My Weekend Experiences................

Hello everyone, I do apologize for being M.I.A all weekend. I had a family wedding on Saturday and it was a beautiful event. The couple looked dashing and smitten, and the atmosphere was filled with fun and love.Maybe, with their permission of course, I would put up their official pictures when they are released. Devalor, the camera crew were pretty awesome too. My baby girl was on the bridal train so I had my hands full. Oh and my cute triplets made their first public appearance. Yup, we have a new set of triplets in the family. Tooooooo cute, I tell you. :) They make my ovaries ache, hehehe. It was a whole day affair with the engagement ceremony earlier in the day followed by the church wedding, reception and the intimate family house-party afterwards.

By the end of the day, I was utterly exhausted and we didn't get home until nearly midnight. I couldn't feel my waist and legs. That was the point I realized I hadn't eaten anything save for three large shrimps and lots of soft drinks. Sigh. Hubby made me eat something and take painkillers before going to bed.

Waking up on Sunday morning was easy, my daughter practically yanked my eyelids open at 6am, plastering kisses all over my face and bugging me for sweets. Getting up was another story entirely as I was absolutely knackered. Anyways, I got up and went about my duties then went back to sleep around noon for a couple of hours. I woke up feeling a bit better and as hubby and I prepared to leave my inlaw's place, we got an emergency call that changed the course of the day totally.

Someone had passed out cold and there was panic everywhere. We tried to resuscitate her with the little first aid I know but it made little or no impact so we had to rush her to the hospital. It was a scary experience for me because of the complexities involved but thankfully the crew at the hospital knew their onions and revived her properly after over an hour it felt like years, just waiting.

The experience got me mulling over our shabby systems in Nigeria. In a more put-together country, all we needed to do would have been to call for an ambulance which would have been with us within minutes and the crew would have gotten down to their duties of reviving and transporting the patient to the hospital. Alas, that's not the case here in Nigeria. We had to do it all ourselves simply to save the patient.

In my own opinion, having such a system in place is not rocket science. It is perfectly achievable if only those in strategic positions can focus and think about the general welfare of the citizens within their jurisdiction. It would also help if we, the people, can task our leaders and make our demands known and executed. I think each local government ought to have at least one well equipped general hospital that can handle emergencies and are on call round the call. Each of these hospitals should also have several ambulances that can be dispatched within seconds of getting calls. The system should be interwoven such that the less busy local governments can send out their resources to help with the busier ones when the need arises.

I cannot understand a system where I pay tax, yet I generate my electricity, water, healthcare, etc. I think the local government chairmen ought to be pressured some more and the State government as well. We are talking our rights and access to basic amenities here, surely these are not too much to ask for as citizens of a nation as great as Nigeria is?