She should have used the Bridge!

             

Sunday is that day set aside by Christians to worship God and thank him for his mercies and benevolence upon our lives. The Church of God is open to everyone, from all levels of the societal strata to come and worship and the high-point of every Sunday’s service is when everyone has to dance to the altar, to drop their offerings. If the degree of your dancing is not commensurate to the offering concealed in your clinched fists, nobody cares as we are all in the presence of God.
But as every Sunday passed by , I could not help but notice a particular lady in her mid 20’s who always danced graciously and rhythmically to the tunes of the Church band as she made her way to the altar to drop her offering before God.  I might not be able to describe the kind of Joy she exhibited through her dance steps every Sunday explicitly like J.P Clark did with the “Agbor Dancer” but she was the cynosure of all eyes whenever she stepped out.

She was a Spinster hoping to meet her other half with the belief that God would grant her this common desire of her fellow sex stripe. I never had the Dutch-courage to know her more like her name, profession and other details till one memorable Sunday when she was just staring at me in the eye like Leonardo Da Vinci’s Monalisa painting, just before I could get into the Church compound.  I stood petrified like as if had just seen the "Basilisk" emerge from the Chamber of Secrets, while she was just there in a printed poster, it was her Obituary!

She was a Fashion designer aged 26 and on that fateful day of her death she closed late around 10pm, because she had to meet up with the agreed date for the completion of her work, on the dresses of her numerous customers, which was around the corner. Tired, weary and stressed out she headed home longing for dinner, a cool bath and her warm bed. In a bid to satisfy this urge she ignored the safe overhead passage some meters way from her and chose the faster and dangerous option of crossing the ever-busy Western Avenue express way. As she stepped into the road racing to make her way to the other side she didn't notice the close oncoming metallic monster “Danfo Bus” that had been aided by its dead lights and the dark road which made it a perfect recipe for a fatal accident, it rammed her down and snuffed life out of her instantly. If she had just taken the pains and crossed the bridge she would still be alive today. And this leaves me with some questions?

Does the government consider the interest of the Pedestrians when roads are constructed? Why are Pedestrian bridges still absent on some of our highways? Why are some of these bridges dirty, insecure and not conducive enough to be traversed? And why do some people still prefer running and hurdling across the road like Athletes even when the Pedestrian crossing above is in a good state? Why is there no provision for people living with physical disabilities?  All these are questions to be answered by the government and the citizenry.

Pedestrians account for a quarter of weekly global road crash fatalities of about 5,000 deaths and several lives have been terminated on our highways. As Nigerians we all have to look beyond our present sufferings and hardships and value our lives because even the richest man on earth cannot afford life.
"Life is just like a penalty that cannot be replayed after missing" are you racing for that job interview?, rushing to meet up with an appointment? Or just in a haste to get to your destination? Have it mind that a dead person cannot keep an appointment.
Look out for a Pedestrian bridge before crossing the highway, if you find one please use it, if you don’t please cross carefully!!

Make a wise decision today!