Thoughts

on

Lagos Life

Kingsley Omose
 Contents

1. Forward
2. Dedication
3. Introduction – Orile is Hell
4. Lagos: A City Waiting to Implode
5. What Can I Do
6. A Tour of Hell
7. My Life
8. The Implosion of Lagos has Began
9. Minimizing the Cookie Monster in our Political Class
10. A Primitive Concept of Life
11. I Have a Nightmare
12. Eureka – I Have Found It
13. Temples of Worship in Lagos
14. Are We All Victims?
15. The Frustration Gap

2
Forward

I have always thought how best to articulate our humanity and our poverty. Deep in me I
have always felt that rejoicing in personal prosperity in the midst of collective abject
poverty is essentially illusory living.

Kingsley Omose has articulated well the thoughts, fear and the pain of many of us by
writing this book.

Let us start by asking what is poverty? Some have said, “Poverty is hunger; Poverty is
lack of shelter; Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor.

That Poverty is not having access to good schools; Poverty is not having a job; Poverty
is fear for the future; Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water.

That Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom”. Orile is one of

the thousands of squalor blighting the face of Africa and the world.

George Henderson in 1971 once wrote a personal account of an anonymous woman

who wrote an essay on “Living in Poverty”

She wrote: “You ask me what poverty is? Listen to me. Here I am, dirty, smelly and with
no proper underwear on and with the stench of my rotting teeth near you.

I will tell you. Listen to me with out pity. I cannot use pity. Listen with understanding.
Put yourself in my dirty, worn out ill-fitting shoes and hear me.

The woman wrote, “Poverty is getting up every morning from a dirt and illness –
stained mattress. Poverty is living in a smell that never leaves.

Poverty is being tired. Poverty is an seed that drops on pride, until all pride is worn
away. Poverty is a chisel that chips on honor until honor is worn away.

Some of you say that you would do something about the situation, and may be you
would.

For the first week or the first month, but poverty alleviation requires years of genuine
commitment by kind hearted individuals, benevolent philanthropists, considerate private
sector, and responsible public sector.

The cry of the poor is still. Listen to me, listen to me without pity and listen to me
with understanding”.

This is what Kingsley Omose is communicating again. Let us all rise, let us rise up
with anger in our hearts, anger to fight poverty by all means possible.

3
Sufficient anger and compassion that will make us do something. Have a soul stirring
time as you read this book.

Paul SeyiOgedengbe
African Continental Coordinator
Congress WBN

4
Dedication

This book is dedicated to those Lagosians whose bone marrows ooze poverty and who
reside in slums that are not fit even for hogs.

They are daily exposed to the opulence and excesses of the rich and their political
overlords, and yet their hope for a better tomorrow remains unshaken.

They die from treatable ailments and preventable diseases and still they daily thank God
for the opportunity of seeing a new day.

They are wearied by the daily struggle to survive and make ends meet, yet they face
each new day with a steely resolve and determination.

They know it will take divine intervention to be lifted from the dung hill to the palace,
yet their faith remains steadfast.

They are entitled to behave like animals and act lawlessly, but yet are largely restrained
and law abiding.

They watch their children turn wayward before their very eyes, and yet they continue to
procreate, believing the next child will turn out better.

These are the true Lagosians, who have through their pains and suffering earned my
admiration and respect.

May your heavy burdens and yokes be lifted in our life time, Amen

5
 Introduction

"Orile is hell"

Would you like to go with me Down to hell Would you like to come with me To Orile

See the people hang out in front of their pig pens Frightened of the nightly ritual of
sleeping in Overcrowded abodes Young boys and girls roam about aimlessly

Broken dreams and aspirations are everywhere It's a bloody place Death plagues the
community Unless a miracle happens

Barely clad children play on the streets Stomachs extended and legs like
broom sticks Politicians laugh and drinkdrunk to all demands

Families barely able to feed Starvation roams the

streets Babies die before they're born Infected by
the grief

Now some folks say that we should be Glad for tomorrow will be better than today, tell
me would you be happy in hell

Would you be happy in Orile

Adapted from Steven Wonder’s lyrics in “Village Ghetto Land”

6
1

Few people have the imagination for reality – von Goethe

Lagos: A City Waiting to Implode

It is said that, 72.5% of Lagosians live in one room apartment, with 810 per room, while
only 4 million Lagosians have access to pipeborne water.1

Add 2, 600 unplanned communities and over 100 slums, power demand of 2000MW
but actual supply of 500MW and it gets worse.2

Then consider the high vehicular density, flooding, inadequate and decaying
infrastructure, menace of area boys, and it is clear that Lagos is primed for an implosion.

When you recall that the average “face me I face you” tenements in Lagos has over
10 rooms and with one toilet and bathroom, how are people coping?

With 80 people residing in such a house, the go slow starts unusually early with the mad
rush to use the toilet and bathroom.

God help you if you are pressed and the queue to use the toilet is unusually
long.

So how many Lagosians walk around with unemptied bowels for weeks? No wonder the
air around Lagos is so foul.

How many Lagosians leave their homes in the morning without the luxury of washing
off yesterday’s filth from their bodies?

With all rooms converted to meet the ever increasing demands of rental, most of these
buildings have no kitchens.

The end result is that the passage ways are littered with kerosene stoves resulting in
smoked filled rooms and various cooking smells guaranteed to suppress your hunger.

