption of greed and frustration until they are exhausted at the foretaste of heaven that they move on there anyhow.

Since the road is a gift of God and the answer to the prayers of the faithful, the Redemption City could charge a nominal fee for its usage whilst extolling the greatness of their mission to earth.

Judgement so sweet

As for the concessionaire; an earthquake awaits any of its representatives that dare claim anything for that road, the earth will open up like a trapdoor and swallow them in Mosaic dread.

All forces subdued, prayers answer, congregation multiplied, souls saved and God praised – there can be no better place in the world than Nigeria where even for our tourist brochures we can safely say our streets are paved with gold.

Sources

[1] At Last, Work Begins On Lagos-Ibadan Expressway | P.M. NEWS Nigeria

[2] The Nation - Lagos-Ibadan Expressway: God will subdue forces against completion, says Adeboye

[3] Babalakin & Co. Legal Practitioners - People - Bolanle Olawale Babalakin SAN

Thought Picnic: Seconds from rag-doll demise

Longing for short bridges

It could be a busy road and I rarely go jay-walking if I can help it. I would most likely walk up to the traffic lights or seek a zebra-crossing.

Even if I know I have right-of-way I would probably wait to see the whites of the eyes of approaching drivers of vehicles with an acknowledgement of my intent before I cross.

I still remember vividly crossing under the bridge of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway in Lagos under the Isolo overpass where the pedestrian crossing added almost a kilometre to what was just a 150 metre perilous dash. All the builders of that bridge had to do was attach two staircases on either side of the expressway, but that kind of thinking would have been too radical. See A road runs through it.

Seconds from ragdoll demise

A few days before the War Against Indiscipline Corps instituted by the Buhari regime had caught me crossing “illegally” and I had to do a 20-minute frog-jump punishment amongst other culprits.

So, this morning, seeing I was in a rush and the corps members are not around, I made for the usual dash across a road that allows speeds well over 100 kilometres an hour, I heard shouts and screams, maybe warnings but was oblivious of the fact that they were meant for me as a vehicle whizzed past the front of me seconds before I became a ragdoll of an accident causality leading to a preventable fatality before I saw my twentieth year.

I do not think I realised my close shave with death until days or maybe weeks afterwards when the whole episode played back like a movie in slow-motion but a sixth sense, premonition or foreboding had taken hold that I never ever made that dash ever again.

Sight and right

One other handicap I did not realise I had was a lazy eye coupled with astigmatism which could have been corrected in childhood which meant I could not reasonably judge distance and approaching speed, it made me crap at tennis because I just never could judge where the ball would be, that knowledge now is an active determinant in how I cross roads.

So, as I got to this crossing a tall police van with all lights flashing but no sirens blaring drove up the wrong way and parked just in front of the traffic lights that pedestrians need to determine when to cross the road. Those lights even serve a greater importance to those who cannot make it across the road in a timely fashion in a city with the most impatient of drivers.

I waved and remonstrated to the policeman driver who wondered what my problem was, so I shouted out to him, “You are blocking the lights and the way for pedestrians to cross the road.” At first, he wanted to ignore my protest but I waved even more frantically to the lights on my side, the fact I wanted to cross and well my cane had a statement of its own too.

Insistence and persistence pays

He eventually got my message and moved his vehicle out of the illegally parked section he was in to another place where he would have also complied with parking laws. The police are there to facilitate upholding the law not break them with impunity, in my humble opinion.

Thanking him, I crossed the road thinking I had rediscovered that latent spark of that Akin I once knew would insist on things being just the way they were supposed to be. Maybe there is a chance that this rediscovery will permeate other parts of my expression that seem to be suffering from a loss of confidence, esteem and status – I really do need to find myself again.

Meanwhile, a letter arrived for my first appointment for therapy which I should have had from the moment I was diagnosed with cancer some 21 months ago – I have crazy ideas I still want to execute in whatever is left of my sometimes quite exciting life of experiences and somewhat bizarre tales.

Paris, the escapegoat

Petitioning the Gubernator

Some friend of a rich heiress has filed an internet petition to pardon Paris Hilton such that she does not end up in jail for traffic offences that she should be banged up for.

The delusions of grandeur in the petition are mind-blowing when for the reason of birth into great fortune rather than personal achievement she gets compared to President Richard Nixon and her situation is equated to the pardon he received from President Gerald Ford for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

There are many who have not done as much as Miss Hilton who would love to have an iPetition going to the Gubernator, but to be pardoned for driving under the influence with the reckless disregard for public safety by driving lights-out would be a travesty of justice.

This bizarre influence peddling is unseemly, she is only going to spend 45 days jail, if only to help set her priorities right.

Role Model Roll Up

It can only be so laughable that Miss Hilton is painted as a role model who “provides hope for young people all over the US and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives.”

I cannot imagine the excitement of having Miss Hilton, off our screens, out of the news, starving the gossip columns, inaccessible to the paparazzi and incommunicado for 45 days, hardly mundane.

