It was a typical #ThankGodItsFriday night for the crew.
The week had been a good one. Temi just received his appointment letter from one of the new generation banks after four years of intense job search. I just got my first pay cheque from the biggest endorsement deal I ever scored. Certainly, there was more than enough reasons to turn up.
Bottles kept piling up and soon enough we introduced a drinking game. Simply put, who will be the last man standing. Then came the Tequila shots. The first round, second round, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and soon enough some of us started giving up.
Not Temi though, he was set to win this competition like his job depended on it. At about 4am, the night out was winding up and gradually each of us had to leave.
Temi was obviously drunk. I offered to drive him home but no, he wouldn’t have anyone drive his mum’s favorite car. So I escorted him to the car and he managed to collapse into the driver’s seat. He stared at me like he wanted to say something but simply shook his head and drove off.
That was the last I saw Temi. I woke up the next morning by a call from Temi’s aunt. ‘Prince, your nwanne is dead’. These exacts words stunned me. Words I will never forget.
Drunk driving is one of the leading causes of automobile accidents in Nigeria, yet this is one issue the society has treated with kid’s gloves. The driver who drives under the influence is not just a menace to himself and passengers but to other road users. Various measures must be taken to curb this menace.
Sales of alcohol in motor parks should be completely prohibited by relevant agencies and government.
There is an urgent need for clubs and bars to ensure cab services and/or drivers are provided for customers whom are visibly drunk. This should be compulsory.
Road officers and police needs to be sensitized and provided with devices that could detect the level of alcohol consumption of drivers by measuring their Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC). Breathalyzers are a typical example of such devices.
Our laws on drunk driving need an urgent review and amendment. There is a need to define legally what constitutes as drunk driving. This quagmire constitutes a bottle-neck in the success of the various campaigns against drunk driving in Nigeria.
The law needs to spell at the concentration of alcohol in one’s system should be considered ‘drunk’ and otherwise not fit to drive. Different countries have their blood alcohol concentration (BAC) optimum at different levels. In Russia it’s a 0.04%, Ukraine has a level of 0.03% while the United States and Romania has theirs set at 0.08.
Finally there is a need to sensitize our citizens on the very many negative impacts of drunk driving. We have lost too much human capital to this menace.
My name is Prince Alozie, Mr University Africa and I’m saying please #DontDriveDrunk
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