With the night spent having no electricity, people sweating and slapping themselves in
vain attempts to kill Kamikaze like mosquitoes, hardly any one sleeps a wink.

Leaving home unusually early, having not slept well, with no opportunity to use the
toilet or bathroom, the mad race begins to make it across to work.

7
Of course the distance between home and workplace is like traveling across the
wilderness from Egypt to Canaan, only in this case work is no Promise Land.

Many Lagosians have to use a minimum of 3 to 5 bus rides just to make it across to
work, with one or two Okada rides thrown in between.

For those who have cars, it is a two to three hours drive just to make it to the office.

But even these ones are fortunate, as the condition of the public buses are atrocious.

Squeezed in like sardines in a tin, every conceivable space in the bus is utilized for
carrying passengers.

The mix of passengers include preachers, pick pockets, ‘staff’, robbers, free riders,
lapped passengers, workers, traders, etc.

Add the smell from unwashed bodies, bowels packed full of stuff, emitting the occasional
gas due to pressure build up, the aggression of the driver and conductor, O la la.

Some of the roads have potholes the size of craters, and handling more traffic than
they were ever designed for.

Throw in the police check points and the usual harassments from the hawkers, area boys,
touts, council officials, beggars, and now BRT, the rest as they say is history.

Work for most of these Lagosians becomes the ideal environment for sleep, using the
toilet, eating and preparing for the crazy journey back home.

Battered by living conditions, assailed by health issues, threatened by the fear of the
unknown, the death rate in Lagos is staggering.

Take a trip to government and private hospitals in Lagos and ask to see their daily
death registers.
Call at the various cemeteries in Lagos and inquire on the number of burials
conducted on a daily basis.

Do not talk of those who can’t afford the cost of burials and dispose of corpses
through ways too shocking to describe.

Stay at the Toll Gate on the outskirts of Lagos and count the number of vehicles
carrying corpses out of Lagos on a daily basis.

Most of them came with hopes and expectations, but have been overwhelmed
by the challenges of Lagos.

8
But cross over to the traffic coming into Lagos from across Nigeria, and more and
more people are pouring into Lagos in pursuit of their dreams.

These are the drivers, gatemen, house helps, cooks, stewards, nannies, clerks, typists,
messengers, gardeners, mechanics, plumbers, carpenters that we encounter daily.

They also include the touts, dockworkers, policemen and women, security guards, market
men and women, hawkers, job seekers and the sundry others that live in Lagos.

What schools do their children attend? What health care facilities are available to
them? What do they eat with the pittance they earn? How are they able to clothe
themselves?

How does it feel to live 810 in a room and then go across town to work in a big house
where even dogs have rooms to themselves?

How does it feel to drink well water and while at work use pipe borne water and
hose to wash oga and madam’s cars?

How does it feel to know of a neighbor who died from typhoid fever and know that
your boss has just gone abroad for medical check up?

How does it feel to know that your child is attending a public school that is like s poultry,
and with frustrated and ill-equipped teachers?

Yet you daily ferry you bosses children to and from a private school where the fees for
one term is enough to train your child to university level.

No wonder our churches are full and busting at the seams, with people
believing God for one miracle or the other.

No wonder at the slightest provocation, people resort to fist cuts and murders and
abuse of children and spouses are common.

No wonder all the honking, quarrelling, and why Lagosians always seem to be shouting
even when they are discussing.

No wonder the alcohol consumption rate in Lagos is so high and why substance
abuse is common across Lagos.

No wonder the consumption of Lexotan and other sleeping pills is so high in Lagos so
that people can sleep like the dead.

No wonder.

9
2

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean - von
Goethe

What Can I Do?

As expected, Lagos: A City Waiting to implode, attracted many varied and

interesting responses.

Majority of those who responded were shocked by the graphic description

of life in Lagos especially for the ordinary Lagosian.

Many also expressed their helplessness at the state of affairs in Lagos, wondering
how the myriad issues in Lagos could be addressed.

They were clearly frustrated fearing that their individual efforts would clearly not
address these issues, fearing for the future of Lagos.

Although one or two admitted already knowing of the existing state of affairs, some
promptly threw the ball in my court to go beyond highlighting the problems.

They wanted solutions preferred to the problems and this too is justified because the
images of an imploding Lagos are not at all palatable.

In all, the responses clearly showed that people were deeply worried about the
plight of their fellow men and for the need to take urgent action.

The unresolved issues however remained who was the appropriate party to respond, i.e.
between government and the people, and what responses would be adequate.

On a lighter note, the images thrown up in my mind even while penning that write up
have had an immediate impact on my daily life.

Before now, I had the habit of referring to any bizarre behavior on the part of another
motorist while driving on the streets of Lagos as the action of a mad man.

Now I simply wonder whether that particular driver is not acting that way due to
situational pressures from home.
When I saw people quarreling or fighting on the streets of Lagos, I used to wonder about
those who leave home and display unruly behavior in public.

10
Now I know that such people may be just letting off steam and are looking for
avenues to transfer their situational frustrations to others.

Instead of the usual harassment of those reporting late to the office, I am now more
understanding, preferring to inquire whether there is any problem.

By and large, it has made me more aware of my environment, and also more
appreciative of the things that I normally take for granted that are luxuries to many.

The fact for instance that I ordinarily complain that the modest accommodation
that my family has occupied for quite a while has become too small.

