A model citizen

Editorial 

Her son, Kwanpda’as Rangna’an Samson Dongban (KRSD), 32, and fresh Law graduate from the University of Jos, lay bleeding to death, victim of a hit-and-run driver, on Tundun Wada Road in Jos, Plateau State, on 23 September 2011.

KRSD’s mother, Justice of the Court of Appeal (JCA), Justice Monica Bolna’an Dongban-Mensem and presiding Justice at the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division, was naturally shattered.  But just seven days after KRSD’s death, she founded an NGO named for her slain son: the Kwapda’as Road Safety Demand (KRSD), to ensure other Nigerians did not end up as victims of road crashes.

It was touching nobility on four feet: the catapult of intense personal pain into immense societal gain.  That is the rare heroism of Justice Dongban-Mensem: the making of a model citizen.  It remains a stellar example in distinguished social engagement.

KRSD, the NGO, is an affiliate of the Global Alliance of non-government organizations for Road Safety.  Global Alliance does road safety advocacy, presses for safer road initiatives all over the globe and lobbies governments to implement better road safety policies, aside from conducting ceaseless public enlightenment for safer roads and saner driving.  Global Alliance represents more than 200-member NGOs, from more than 90 countries.

Every year, KRSD embarks on a gospel of road safety and succour to accident victims: road safety seminars and trainings, visits to hospitals, bearing and distributing relief materials to road crash patients, and paying the medical bills of poor patients, treated for injuries from road crashes.

Justice Dongban-Mensem spoke further on why KRSD, the NGO came to life, after a hit-and-run driver took the life of KRSD, her son: “As a local authority: Police, nurse and doctor on duty, your first and essential duty is to save a life.  Certify the dead person and preserve it for the grieving family to at least see the corpse in presentable state.”

“What will I do to the victim of an accident?” Her Lordship queries. “Will I stop for a moment or rush off looking the other way?  Will I be gracious enough to dignify a dying person by extending to them a caring hand to clasp onto before giving up the ghost in a fatal accident? … We are all involved,” she declared.  ”We can each take action.  Anyone can be the next victim.  What will you do?  What positive action will you take to make a difference?”

To further underscore her personal involvement in road sanity, aside from the NGO, Justice Dongban-Mensem trained — and is a certificated traffic warden — with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).  She is said to have been sighted directing traffic on Abuja roads, in her full FRSC traffic warden kit — indeed, the story in The Nation of February 25, the source of this editorial, featured one of those traffic-controlling pictures.  It is the making of a JCA as a traffic controller — how noble!

That is just as well — for the stats, on road slaughter in Nigeria, is rather grim.  According to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), an approximate two lives are lost, every four hours, on Nigerian roads.

If that is wanton waste of life, the waste on materials is no less wanton: every year, some 20, 000 of Nigeria’s 11.654 million vehicles are involved in road crashes.  Though these crashes are many times caused by bad roads, quite many too are avoidable: caused by over-speeding, reckless driving, drunk driving, and sundry bad road culture.

So, as initiatives like Justice Dongban-Mensem’s play their part, the government should do more to greatly improve the stock of roads nationwide, crack down on reckless drivers that endanger other road users, and greatly limit the road transportation of fuel, gas and other higher combustible products, which often cause infernos on highways.  The new Federal Government policy to transport such by rail should be fast-tracked.

Justice Dongban-Mensem has discharged her duty as a loving mother, rare patriot and model citizen.  Her nobility and solemnity, in the face of grave adversity, are worthy of emulation by all.