The sad death of a young doctor undergoing housemanship, Dr Vwaere Diaso on Tuesday at the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island in a faulty elevator that crashed emphasised what Tom Clancy called “African casual” in his novel, Executive Orders because security men didn’t check some things they were supposed to check in an airport in Sudan, which could be dangerous. I was not happy about it when I read it, but it is a bitter truth that we take things too casually, even where things ought to be taken with utmost seriousness.
We only react after the damage has been done at times costing lives, only to go back to our casual way of doing things. What a shame!
It was said the faulty elevator was reported to the authorities many times as it used to stop with people inside. The authorities always promised to fix it.
Dr Diaso entered the elevator to go down and get her food from a dispatch rider when it crashed from the 10the floor.
The Nigerian Medical Association, Lagos State chapter protested her death and grounded activities in the hospital. One placard reads: “Here is Vwaere Diaso, she didn’t have to die for us to get it right.”
As a result, the Lagos State government said it had set up a panel of inquiry and would sanction anyone found culpable.
Another laxity which may not actually surprise us was that according to her colleague, it took forty minutes for engineers to arrive and dismantle the elevator. So it was not a case of the elevator crashing and she was rushed to the emergency unit.
If only we would all take note of this tragedy and change our lackadaisical ways of doing things as it would not only accelerate our development, but would make others to take us seriously and have confidence in working with us. They would trust us that it would be done. As it is this attitude has contaminated some foreigners and they behave like this. They would not dare do it in their countries, but as it is the norm here, they slide into it.
This however boils down to us not holding people to account. If people see that there are consequences for their actions or inactions as the case may be, they would take their work or responsibility seriously. After all those Nigerians that go abroad behave well there, observing all the rules and regulations because breaking rules there come with consequences that must be paid.
But they relax when they come to Nigeria as there is almost zero obedience to rules and regulations and even those that live here that want to behave by the book , they are mocked for behaving like a ‘white man’. They accept that laxity is the habit of black people, which is not saying much about us.
And they are also casual about saying it; they don’t see it as an indictment of them as a people. The irony is lost on them.
There is zero chance that those that caused the death of Dr Diaso through negligence would get the deserved punishment, which is unfortunate to put it mildly.
But all the same those concerned should push for justice for this young girl whose promising life was terminated.
One thing is certain. The elevator would be changed, bringing into mind the placard that says, “She didn’t have to die for us to get it right.”
It took years without the elevator being fixed or changed, probably being postponed several times due to ‘lack of funds’ or such flimsy excuses on matters that concern incidents that could lead to death. But now the death of Dr Diaso would do the magic where money would materialise and it would be fixed and everybody is expected to be happy.
Let us be serious and change our ways by being diligent in our responsibilities. It shouldn’t take the death of an innocent person to remind us of how too casual we are, which is costly, to say the least.