But imagining a situation where some Lagosians live eight people in a room as
opposed to my present accommodation has made me to stop complaining.

I believe that I can do with a bigger car, seeing that in our environment the size of the
car that you drive has direct bearing on your social status.

But now I am quite happy that I even have a car as nothing will make me trade it for the
agonies of using the public transport system in Lagos.

For me, the loo is a good place for thinking, reading and planning but, I can’t enjoy that
privacy if 60 other people are waiting under pressure to use that same facility in the
morning.

In my home, I have become a campaigner against wasting of pipe borne water, not
turning off the lights even when its day time, and other similar wasteful acts.

But on a more serious note, there are always things that we can do as individuals about
Lagos on the principle that it is better to start where you are and with what you have.

To be effective in this regard, we have to individually shift focus from our Circles of
Concern to our Circles of Influence.

Action is always undertaken within a defined context and in a specific environment, and
there is no one who does not operate within a Circle of Influence.

Properly explained, it means that while I cannot do much about how other people
drive, I certainly have control over how I drive.

So, I am concerned about how people drive in Lagos, but I have influence over how
I drive and by extension how the vehicle I am in at any given time is being driven.

For some of us, our Circles of Influence are varied and wide because we operate and

11
interact are many levels such as family, work, social, educational, religion etc.

Bottom Line: There are an awful lot of ordinary Lagosians in our Circles of Influence
and how we interact with them matters a great deal.

What are our individual rules of engagement with those in our Circles of Influence?
Do we empathize with those who are around us?

In our dealings with those in our Circles of Influence, do we remember to apply the
Golden Rule: Doing to others as we expect them to do to us?

Some may dismiss the above as being ineffective and squarely put the blame at the feet
of government, insisting that only good leadership can address the problems of Lagos.

They certainly have a point, as bad leadership produces bad policies and the resulting
misacting or inaction has in no small way compounded the problems of Lagos.

But before we forget, Lagos State is made up of people who in and multifaceted
ways interact, and at levels beyond the reach of government.

For instance, the Lagos State government has no say in the way I humanely treat my
driver other than probably stipulating the minimum conditions for employment.

Or better still; let me site an example that touches nearly all of us, i.e. the issue of
house helps and how they are treated especially in Lagos.

Before now, the practice of having house helps for pay was practically nonexistent,
but in recent times has become the norm in Lagos.

If you wanted someone to help out at home, the practice was to request your parents or
family in the village to send a relative or to talk to the parents of the person to be sent.

Such a person was not regarded as a house help but was treated as part of the family
with the consideration being his or her education or the learning of a trade.

But in Lagos today, the relationship between oga/madam on the one hand and
househelp/agent on the other hand is a ‘dog eat dog’ situation.

We could come up with a thousand reasons why this is so, but then again; each one of us
has a choice on how to treat our house helps.

Remember that it is this aggregation of individual choices and actions on the vexed
issue of house helps that eventually defines the status quo.

12
Changing the status quo starts by making different individual choices for instance
whether we decide to treat house helps as members of the family or contract staff.

Then for the individual choices we make to influence others, we need not only people
who are influential themselves, but also a critical mass of people who can be influenced.

Duncan J. Watts, a professor of Sociology at Columbia University in New York

captures this brilliantly in his write up on “the Accidental Influential” (Businessday,
p24, 9/4/07)3

The influentials are those who may be because of their own experiences or
understanding, see the need for a change in the status quo and press others for change.

The critical mass of those who can be influenced are those who are willing to embrace
the change, who know that there is need for change but are held back by fear.

There are enough negative tales being peddled on house helps and their agents enough
to put any oga and madam on their guard.

But few remember to add that most households in Lagos will grind to a halt or even
fall apart but for the invaluable roles played by houseboys and house girls.

So change starts from appreciating what you are doing wrong within your Circles of
Influence, coupled with a willingness to change.

Then you need to identify opportunities for change as they become known to you and
actually follow through with an action that reflects you new state of thinking.

13
3

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental
institution of the universe - von Goethe

A Tour of Hell

It is said that 72.5% of Lagosians live in one room apartment, (810 per room), while
only 4 million Lagosians have access to pipe-borne water.

Disturbed, I arranged with a friend to go on a tour of Orile-Iganmu, a densely

populated slum in Lagos State to see things for myself

The most disturbing aspect of the Easter Monday tour was the large number of
children and young persons I came across.

The overwhelming evidence was there to see, of barely clad children with extended
stomachs.

Of babies on the laps or backs of their mothers, or left crawling near open sewers, and of
young boys playing with objects that look like balls.

There were men wearing singlet who stood near by as if surveying the proof of
their manhood and wondering if this was all there was to life.

Then there were young boys and girls’ hanging out on the streets, seeing these were the
only available space.

Thousands and thousands of them with looks of resignation on their faces, knowing that
their options in life were limited.

There were no recreation facilities, with beer parlors providing the only means of
unwinding.

There were no tarred roads, more like foot paths darting between houses. There were no
drainages; no proper sewer systems.

There was no presence of any government health center or hospital, or a proper

pharmacy for that matter.

But there were patent medicine stores selling predominantly fake drugs dotting most
corners.

14
For those who were too poor, they could always run to the churches were miracles were
on offer with prayer and fasting as the only price to pay.