Indeed, many would love to have a rich daddy, I am not sure of the many who would want to film their sexual proclivities have that broadcast to the whole world via the Internet.

One must say though, that the position of being a role model does complicate the plea for mercy; do we allow role models to break the law with impunity, allow them to get away with it through surreptitious influence peddling and then see their protégés behave themselves?

I think not.

The effrontery

Now, this is what grates me, she is caught drink-driving, she has her licence suspended, she accepts that she should not be driving when caught the first time and then repeats the offence of driving without a licence and now, with her lights off in the dark – this, her friend says is an honest mistake in the same light as the involvement of President Nixon in the Watergate scandal.

It leaves me breathless with disbelief; the machinations of a remorseless, unrepentant, hypocritical and pretentious bashful rich girl – who is now trying to worm her way out of the consequences of well-balanced legal process on which she must have expended the best legal minds with the premise of being a scapegoat.

An escapegoat

You do not make scapegoats of people who have deliberately broken the law; they should by all means receive just review within the legal system and make do with the results, Miss Hilton is no scapegoat, but she is trying to be an escape goat. No doubt, this would be appealed to the nth degree.

Miss Hilton backs this petition, but she is of the great fortune that I am not the bench in a full-bottomed wig doubling the sentence and ensuring that she is well taken care of in Prisoner: Cell Block H - You are going down!. Time to file my own petition; keep her in there to the very last second.

Gaol Couture by Paris

One gets driven

Aspects of my upbringing except me from driving such that if opportunity does come to own a car, it would most likely be one that comes standard with a chauffeur, choices are few and that costs a lot of money.

Thankfully, one has had no need to play a lottery of one of three pedals and shift the gears such that the car remains stationary at an intersection before lurching forward into the grand dame's car in front; one is satisfied with the mix of metro, tram, train, taxi and air travel services around Europe.

As it stands, I cannot be caught for driving under the influence and I have never been done for any traffic infringement - even in Amsterdam, when on my bicycle I stop at the lights and always have lights on from dusk.

The drunken roads to prison

Roads are a very public place - moot point - there is a civic responsibility incumbent on being a road user, soberness, alertness, consideration and patience but many seem to get away with the mindless use of a mobile phone whiles in traffic having had a drink or two with utter disregard for the safety of both themselves and others - if caught, such people should have visited upon them, the full weight of the law.

In some lands, the penalties include license endorsements/suspension, hefty fines or imprisonment, some culprits attract all that as we read of a hotel heiress who having been caught drunk in charge of a vehicle and put on probation with a license suspension then was done for speeding and driving at speed with her lights off.

You must walk this way

It is now the accepted rite of passage for rich young people to find happiness in a pill downed with copious amounts of alcohol as their lascivious existence becomes the livelihood of the paparazzi and scoop chasers some of whom they engaged to rise to fame in the hedonistic rags called glossy celebrity magazines.

A fast car, a few expensive drugs and the immediacy of sex almost always involves rehab, a brush with the law, a day or two in court and the fashionable sojourn at the pleasure of the government of the day, somehow, daddy can no more pay the price of keeping the whole sorry tale out of the public domain anymore.

New careers for others

Upon that, you find the feeders, public prosecutors in the guise of doing their job, redoubling efforts to ensure that the privileged do not escape the letter of the law or dare I say, the opportunity to embellish the résumé with - "I put a rich kid in jail" with the flurry and the gamut of press interest and photo opportunities that would enhance the career of any ambulance chaser.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said Hilton is being treated the same as anyone else, indeed, your village rag might just summon the front-page headline - Rocky ride for Paris, they might even improve on it; our boy has done well. This is just speculation, Rocky is beyond reproach, he is only doing his job.

Is this news?

My news spectrum has been invaded with news of a rich nonentity going to jail for flouting her probation, it happens everyday, so why is this taking over the headlines?

Paris Hilton would be making an appearance at the Los Angeles Country jail where she would be rehabilitated for 45 days, paying her dues to community in protected custody for her safety - read solitary confinement - reserved for special cases.

Crime does pay

Contrast this with the other celebrity who had to do 5 days community service with the sanitary department in New York - Naomi Campbell - she made her appearances a stunning fashion show by clothes-horsing over £236,000 of couture, it was a mockery of the whole crime and punishment model (excuse the pun).

Naomi Campbell on Day 1 to Day 4 appearing for community service.

© The New York Times - Peter Foley/European Pressphoto Agency (Monday); Bryan Gedder/Getty Images (Tuesday and Wednesday); Lucas Jackson/Reuters

You only have to view this on the Crime Does Pay slideshow in the Telegraph. Ms Hilton might not be afforded a Dolce & Gabbana couture evening gown worth about £50,000 as part of her prison wear but she can at the end of her visit put her hand to a new venture - Gaol Couture by Paris - it would be a sure hit, youth fashion today is no better than what you will find worn in prison, anyhow.

Naomi Campbell on Day 5

© Reuters - The Daily Telegraph