CLOSE SHAVES WITH DEATH

Thanksgiving is a weekly tradition in Nigerian Churches, Clergies usually remind us of how the same path we plied en route, became a death haven for others.

Meanwhile, thanking God daily for the gift of life should not be misconstrued as excessive.

This is why I have decided to give tales, few out of the countless number of times I had escaped death by a whisker. Many came about no thanks to youthful exuberant, and I know some people might have more narrations. Excerpts;

Late 90s; I was a teenager when two of my older cousins came over for the holidays and on this day; the three of us were home alone. Out of sheer boredom we decided to play a hide and seek game. Meanwhile, in my bid to hide from Bimbo I jumped into a faulty Refrigerator. Not long afterwards she found me, the lid shut over me; she sat on it to ensure that it was tightly covered with me still in there. Laughing hysterically and totally oblivious of the fact that I had just been locked up in a vacuum, air-tight space that is capable of making feel unconscious in no time and even die. Something bad might have happened if I hadn’t screamed, thereafter exerted all of my energy to shove her aside to make free. I made it.

Lesson learnt; Parents to lecture kids on some dangerous home games.

·        2002 Ikeja Bomb Blast; Many people in Lagos State in Nigeria, would not forget in a hurry the Bomb Blast at the Ikeja Military Cantonment, January 27^th, 2002. News had it that a Military bomb had unexpectedly detonated and today the rest is history. Parents, friends, relatives and victims can never forget the pains and trauma of that incidence, not with the over one thousand lives that were lost. Seventeen years after, I still remember vividly, mum who is a Church Minister had led me and a few other Members to a Conference, few days preceding that dark Sunday at Ilesha. And on that day we were billed to return, we had initially boarded an Oshodi bound bus, but she suggested otherwise that we should take a bus going to Sango-instead. Two clear distances apart, but both somehow led to our destination. If we had plied the former route which was just a few bus stops away from the scene of the incidence, we would have alighted at the peak of the pandemonium, and who knows what could have been our fate. Scores did not live to tell the tales though.

Lesson learnt; None, here goes one of the many ways God simply protects us.

·        2003; In my first year as a University Pre-degree student alongside my crime partner as at that time, Adamma Okechukwu. We both went to visit an older classmate to watch a movie and got carried away till past midnight already. Hurriedly exiting into the street and hoping to take a walk few blocks away to our hostel, the sound of the traditional Yoruba masquerade (Oro), known to not see females without killing them, jolted us back to the reality of the danger we just found ourseves. We had to crawl, literally on all fours to the backyard of our hostel, whispered to a hall mate through the window to come open the door. You need to see how we had to rush in with the speed of lighting, dripping sweat.

Lesson learnt:  Many of one of the dangers of night crawling in an unfamiliar terrain especially.

·        2003: I had traveled to my Mother’s home town in Osun State for the burial of my Maternal Uncle. In company of two of my cousins I took a walk downtown, and by the walls of a house at a major junction, we stood there to gist for about thirty minutes. In less than two minutes that we moved away from that spot, the driver of a car on top speed lost control and in no time rammed into a wall, some feet away. At the sound of the crash, passerby immediately assembled to rescue three people they assumed they had seen few minutes prior.

“They must have been trapped”  They concluded and kept searching, oblivious of the fact that we just left that spot prior to the crash.

          The shock was too much such that we only stood there transfixed, unable to utter a word to the rescuers that we weren’t trapped as expected. The driver on the other hand was rescued, rushed to the hospital, and after a fruitless search for us by them, we watched from the massive crowd still, how some people discussed not being able to fathom how the three people they felt should have been trapped, suddenly disappeared. To them, that was a miracle.

Lesson learnt; none still. A miracle.

·                    2008/9;  Final year days in the University and I decided to attend my first club party. The overnight gig went well till the wee hours of the next day. We made to get back to Campus which was just some few towns away only to see the bus driver come along, though forming agile, but staggering, incoherent as well, no gainsaying he was clearly drunk. While other drivers in the convoy slept all through the night (we had lodged them), ours sneaked back into the club not just to have a nice time, but drank liquor in the process. Someone who saw him even claimed he enjoyed a few lap dances too.

            We risked journeying with him being the driver still, and by the way and it went thus; the journey started and to further allay our fears, he began to chew gums so as to be able to drive. But fear didn't allow me shut my eyes and even though I was drowsy, I managed to keep an eye on him while others slept. But this was not to be for too long and I dozed. The swerving of the bus off the road woke me and others alike, and we began to scream as he managed to maintain balance. Nobody was hurt though.

Lesson learnt; the rule, don’t drink and drive, isn’t applicable to just you, but to the driver of any vehicle you are in. God saved us.

·        2010; What I experienced down South, along Iwo/Ede Road as I journey back home after the compulsory three weeks Orientation Exercise, scared me till today. I was meant to join my parents at a Prayer Mountain in Ede. I got to Iwo at 10pm, neither any cab nor bike was willing to take me. A route they considered the Den of Armed Robbers as at that time. But I was clearly defiant about embarking on that journey and after a few persuasions from me, and having to lure them with a promise of extra cash a bike man agreed to ride. For over thirty minutes we journeyed, we met no one and I was beginning to get really scared of even the biker himself.

          All of a sudden, the motorbike developed a fault and I burst out crying. As he tried to fix the engine, my nerves calmed tad when I realized that his hands were actually shaking too, an indication that he was also scared of the risk we were both in. With a trembling voice he managed to encourage me to pray for our safety instead of crying. Calls from my parents came in too very incessantly; they must have been scared too.

          And from what seemed like no-where, a Petroleum truck appeared in sight, and even though we both felt relieved that he might stop to help, fear gripped us again as  he not only increased his speed, but targeted his truck at us. In fear I ran for cover, going farther into the bush for some minutes, until the biker screamed behind me to come back.

“The driver had gone back onto the road” he informed me “just that he has refused to stop still”

            “What just happened?” I managed to ask when I moved closer, trembling.

            “That driver too was scared, obviously” he replied, with an equally trembling voice “guess he saw us” he continued “and thought we were some evil people and so decided to be the first and made to crush us.

“Jesus Christ”. I screamed.

“Your NYSC inscribed clothe that you had on saved us. I am sure about that. And the fact that you ran into the bush is another indication that we were harmless” He concluded.

After a while, he fixed it and we were back on the equally fearful road. We didn’t journey long before mum screamed excitedly from a police van that stopped us. She had gone to seek help from the nearest police post and they in turn swung into action. One of the very few occasions the Nigerian Police were my friends.

Lesson learnt; Many of one of the dangers of night crawling in an unfamiliar terrain yet again.

I had escaped death too via a major bike accident in 2011 that left me bedridden for months. I’d been in cars/buses that had brake failures, crossed roads that I almost got hit by oncoming vehicles countless number of times. I’d once been sighted opposite a bank where dare-devil armed bandits shot sporadically into the air, stray bullets scare is real. The list is endless.

          So before you begin to berate life for whatever shortcomings, staying alive alone is one thing no one has control over, so giving thanks at all time is paramount.

        And the reason why we do not pay attention to our close shave with deaths was because the worse never happened.

Picture source; www.telegraph.com (Google)