By Dele Sobowale
“Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not, who would be free must strike the blow?”
Lord Byron, 1788-1824.

Permit me to change the topic but not the thrust of this series of essays about articulated vehicles and the deaths they serve as regular menu to all of us on a daily basis. Since last week, there has not been a single day when an accident involving an articulated vehicle killing several innocent people is not  reported.

Strangely enough, in my discussions with, even well educated Nigerians (including lawyers!!!) what comes across is a national sense of helplessness. Almost invariably, the  major question posed to me is: what can be done about it? As a corollary to that, they add in passing that “the fleet owners are very rich people and the victims will not get justice because they lack the funds to prosecute their cases”.

That statement sounds to me like what we used to hear in the 1960s from totally defeated black elders who believed that our agitations in the Boston area would lead nowhere; the whites were just too powerful to be defeated in the struggle for the right to vote and for securing equal rights.

History would record that those dispensing conventional wisdom were wrong. When we took the battle to their businesses and hit them where it hurt the capitalist the most –his purse – they were too willing to negotiate and today a black person is president because we fought the oppressors; not because we left them to God to deal with.

In Nigeria today, among the most deadly oppressors we have are drivers of articulated vehicles –whether they belong to a fleet or not. It is quite possible that there is probably no extended family in Nigeria today which has  not been visited with the calamities caused by these demons on our roads.

If these occurrences were diseases induced by germs or viruses we would have raised a national alarm for them to be eradicated. Since August 15, 2010 when a loaded trailer sent 42 people to early graves, nothing less than 50 others have met the same fate courtesy of the monsters on wheels.

Cholera has  killed a few people less; yet we are up in arms to halt the disease, presumably because it is not ‘owned’ by a multi-billionaire, but we shake our heads, mumble “may their souls rest in peace” and keep quiet when a luxury bus plunges into a gully and bursts into flames taking 50 people with it without compensation. The question is: why?

Part of the answer lies in our collective mind-set which induces us to accept injustices without putting up a fight because the offender is a big man. Before, anyone accuses me of being idealistic, let me acknowledge we live in a corrupt society where might is often synonymous with right.

But, we are not going to change that society by saying oga dinma or God dey. An Ethiopian adage has it that “When spider webs unite, they can tie down a lion”. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p258). Too often the victims do not even consider collective action in this country.

And the type of litigation called class action suit” which is very much in practice in advanced countries, especially the US, has not taken root here. It was this method that was used successfully by victims of cancer induced by smoking, not only to claim damages against the big and powerful tobacco firms but to force legislators to pass several laws limiting smoking in public places.

Why class action suits have not featured so prominently in our country remains a mystery to me because, paradoxically, it remains one of the most potent weapons poor people can use to obtain justice against the rich and powerful.

Allied to the class action suit is another practice, again not much in evidence in Nigeria. It involves lawyers taking cases on a contingency fee basis. Invariably, it requires a lawyer or lawyers, derisively called ambulance chasers, who strongly believe that the victims of an accident have a strong and winnable case.

The lawyer(s) then take on the case on their behalf, after collecting a token fee, on the understanding that the lawyer(s) would collect a fixed percentage of any awards made.

A few lawyers in the US have made millions out of such cases. Perhaps the time has come in Nigeria when class action suits and contingency arrangements should become more prevalent. Specifically, I have in mind suits against, not only the vehicle owners but the Federal Government of Nigeria, where failure of government has  contributed to  accidents.

The August 15, 2010 and September 6, 2010 accidents on the Lagos-Ibadan road provide excellent opportunities. At least for once, those responsible can begin to feel the heat – literally…..
JEGA PALAVER –ON DEMAND.
“0803-313-5773

Please drop everything. I mean everything & focus this Sunday on JEGA’s naivety or collusion to terminate democracy! Ahmed Mamudu, Lagos.

Left to myself, I would rather postpone any further comments on Jega. However a customer has made a request which must be accommodated.

Transporters/executioners deserve attention; so do floods ravaging our farmlands. Let me exonerate Jega of one thing, until proven otherwise, he does not intend to terminate democracy. Naïve? Yes; and I warned him on these pages.

Now he has started engaging in verbal battles with critics; later he will spend more time in the courts than in his office. And the 2011 elections, if they hold at all, will once again be rigged despite all assurances. Jega does not know it yet.

But, we at UniJankara know it already and we can tell Jega ten reasons why he labours in vain…..