Self medication I was told is the order of the day. There is also resort to native herbs
and local brews.

Stories are told of those who died in their rooms from treatable aliments. Instances of
women and young girls who deliver in their homes is predominant.

The incidence of unwanted pregnancies and deliveries by young girls is rampant I was
made to understand.

Just seeing the posturing of the young girls, how they dressed and the way most of them
spoke was enough proof that they understood the power of womanhood.

It was as if I had walked right into hell on earth, yet I was in a community about 10
minutes drive from Lagos Island business district where deals are done in billions of
naira.

It was a sobering experience to say the least, and to imagine that over 70% of
Lagosians resided in such communities was mind blowing.

There is a World Bank water project that passes right by Orile piping water to other
parts of Lagos.

But cartels of water merchants in collusion with some water board officials have hijacked
the public mains.

Water pumping machines dot the few outlets where the public mains enter into Orile-
Iganmu, and then the water is piped to overhead tanks and sold to residents.

I was told that occasionally when these water board officials and the water cartels
have differences, the community can be cut off and the only resort is to boreholes
and wells.

A possible conspiracy between petrol stations and kerosene cartels in that area ensures
that kerosene is not available at most filling stations for sale to the public.

So, to the cartels buyers of kerosene must go if they have to cook and eat, and provide
light using kerosene lanterns, and pay triple the normal prices.

What about the houses, some looking like pig pens, poultries and barns? How could
human beings reside in such abodes I was left wondering?

15
You could count on your fingers the number of houses that can pass a building
inspector’s scrutiny.

Yet the rentals were just as high as what obtains in other parts of Lagos, with landlords,
caretakers and agents swelling fat from overwhelming demand for tenements.

I had been trekking for about 4 hours, but I could hardly notice the passage of time
or feel any exhaustion.

I was told that if my tour had been during the rainy season, I would have required a hover
craft to navigate through Orile-Iganmu.

As I left Orile-Iganmu, my mind was still, and in that stillness I could see, hear and
feel the pain, anguish, and torment of these forgotten Lagosians.

16
4

A useless life is an early death – von Goethe

My Life

I am a motor car mechanic with my workshop on the roadside of a street in a middle

class residential area in Lagos.

Occasionally, men from the Environmental Sanitation Task Force come with their
bulldozers and level the workshop, arresting me and my colleagues.

At other times, council officials come by to collect levies and charges for the site where
the workshop is located.

In between that, there are visits from policemen at the near by police station
arresting and extorting money from me and my colleagues following one complaint
or the other.

And of course, there are the customers who bring in their cars for repairs and the trips
to the spare parts market usually to buy fake or fairly used parts.

Daily as I leave home for the workshop, I do not know what lies ahead but my day is
usually a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.

But leave home I must because the conditions in what I call home are guaranteed to
eventually drive me insane.

Home is a one room apartment in a tenement that has nineteen other rooms with one
toilet and bathroom, and no kitchen.

The rooms are averagely the size of shoe boxes, and occupied mostly by family men
who make their earnings on a daily basis, and who dread the thought of public holidays.

I have lost count of the number of legal and illegal residents in the tenement where I
reside with my wife and five children and two other family relations.

Don’t ask me how nine of us manage to sleep in that shoe box or of how I am able to
jostle with my wife under the full glare of others.

What I know is that like the other residents in the neighborhood, we spend as much time
as possible outdoors and only retire indoor to sweat out the rest of the night.

17
And sweat we must as there is usually no electricity to power the ceiling fan, and with
mosquitoes diving in to suck blood from anemic bodies, the nights are very long.

I can stand the long nights spent pretending to sleep, while fending off daredevil
mosquitoes that only grow stronger after I have used fake insecticide.

I can also stand the cooking by the wives and mothers that goes on in the dimly lit alley
that passes for the corridor.

In fact, how these women are always able to come up with the meals they serve their
families and especially when they hardly receive cooking money, is mind boggling.

I can even stand sleeping in over crowed rooms; where there is no privacy and children
can see or hear their parents engage in sex and everyone’s nudity is taken for granted.

I can survive the daily search for water and having found it, to spend money to
purchase water and then rationing it wisely among my family applying economic
principles.

I can endure the nagging from my wife asking when we are going to relocate from this
hell hole and the look of disrespect my children give me from time to time.

Complaints from my wife, that some of the other men in the tenement spy on her while
she is using the bathroom or toilet have not moved me.

I console myself with the fact that they can look as long as they don’t touch, but I
can see the loss of respect this attitude has caused as she occasionally refuses to let
me touch her.

But what gets under my skin and agitates me mentally, is the fact that I cannot get to
use a toilet as and when I want to.

To be able to use the toilet in the house where I reside, I either have to wait until the
other residents are asleep, or wake up in the wee hours of the morning.

At that, I have to find something to shield my eyes and nostrils from the sight and smell
coming from a facility that is shared by over a 100 residents who feed poorly.

Worse I have to decide whether to add my share of discharge to the mountain

already in the toilet or use scarce water to attempt to flush before doing anything.

Sometimes when I decide to flush, instead of the mountain receding, it rises out of
the toilet and runs after me.

18
For the children, we usually ask them to go to the adjourning canal while keeping our
fingers crossed that they do not fall into its foul smelling stagnant water.

When I am pressed and the toilet is not available, I have to resort to using the canal, and
I come across other men and women who are similarly forced to obey the call of nature.

