‘Disobedience At The Light’ by Paul Chika Emekwulu

Paul Chika Emekwulu

There are five physical or mundane senses that serve as exploratory tools as we live our daily lives. These are sense of touch, sense of smell, sense of taste, sense of sight and sense of hearing.

Each of these senses is unique with a different function. While the first three on the list serve us extremely well, sense of sight and sense of hearing serve us even more. We use these five senses to collect information from our physical environment and that is why they are regarded as the five physical senses.

Being all eyes and ears allows us to see and hear what happens in our surroundings..

No society is perfect. Nigerian society is not perfect either. Even the United States, the most favourite country of migration (if wishes were horses) is not perfect too. In the history of mankind, no society has ever been perfect, unless perfection is defined. When it is, all we can do is work towards it and once we get there, there is perfection.

Unfortunately, no perfect society has ever existed. All we have and probably will continue to have are imperfections (Psalm 52:3, John 3:19) but we should all strive to do good.

These imperfections have some implications.

As a result of these imperfections, there is a lot to talk about. As a result of these imperfections, there is a lot to write about as well. When there is a lot to talk about, there is a lot to write about by anyone who wants to do so.

I said all that to draw our attention again to what happens at some of the traffic lights newly installed at various cities in Anambra State.

On one hand, when a driver gets to the traffic light he or she stops if it turns red. That’s the law. On the other hand, if it turns green you can proceed with caution. That’s the law as well. Wherever traffic lights are installed, the goal is the same – safety. It doesn’t matter whether it is in developed or undeveloped countries of the world.

If the goal is safety, why then do some drivers prefer to be red light runners? (Red light runners are those drivers who jump the red light.)

If the goal is safety, why are so many drivers completely impatient at the traffic lights?

Many reasons have been advanced for this ugly situation namely:

People are not used to traffic lights, Everybody is doing it, and finally, impatience

How can you even say people aren’t used to traffic lights as a reason for jumping the red light and thereby breaking the law? Out of all these excuses, to me, that’s the most flimsy.

How can you get used to the traffic lights when you are not disciplined enough to use such technology?

If you can’t discipline yourself enough to obey the law, then practice makes perfect doesn’t make sense anymore.

If you can’t discipline yourself enough, then Galatians 5:22 doesn’t make sense anymore.

If you can’t discipline yourself enough, then living by example doesn’t make sense anymore because at times, you travel as a family.

When the mother cow chews cud, the younger ones still look on.

If you can’t discipline yourself enough, what individual effort are you making as a way of contributing towards stamping out evil which is one of the two forces that control the world we live in?

When you jump the red light, you have a situation and your situation is disobedience while your excuses are legion.

Be careful because you are sending a message and the message is not a good one and two-fold. The message is that traffic lights are not needed in our streets. The other message is that everybody is doing it and you don’t want to be an odd man out.

Everybody is doing it is not a good reason. Always remember one thing about majority. What majority has is power and not necessarily reason. Disobedience at the lights is like weeds in the garden. It should be discouraged whenever and wherever found or noticed.

Moreover, it was Albert Einstein, the German-Americsn scientist, mathematician, and philosopher who said that the world we live in is dangerous not because of those who do the evil, but because of those who have decided not to do anything about it. This creates two choices or rather two camps – good and evil.

As a driver, which one do you belong to? Good or evil? No matter your choice, no matter your camp, always remember this: Whether you are in the street or not, traffic lights are there primarily for the safety of road users. Drive safely!