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Even though the six-day nationwide strike and mass protests, which greeted the January 1, 2012 subsidy removal on petrol by the federal government, have now become part of our national history, the wounds they left behind may take a very long time to heal. This is particularly so for individuals and families that suffered loss of lives or property, misery and various levels of trauma. I was one of the victims of that national madness. But unlike many others who lost their lives during the madness, I am still alive to personally narrate my own experience in the hands of hoodlums.

On Tuesday, January 10, the second day of the strike, I tried to find my way to  Oregun office of Newswatch after I learnt that the general manager (editorial) and chief operating officer, who had travelled to Abuja on official assignment before the nationwide strike, were stranded because there were no flight operations. There was the probability that they might not easily find their way back to Lagos by road. In that case, the general manager (editorial) might not be available for the week’s production of the magazine. So, it was imperative for me to get to the office in case it became inevitable for me to take charge of editing the magazine for that week.

Taxis and commercial buses were off the streets during the period of the strike and most roads and streets were devoid of the usual movements of the people. The only means of transportation was by the ubiquitous motorcycles popularly known in Lagos as “okada”. Even though their operators were exploitative in the fares they charged, they were equally selective on the routes they plied.

After waiting for more than one hour at Ojodu Grammar School bus stop without getting any okada operator willing to go to Oregun area, I decided to walk to Murhi junction where Jakande Road empties into Isheri Road hoping I could get a motorcyclist coming from the Ogba end of Isheri Road who would be willing to take me to Oregun. On my way to the Murhi junction, I saw a group of young men gather at Omole junction around a newspapers’ stand. Some of them were pretending to be reading  the day’s newspapers and discussing the merits or demerits of the current mass protests. Unknown to me, some of them were there on criminal surveillance and the  black hand bag I was holding  when I passed them became a prime target.

My undoing was that I did not feel that I was passing through a den of lions at about 11 o’clock in the morning. I did not feel the urge to be watching my back to see who was closely on my heels. But before I got from Omole  to Murhi junction going into Jakande Road, my attackers struck at the centre of my head from behind. That strike left me unconscious on the ground at the left hand corner of Jakande Road.  It is hard to say for how long I had remained in that state of unconsciousness  but when I regained  my senses, I found myself lying on the edge of a gutter  face down.  What I noticed immediately, was a big swelling on the right hand side of  my forehead and a serious pain around the left side of my jaw bone. I did not feel the effect of the strike at the centre of my head until late  in the  evening when I started to experience  a persistent headache that was developing into a migraine. This was followed by several nights of sleeplessness despite the medication I had received after the attack. Then came a total breakdown of my nervous system and an uncontrollable shaking of my entire body, making it almost impossible for me to hold anything with my hands. My fear then was that the head strike might have affected my brain in one way or the other.

Somehow, I was consoled when  a medical doctor who examined me some days later said what appeared as a total breakdown of my nervous system was the  after- shock effect of the attack I suffered. He said the effect would die down whenever I am able to get over it. But it is not very easy to get over the shock, especially when I remember some of the contents in the bag which my attackers went away with. Apart from my three phones, some cash and a Newswatch  identity card, I also lost a digital recorder in which I stored many interviews I had not yet used. Above all, I also lost two flash drives in which I stored all my columns and the soft copy of a book I have just completed. But despite my personal losses, I strongly believe the six-day nationwide strike and mass protests came at God’s fullness of time because they threw up some lessons and issues which  Nigeria’s political leadership had taken for granted over the years.

To be continued.

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