Or I can resort to the nylon bag where the shame of the canal becomes too heavy to
bear, with the sight of men, women and children all lined up at the edge of the canal.

I don’t know which of the two is more shameful, the sight of a grown up man
defecating in a nylon bag and then sending his child to drop the waste in the canal.

Or the balancing act of stooping in full view of others, with ones rear jutting over the
edge of the canal while trying not to tilt, which qualifies as a the wonder of the world.

To minimize the shame and humiliation, I have conditioned myself to obeying the
heavy call of nature once a week and usually at night if I have to use the canal.

I have also trained my family to do likewise, deluding myself that the less frequently
we use the toilet, the less food we need to eat.

Daily, as I go to the workshop, I try to ignore the discomfort of moving around with full
bowels, and the pain from the hemorrhoids, resulting from irregular defecation.

I cannot help but look at the fine buildings around my workplace, and marvel at the
sizes and beauties of the houses with the posh cars parked in the driveways.

Most times, I get carried away imagining my family residing in such houses where there
are adequate rooms, a separate kitchen and the rooms each have their own toilets.

I dream of sitting in a toilet well perfumed and spacious, with no one putting pressure on
me by banging on the door to hurry up, and the time to express myself leisurely.

Then I snap out of my day dream as the honking of a customer’s car wakes me rudely to
reality, and resentment and anger begins to swell up in my heart.

The bitterness is against any and everyone, but ultimately is about my helplessness and
my inability to break the circle of poverty that has held me bond.

It is about the disquality of life that I can afford to give my wife and children and in
knowing that unless a miracle occurs, my children are probably doomed to a similar
fate.

At such moments, I even contemplate thoughts of ending my life but I am too cowardly

19
to do this.

Instead, the bitterness has eaten deep into my heart and left me broken in spirit, I can only
pray that a sudden ailment will cut short my life and put me out of this misery.

20
5

Man is worse than an animal when he is an animal – R. Tagore

The Implosion of Lagos has Began

She was an engineer, working with one of the top telecommunications firm in Lagos,
and happily married with a daughter.

As she left the office that evening, her thoughts were of home and the joys of being
reunited with her baby daughter, but instead, it was with death that she was united.

According to newspaper reports, she was hit by a metal object while in a chauffeur driven
vehicle which had broken down at about 7.00 pm in Apongbon, Lagos.

Between the time of the attack and her eventual evacuation to a hospital, she had lost so
much blood, that the next time her husband saw her was in the morgue.

The attack, which was carried out by social miscreants popularly called area boys, did
not appear to have any ulterior motive other than the usual case of armed robbery.

News of her brutal murder sent shock waves across the city of Lagos and especially
among the professional class.

The murder also generated a lot of media attention and the usual outcry that follows the
occurrence of a bad event in Nigeria.

Many lamented the ineffectiveness of the Police, and called on the government to
address the traffic jam at Apongbon area that they believed had facilitated the
attack.

There was even a suggestion that motorists should avoid using Apongbon in the evenings
to avoid similar attacks.

But sadly the practice of attacks and robberies on occupants of vehicles across various
parts of Lagos is so wide spread that this suggestion is not plausible.

From Ozumba Mbadiwe road in Victoria Island heading towards Lekki Phase 1, to
Osborne road, Ikoyi heading towards Third Mainland Bridge, the story is the same.

On the Third Mainland Bridge itself, around the Oworonshoki axis towards the former
Toll Gate reports of daily attacks are wide spread.

21
Ikorodu Road from Ojota heading towards Mile 12 is notorious for robbery attacks on
motorists, as well as various hot spots along the ApapaOshodi Expressway.

These areas where robberies occur daily, especially during working weeks, are all prone
to traffic gridlocks, thus making the occupants of vehicles sitting ducks for attacks.

The situation is made worse by the fact that security presence at these dangerous
spots is almost nonexistent at night.

In addition, the absence of functioning street lights on the major streets of Lagos
provides the additional cover for these nightly operations.

One can easily surmise that the causes of these night robberies are traceable to the
factors enumerated above. But I hasten to add that there is more to the issue.

Generations of forgotten children who have been incubated in subhuman conditions in

2600 densely populated communities and 100 slums across Lagos have now come of
age.

Years of dehumanizing existence have shaped minds and conditioned young men
who know only how to demand what they believe is rightly theirs through force of
arms.

The attackers are usually young men operating in groups, and armed with dangerous
objects and weapons with which they threaten and rob their victims.

With no care in the world, they sweep through the streets at night, a wide variety of cars
and possible victims to choose from, as if spoilt for choice on a well stuffed banquet
table.

The frequencies of these attacks on the roads are going to increase not decrease, and
these young men will graduate from robbing on the roads to attacking neighborhoods.

The practice of tailing luxury vehicles heading into some high class estates and
neighborhoods in Lagos and violently robbing them at home is already wide spread.

Not too long from now, the practice of armed gangs laying sieges on entire
neighborhoods and cleaning up whole streets will be the norm.

The fully blown crises and lawlessness the sieges will entail is going to overwhelm the
economic capital of Nigeria and will make the Niger Delta look like child’s play.

What we will experience in Lagos will be some sort of urban warfare that our security
operatives who are poorly trained, will not have the spirit or motivation to confront.

