Part two
Meanwhile, the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC claimed that the accident was caused by overspeeding, how do they know, did they travel with the vehicle or do they have a device to judge or is it because the death cannot speak?
When they noticed that the driver was overspeeding, why didn’t they stop and arrest him for over-speeding than allow him to waste people’s lives? Maybe they were busy extorting motorists when the driver passed and just wanted to have something to say to justify their presence on the road.
There is a possibility that the driver might have been tired, driving all the way from Abeokuta, Ogun State. Investigation shows that the distance between Abeokuta and Kano is about 20 hours or thereabouts because of the bad roads. Even if the person is a machine, it will breakdown without rest. The northerns especially trailer drivers are known for long distance driving but that cannot be compared with a civil servant who probably drives short distance within Kano.
For instance, airplanes flying from Nigeria to Australia do have a stopover, not only because they want to pick passengers at different airports but because they want to refuel and also give the plane the opportunity to rest.
I don’t know why some people enjoy being wicked to others. The annoying aspect is that those doing these wicked acts are the ones that have passed through the same route as athletes or footballers who became administrators overnight and when you ask why they are doing the wickedness, you will hear something like, “It is my turn to enjoy,” “I also suffered when I was a footballer or athlete,” “Let them manage what they get, during our time, we were competing for free.”
Some even took people’s parents, used them for weeks, and abandoned them to their fate, claiming that they have exhausted everything on them but that same story was not told to their concubines. How would they have felt if the same is meted on them. These same sets of people go to churches, mosques and other places to pray and yet they are mean to their neighbours.
We also discovered that some of the states governors or administrators don’t even value the sports festival. For instance, Benue athletes did not participate in the opening March Pass because of their inability to access funds from its state government. Their representative who spoke to the media (name withheld for victimisation sake) said they couldn’t move on time from Makurdi as if the date of the festival was just fixed a day before. He also revealed that their athletes did not have facilities to train, that is how unserious they taken the festival.
And the reason is because those managing our sports are also not innovative enough, they keep doing the same thing the same way. There is no motivation on the part of the state government because some are seeing participation at the festival as wasteful ventures. Investigation revealed that some don’t want their states to be embarrassed that is why they gather athletes from anywhere without any preparation just to go and do March Pass and participate, whether they win medals or not, it doesn’t matter to them.
If the EPL and other leagues across the world were not innovative and not sharing sponsorship money to clubs and other stakeholders, nobody would have been following their leagues by now.
Investigation has also shown that only the Ministry, and the host states enjoy all the largesse accrue from festivals and leave participating states to spend money through their noses while some lick their wounds. For instance, Kano is spending huge sum to take of their losses, not forgetting others who have unreported cases.
As we speak, some people are still in Abeokuta not because they have something to do back there but because they are stranded due to empty promises made to some people while hotels have seized some people’s belongings because of their inability to complete payment.
Maybe those running our sports should sit down and strategy on how to make the festival a more profitable venture. There is nothing wrong if they call stakeholders’ meetings to share ideas rather than relying on ideas of a certain set of people.
However, to avoid a recurrent especially as Enugu 2006 is fast-approaching, there is a need for the various state governments to start planning ahead of the festival.
They should start marketing their teams to contractors especially the construction companies that are making money from their states. The state governments should insist that companies operating in their territories set aside a certain amount for sports development just like it is done in South Africa and other parts of the world.
By so doing, the athletes and others will be able to prepare very well and probably compete with the reigning champions, Delta. They will also go to the festival fresh not with fatigue since they will be flying instead of traveling long distances which is very risky.
The government should also include Insurance policy for the athletes, and others so that they won’t be afraid to take risks or compete favourably with their mates especially when they know that they will be well-remunerated after the games.
Meanwhile, many people are wondering why the festival is associated with deaths, could it be coincidence or some people are not telling us the truth.
Calabar Carnival that is an annual event does not record death despite the fact that people travel by air and road but a national sport festival that is a biannual will always record calamity, what could be the problem? It seems that one should be more spiritual when embarking on such a festival or could it be a coincidence that people are losing their lives during the event?
However, the question begging for an answer is, will death ever end during the sport festival especially as we approach the next edition?
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