About five minutes ago, I was advising someone I know who works as a dispatch rider to try to take things slow whenever he's on the road. This guy has a bike that he uses for his job, and according to him, it is always fun whenever he's on high speed; as a matter of fact, he claims that's the best part of the job.
It was obvious everything I was talking to him about safety was falling on deaf ears, and that made me remember another friend of mine who almost lost his life many years ago, back in Lagos.
This young man has somehow acquired a motorbike, one that he had intended to use for commercial purposes. When he eventually started working with the bike, he had decided it was a good idea to run his bike on the highway rather than start in the street, seeing how he was only just starting.
I remember at the time, after my dad found out about his decision, he had called him and tried advising him about the danger and how dangerous the highway is. But he had shrugged all of that off and carried on with what he was doing. And it wasn't long after that when he had his first accident.
It wasn't a severe one, so the moment he got healed, he got on the bike again and continued like nothing happened. The second time it happened, I remember he didn't even wait until he healed properly before he got on the bike again. The young man was a hustler, and it was obvious he was one hundred percent focused on the money.
I honestly can't remember how many accidents he got, but I remember the last one because it was a nasty one, one that almost cost him his life. After that accident, he could no longer get back on the road because it took him a long time to heal, and his bike got damaged so badly that he decided not to drive it again.
And sadly, hearing this young man talk right now kind of feels like d茅j脿 vu because here he is not taking any of my advice seriously, just like my other friend wasn't taking that of my dad's. And no, I'm not hoping he gets involved in any accident; I'm just praying he doesn't have to before he learns to do what's right and take things slow.