22
Like the Niger Delta militants retreat into the creeks after their operations, these young
men will retreat into the slums and densely populated communities after their
robberies.

They will take no prisoners and will shot to kill at the slightest provocation, having
been conditioned by years of frustration, neglect and fending for themselves.

Our security operatives will be unable to fully respond because they will be out
numbered and out gunned.

They, i.e. the security operatives will also be unwilling to take the battles to these young
men in the slums and densely populated communities.

As the earth remains, seed time and harvest time will not cease, so also Lagosians will
partake of the fruit of the seeds that have been sown in the last 20 to 30 years ago.

23
6

Man is not born to solve the problems of the universe, but to find out what he has to do
– von Goethe

Minimizing the Cookie Monster in our Political Class

The Cookie Monster Experiment was devised to test the hypothesis that power makes
people stupid and insensitive or disinhibited.4

Using the CME, researchers from the University of Berkeley, California, found that
getting power causes people to keenly focus on the potential reward.

The researchers took groups of three volunteers and randomly put one of them in
charge.

Each trio had a half hour to work through a boring social survey. Then a researcher
came in and left a plateful of precisely five cookies.

The volunteer who had randomly been assigned the power role typically grabbed an
extra cookie.

The keen focus on potential rewards of getting power, like money, sex, public
acclaim or an extra cookie made them oblivious to the people around them.

In Nigeria, those who get or capture political power do not even need to focus on the
potential rewards as it is usually served to them on a platter of gold.

In order words, political power holders in Nigeria get to eat all the cookies without even
allowing Nigerians much as a nibble.

Nigeria remains one of the few countries in the world where revenues from its natural
resources are shared monthly among the three tiers of government.

For those who desire quick and obscene wealth, the legitimate and quickest means
of achieving this is to get or capture political power.

Stringent requirements are put in place for those seeking corporate power,
especially where huge funds are involved like in banking and insurance.

Not so for those who will be handing billions of Naira after getting political power as
they are only required to possess secondary school certificates.

24
There is hardly any who does not know of someone who yesterday was as poor as a
church rat, but who was instantly transformed on getting political power.

There is much evil in the present system of allocating revenue to artificial entities,
which are a creation and legacy of our Khaki brothers.

This evil is exacerbated by the fact that there is none, and has never been any, Nigerian
who physically resides in a state or local government.

Nigerians reside in communities, most of then older than the states and local
governments in which they have been lumped or as it were dumped.

That evil has to be confronted at some point, and answers found to questions on
how best to channel resources and development to Nigerians.

The challenge for now is on how we can assist the new crop of power getters or
capturers from not becoming worse than cookie monsters.

I am assuming that those who have been reelected, especially at the executive level,
will by now be purging from excessive consumption of cookies.

But for those who are getting or capturing power for the first time, these tips on how to
minimize becoming a cookie monster will be of assistance.

I know that most of them owe a debt of gratitude to various godfathers who ensured
their successful power grab or capture, and who expect payback.

I know that those who financed their exploits have to be reimbursed and get returns on
their investments.

I even agree that these power grabbers need to begin to build their own war chest to
ensure their reelection and may themselves become godfathers.

The big question is how to do all that while not becoming oblivious of Nigerians
and the issues that have confronted them for generations?

How do our political office holders remember in the midst of grabbing all the cookies,
that Nigerians who reside in communities also need attention?

I have compiled some guidelines which will help our power getters keep their feet
firmly planted on the ground and at least ensure a winwin situation.

Steadfast implementation of the following will generate uproar among the political
class, and cause pain among those in power:

25
First, by ensuring that political office holders continue to reside in their private
accommodations after election or appointment.

Second, by ensuring the children of political and government office holders attend
only public schools.

Third, by ensuring all travels by air should be on economy class tickets, while usages of
government vehicles are restricted. Also ban use of sirens by government vehicles.

Fourth, ensuring political and government office holders and their families patronize only
public health institutions by refusing to pay bills for medicals.

Fifth, contracts should be advertised and award procedures streamlined in accordance

with best practices.

Sixth, monitor deposit of public funds in banks to ensure monies are not being rolled
over at the expense of the public purpose for which they were earmarked.

Seventh, scrapping of the grandiose title of ‘First Lady’, whether at Federal,

State or Local Government,

Finally, monetize allowances of political and government office holders, and

adopt best practices on use of consultants by government and its agencies

These steps can at least ensure those with political power allow Nigerians get their share
of the cookies, even if political office holder get to take an extra cookie.

26
7

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves – von Goethe

A Primitive Concept of Life

A question that has repeatedly been asked is this; at what point does the concept of life
of a community, society, nation or its people change and advance for the better?

Is the point of change a realization that there is need for a new concept of life to guide
human affairs?

Is it based on the acceptance of warnings by far sighted ones in a society who understand
that the present concept of life is no longer workable?

Or can it be said that by virtue of being persuaded and reasoned with, peoples or
nations can change their concepts of life for the better?

To Leo Tolstoy, the life of humanity changes and advances, like the life of the
individual, by stages, and every stage has a concept of life appropriate to it.5

It is the same with the changes in the beliefs of peoples and of all humanity as
it is with the changes of belief of individuals.

He adds that: “If the father of a family continues to be guided in his conduct by his
childish conceptions of life, life becomes so difficult for him that he involuntarily seeks
another philosophy and readily absorbs that which is appropriate to his age”.

