The recent unfortunate incident involving the drowning of three year old Ifeanyi Adeleke has continued to spark mixed reactions from people, especially Nigerians who have aired their varying opinions in the aftermath of the heartbreaking death of Davido and Chef Chioma’s son, Ifeanyi Adeleke.
While some have blamed the death on those trusted with the responsibility/duty of looking after the three year old kid, most especially the nanny and others evidently culpable in the ugly incident, some other group of people have actually put their blame on the parents of the deceased child, especially Davido, for several reasons, of which the chief among them is their glaring failure to provide and build adequate protection around the said swimming pool, in case of a situation that a child finds his or her way to the pool unnoticed.
Well, it’s so unfortunate that it is mostly with a situation like this that most people do have the time to think in that direction, when the deed has been done, as such, has assumed the status of medicine after death. As such, you can only keep imagining should you had done this, the situation wouldn’t have been like this. Sadly, the best you can do at a time like this is to keep blaming yourself for failing to do the needful when you had the time and control, unlike now that it has gone beyond your control.
Some time ago, we witnessed similar experience during which another Nigerian music star, D’banj lost his son after the kid equally found his way to the pool unnoticed, drowned in it afterwards. It was such a heartbreaking experience to both the parents and Nigerians. With that, we thought others would have learnt some good lessons, but unfortunately it did not come to be as people thought.
In as much as we crave to have some of these basic life’s amenities, to enjoy our lives to the fullest, especially with the money to afford such readily available, it is equally very important that we ensure that no stone is left unturned with regards to avoiding/averting a situation like this or similar to it. Because I do not understand why these pools built in residential buildings are not given adequate protection, that we must wait until tragedy strikes before our attention is drawn to it. No, it shouldn’t be so, we must learn to take shield before the rain starts falling, to avoid being soaked by same rain in the process.
On the other hand, many have equally pleaded for people to stop building swimming pools inside their residential buildings, especially were there are kids. Without mincing words, I buy into that school of thought because the fact remains that it is extremely hard to give these kids one hundred percent protection all the time. And it is within that small time you loose guards that some of these disasters lurking around do happen; just in a twinkle of the eye it has happened and most often irreversible.
That you didn’t build swimming pools in that your expensive and magnificent mansions doesn’t make you worth less. You can as well exhibit your social class and wealth in different ways, that will equally give you the same pleasure, joy abd happiness, without creating those avenues for grief to come visiting without invitation or anticipation.
(D’banj, his wife and their late son who died after drowning in a pool inside their mansion)
Yes, we do understand that life’s sweet and full of interesting stuffs which we constantly crave to acquire and have, but wisdom and utmost caution must be applied at each time. We should stop being carried away by the fun and sweetness of some of these things, such that we end up with heartbreaks, pains and tears. Meanwhile, it is so unfortunate that most of these heartbreaking experiences find it hard to die off in our heads, hearts and souls, as such, we end up living with the pains all our life.
For instance, just like in the case of the two instances mentioned, you think the parents and some of the family members involved will recover completely from the pains and heartbreak? Regardless of how much we fight to suppress such memories, it will keep coming back at one point or the other. In other words, just like it is said that abstinence is the best option, don’t build swimming pools in residential buildings were there are still raising kids. But if you can’t resist the urge and temptation then do it right by building adequate protection immediately, because such tragedies doesn’t ring bell before visiting.
(Our condolences continue to go to Davido, Chioma and the entire family over the death of Ifeanyi Adeleke)
Photo credit: Google/Vanguard/Gistmania
