Abayomi G. Omotayo
A man Kayaking on flooded
Ahmadu Bello way in VI, Lagos.
My good thoughts are with all the
victims of flooding in Nigeria over the weekend. Sadly, lives were lost in
Suleja. I pray for comfort and succor for the families of those whose lives
were cut short by that flood.
In Lagos, Nigeria’s own mega city
and poster boy for urbanization, the rain decided to pay special attention to
Lekki-Victoria Island area of the state. Streets quickly became rivers for
kayaking. Properties were destroyed. One thing I can tell for certain is that
auto mechanics will be smiling to the bank in the coming days due to the many
cars damaged by the flood.
The rain has come and gone, at
least for now, let's hope that it won't come back with renewed vigour in the
course of the week and victims have started counting their losses. We can blame
everything else for the flooding, even the village people but please Lagosians,
do not pin this on global warming because that will be the lamest excuse to
give for our inability as a society to evolve, to be better and to do better.
Here are three lessons to learn
from that flood. Even though it happened in Lagos, this wonderful state is a
microcosm of Nigeria therefore the lessons here is applicable nationwide.
1.
Our setup is largely a charade, an amalgamation full of sad ironies
Victoria Island (VI), Lekki,
Victoria Garden City (VGC) and Banana Island arguably holds 80% of Lagos'
wealth. Arguably because this is my personal assumption based on intuition fuelled
by Pareto principle and not empirical evidence. VI is the commercial nerve
center of Lagos, although Ikeja may try to raise eyebrows on this. Lekki, VGC
and Banana Island create an impression of wealth and luxury. Just two days of
heavy rainfall and these places were overwhelmingly flooded. Drive through the
streets of Lekki and one will be amazed how poorly the drainage system was
designed.
So what is my point? Rich place,
poor infrastructure. Nigeria comes to mind. Oil rich yet poor in all ramifications.
Sad but true.
2.
We have a misconstrued idea of what being a 'big man' is
A big man or a group of big
people should ideally be able to collectively pull their weight effectively.
Going by the sheer number of men of means in the flooded area on Lekki-Epe
axis, it is quite astonishing that they can't form a formidable pressure or
advocacy group that will pressure the government to taking more concrete steps
in upgrading the drainage systems. I doff my hat to the people of Otodo Gbame,
for @meganschapman and @justempower team who out of abject poverty, took their destinies in
their hands and stopped the demolition of their houses and forced eviction.
They are the real MVP, the real big men and women and not the ‘siddon’-look-until-flood-destroys-my-area
people.
So what is my point? Rich people yet
ineffectual. This reminds me of Nigeria. The giant of Africa but largely on
paper. We even celebrated our economy overcoming that of South Africa
momentarily as if that reduced the poverty level of Nigerians.
3.
'Siddon look' (complacency) attitude has eaten deep into the fabric of our
society.
I stay on the mainland and
socially in the middle class. For now. About two years ago, the transformer
serving my neighborhood would pack up every now and then. Reason? 'the fuse has
cut'. This was the incessant and annoying tune the PHCN official always sang.
To make matters worse, some evil people decided to steal the cable from the
transformer. Prior to this time, I would always go to PHCN office and bring the
PHCN officials sometimes with my car and they will use theirs if available to
come and fix the blown out fuse I'd developed some rapport with them.
Eventually, I didn't need to drive down to call them save for the sole purpose
of officially logging the complaint in their books. A phone call would bring
the officials.
We quickly galvanized ourselves
in my neighborhood, I and some other folks became task collector going from
house to house. In no time we had enough money to buy the cables and also
secure the transformer with barb wires and padlocks. It is over two years now,
no more 'fuse has cut' or 'the cable has been stolen'. Imagine everyone waited
for PHCN and the government, by now we probably would still be waiting.
So what is my point? Nigeria is a
place you have to provide everything to make like better for yourself.
Even though the government has
responsibilities and obligations towards the citizens, when the government
fails in its responsibilities, the citizens should take matters into their
hands in ensuring that they have a better society. It will do no one any harm
if street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, slowly and steadily, the
residents in these posh neighbourhoods pull their resources together to
mitigate against flooding. If they fail to do so they may wait forever. This
flooding is a yearly phenomenon this means that they will continue to count
their losses yearly. For how long?
The badoo gang in Ikorodu area of
Lagos unleased terror and wiped out entire families in some cases for a year in
Ikorodu. It was when the residents had enough and took the matter of their
security in their hands that the Lagos state government realized that the badoo
guys are not spirits and they must be flushed out. After about that fifteen
incidents!
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