To paraphrase a popular saying, ‘when I was a child, I behaved like a child. But
when I became a man, I put away childish behavior’

The principle is that the need to change a society’s concept of life is usually
brought about by the experiences of life itself.

In other words, a society will abandon a concept of life which is inappropriate to its
present stage of existence and invariably submit to that which is appropriate.

So, change is directly related to the difficulties being experienced in a society and
whether such difficulties become intolerable.

The threshold of change becomes the intolerable conditions of life that threatens the
very existence and wellbeing of society.

27
The reason for a forced transition may not be unconnected with the fact that most
nations, societies, communities and humanity itself are usually not driven by a core
vision.

Tolstoy identifies three broad concepts of life, i.e. the primitive concept of life, the social
concept of life and what I call the neighbor concept of life.

The primitive concept of life caters primarily for the interest and the need of the
individual, where the guiding principle is the survival of the strongest.

The social concept of life recognizes the limitations of primitive existence by putting
the interest of the wider society first.

The neighbor concept of life is the highest concept of life, where everyone
sees the neighbor in everyone else.

The underlying principle of the neighbor concept of life is in treating other people as you
would want to be treated.

The nations of the earth are locked into the first two concepts of life, with the
undeveloped nations in the primitive, and the developed nations in the social stages.

Remember the issues here in respect of concepts of life and the underlying
philosophies that drive human existence.

The major short coming in the primitive concept of life is in the heightened state of
internal conflict within a society, as individuals pursue what is in their best interest.

For the social concept of life, it is in the heightened conflict between nations, as
each nation promotes only what it regards as is in its best interest.

The neighbor concept of life is centered on love for God and man. This is different from
the love of humanity, which is an advanced operation of the social concept of life.

Where do you place a society where funds meant for the execution of public projects
are tied down in bank fixed deposits while government officials get kick backs?

How do you describe a society where investors rush to acquire shares of publicly quoted
banks who utilize public funds meant for the people in the first place?

What would you say about a society where government officials

predominantly utilize public funds for their private purposes?

How do you define a society where funds allocated to a tier of government that is

28
closest to the people, are diverted to other purposes?

What will you call a society where the easiest means of getting news reported by
the new media is to pay for it?

What do you call a society where over 75% of its citizens are mired in deep
poverty in spite of huge earnings from natural resources?

What will you say about a society whose leaders take regular trips abroad for medical
check ups and holidays, while its citizens resort to alternative sources?

What if I told you that I know of a society whose leaders and elites have their own power
supply, water supply, security, and whose children attend only private schools?

What if I mentioned the conspiracy in a society between government officials and

the professional class on the use of consultants to siphon public funds?

What if I told you that I know of a society that is least interested in the wellbeing
and welfare of its hen that lays golden eggs?

What if I told you that there is a society where legal disputes take an eternity to be
resolved and that suspects awaiting trial serve their sentences even before
conviction?

What if I said that there is a society where regularly, people commit killings due to land
disputes, religious, cultural, and other differences?

Where individuals can influence electoral votes due to meeting the basic needs of
people, otherwise the responsibility of government?

Where you consistently pay for public services that are seldom rendered by near
comatose public utilities?

Where government, corporate and powerful individuals impose half baked ideas,
policies, concepts, programs, promotions etc on ordinary Nigerians?

Where the ordinary Nigerian is made to carry the burdens and yokes of others and
told to his face that that is a privilege and honor?

Where the most profitable businesses are those operated by middle men, who add no
value to anything and yet rake off all the profits?

You would clearly call such a society worse than primitive, and you will be right to say

29
that such a society will be characterized by high levels of internal conflicts and crises.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to Nigeria, a nation in which we have felt the value of
the social concept of life, but are still locked in a primitive concept of life.

Nigeria is a nation that has to transit from a primitive concept of life to a social concept
of life. To do otherwise is to push the self destruct button all the way.

The corollary of this is that to hasten the pace of change, then things have to get
progressively worse in order to get better.

So what does this trend portend for Lagos and its 2600 densely populated communities
and 100 slums? Your guess is as good as mine.

30
8

A society without its dreamers can never be free – Yehudi Menuhin

I Have a Nightmare

I have a nightmare that one day some parts of Lagos will eventually be overwhelmed
by flood water, and that as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be for those parts of
Lagos.

In those days, boats will replace cars as the popular means of transportation, only that
there would still be congestion of the water ways similar to the traffic gridlocks.

I have a nightmare that the sons and daughters of the privileged and those of slum
dwellers in Lagos will never be able to sit on the table of brotherhood.

That the gulf between private and public schools in Lagos will be so wide that those
graduating from public schools will not be fit for employment.

I have a nightmare that my children will live in a city where they will be judged by the
part of Lagos were they resided and the schools they have attended

I have a nightmare that the sons and daughters of slum dwellers will not be subservient
like their parents and will seek recompense from the elites as the Niger Delta militants

I have a nightmare that even the highbrow parts of Lagos will one day be fenced round
and defended by armed guards to keep away armed robbers.

I have a nightmare that the living conditions in Lagos slums will continue to degenerate
until the children bred in them will become worse than wild animals in the jungle.

That the security situation in Lagos will worsen so badly that the possession of fire arms
will have to be legalized

I have a nightmare that armed marauders will take over the streets of Lagos that
only those who drive with armed escorts will be able to use Lagos streets.

