Countries without functioning underdeveloped emergency services – Bianca Ojukwu

Bianca Ojukwu, the widow of late Biafran leader Odumegwu Ojukwu, said on Sunday that any country without functioning emergency services is underdeveloped and not developing.

She said this while recounting her experience at the scene of an accident on Ugwu Onyeama Enugu Highway on Saturday night.

She wrote as much in a statement posted on her Facebook page.

Ojukwu, in the statement titled 'Highway of Death', wrote: "Yesterday November 19, 2022, while returning from a wedding ceremony in the late afternoon, I came across a horrible scene of accident on the Ugwu Onyeama Enugu highway.An oil tanker had just collided with a coaster bus carrying passengers returning from an event.

“Mangled bodies covered in blood were strewn everywhere, people had gathered around the scene and the view was traumatic. I had to make a split-second decision whether to continue or stop. noticed that one of the victims was moving and I asked my drivers to stop.

"I got out of my vehicle with my helpers, including those from my rescue vehicles, and approached the scene. To my amazement and dismay, most of the people standing there, who had just parked their own car at the side of the highway, were just busy with their cell phones taking pictures and making videos of the horrific incident.

"We literally had to fight many of them away from the scene, especially some heartless souls with their phones held at close range against the faces of the victims, recording their agony and dying moans.

"I noticed that more victims were breathing and we tried to bring motorists who were slowing down just to watch the horror, to help us transport the victims to the nearest hospital to no avail. They were slowing down , looked and passed.

"I walked towards the victim who first caught my attention, a woman who seemed unconscious but was moving her hand. When I approached her and she heard my voice, everything that she could mumble was "biko, jide m aka" (please hold my hand) I assured her she would be fine, the lady lying next to her, also wearing the same uniform, was moaning in intense pain.

"No EMS in sight, not even road safety officials, I noticed three young men and another lady who were also looking for good Samaritans to transport survivors to hospital No one else seemed willing to help. Some even tried to avoid my gaze and pleas as they slipped past the bloody scene.

"With the three young men, we lifted several of the victims into our vehicles and headed to the hospital. The road was blocked with traffic but we eventually got there.

"Hospital staff sprang into action and fought to save those who were still breathing. Many failed to do so.

"It was difficult to keep answering calls on their handsets… worried parents wondering why they hadn't returned yet, and having to tell them about the accident, and start going to the hospital but unable to tell them their loved ones had passed away.

"We left the hospital late in the evening as some of the bodies were taken to the hospital morgue. Only God knows the fate of the victims already dead at the scene of the accident as we desperately tried to save those who were still breathing.

"I have yet to recover from the trauma of this incident, the thin line between life and death and the insensitivity of ordinary people to the plight of other human beings in distress.

"The raw reality of the third world strikes whenever such situations arise. The culmination of civilization is consideration, empathy and compassion for the other.

"Any country where functional emergency services or basic ambulance services are considered a luxury or even unattainable in this 21st century remains 'underdeveloped', not 'developing'. That is as simple as that.

“It could have happened to anyone. They were cheerfully dressed guests, many of whom shone happily in their uniforms, probably chatting happily in their hired bus returning from a function, but never returned home.

"I keep replaying the voice of the victim who, all she asked me (a complete stranger she couldn't even open her eyes to see at the time), believed that 'she was about to make her transition from life to death, it was that I was holding her hand.

"The loneliness and fear that grips every living soul at this critical moment has hit me hard. I consider it a sacred duty to have been there for her. God only knows why I was on that highway at that time. critical moment when I could have chosen other routes.

"Until we have our accident and emergency response facilities in this country, we are all watching a ticking time bomb.

"Yesterday it was them, today and tomorrow... who knows who the next victims might be?

"To the extent that we all live in this country and don't force our governments to make it a priority, so will...