I have a nightmare that the police will only be on offer to the highest bidder as the
demand for armed protection increases in Lagos

I have a nightmare that the traffic situation will continue to be stressful and
frustrating that it will be regarded as normal that the average Lagosians has high
blood pressure.

31
That the traffic gridlocks in Lagos will worsen so that driving around Lagos will not be
regarded as complete until you have a camping bed in your car trunk.

I have a nightmare that we will run out of burial places in Lagos that cremation
will become the norm.

I have a nightmare that hemorrhoids will be the commonest ailment in Lagos as

more and more people go days on end without having the opportunity to use toilets
frequently.

I have a nightmare that Lagos will one day run out of treated water that Lagosians will
have to resort to using water from the Atlantic Ocean.

I have a nightmare that the creeks and lagoons in Lagos will one day disappear as land
reclamation efforts intensify with the dream of many to live on the water front.

I have a nightmare that like the City Bus Scheme, the Bus Rapid Transport Scheme will
fail and throw the already bad traffic situation in Lagos into deeper depths of confusion.

I have a nightmare that the uncontrolled development of slums and densely populated
communities will continue until Lagos itself becomes one big slum.

I have a nightmare that with the atrocious living conditions in slums across Lagos that
one day; a devastating epidemic will sweep through Lagos.

I have a nightmare that with the absence of a proper sewer system across Lagos, that one
day sewage will flow freely in blocked drains and unto the streets.

I have a nightmare that the industries and businesses in Lagos will relocate to other parts
of Nigeria as the business environment becomes increasingly hostile.

I have a nightmare that soon ships will refuse to call at all at Lagos ports, preferring to
discharge their Nigerian bound cargo in the ports of neighboring countries.

Likewise, international airlines will refuse to patronize the Lagos International airport as
armed robbers will be waiting at the tarmac to rob passengers as they alight.

Then Lagos will grind to a halt and will become like a city under siege where life is
valued as much as that of a rat that deserves to be killed.

Then the influx of people into Lagos by land, sea, and air will diminish until it becomes
only a trickle.

32
Big businesses and those offering support services will move to other parts of Nigeria
that are more conducive for doing business.

Then the prices of selling and renting properties will crash and the banks will flee
from Lagos in droves.

The rich in Lagos will first send their families overseas, and eventually relocate
overseas themselves.

Then those who can not relocate or flee from the siege will be stuck and will curse the
day that they decided to make Lagos their abode.

That priest and imams alike will stand in front of near empty worship houses frightened
of the consequences of empty tills and offering bowls.

Then some in the police and area boys will howl with pain at the dwindling returns from
their daily street operations.

Even some state and council officials will lament the exit of businesses from Lagos
and wail at the implications of changes in their lifestyles from poor tax returns.

Then Lagos will become a byword and a byline for what any city determined to
become a respected city globally should not become.

Startled by the intensity of the images that I had seen, I woke up from sleep
completely drenched in my own sweat.

It was only then I realized that I had been having a nightmare. But wait a minute, if it
was a nightmare, why were the images in color?

33
9

A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss – von Goethe

Eureka – I Have Found It

‘Eureka’ shouted Archimedes, the most famous mathematician and inventor of

ancient Greece, when he discovered or is it stumbled upon the ‘Archimedes
Principle’.

The principle which explains the physical law of buoyancy has had tremendous impact
on human affairs transforming shipping, and oil and gas offshore E&P.

When you realize that over 70% of global trade is by sea where would we be today but
for Archimedes’ moment of eureka?

The word eureka is used to express triumph on a discovery, and literally translated
means “I have found it”.

What if we could discover or stumble upon a principle that could transform the
chaotic traffic situation in Lagos the way Archimedes Principle has transformed
shipping?

What if there is a eureka moment that holds the key to solving once and for all the
traffic gridlocks spread across Lagos?

A recent article by Olumide Olusanya, Professor of Architecture at the University of

Lagos on “Easing the nightmare of Lagos traffic gridlocks” may provide some
clues.6

Writing in the Guardian Newspaper of April 9, 2007, he described the traffic situation
in Lagos as “a common and great source of affliction for people living in Lagos”

While that is putting it mildly, Professor Olusanya queries the official view of the
problem in terms of long term capital intensive projects like construction of more roads.

He opines that Lagosians will have to live with chaotic traffic for many more years,
which will present a nightmare scenario for many road users.

Then he goes ahead to outline several proposals which he claims are the product of
several years of study born out of frustration.

I do agree with Professor Olusanya, that unless you fall into the class of those who

34
use siren blaring escorts, the traffic situation in Lagos is hellish and frustrating.

His proposals which are based on the application of basic principles of road design
and require minor modifications to existing infrastructure seem too doable.

No, before you jump to the wrong conclusion, his proposals have nothing to do with the
BRT Scheme (Bus Rapid Transport) of the Lagos State Government.

How the typical road user in Lagos will keep off an empty BRT Lane in the midst of
traffic gridlock beats my imagination.

Back to prof, his simple low capital high valueadded solution seeks to eliminate points
of interference, which he believes are the main source of traffic congestion in Lagos.

While stakeholders will readily appreciate the workability of Professor Olusanya’s

proposals, they may not be acceptable for the obvious reason that they are too simple.

If the traffic gridlocks in Lagos can be reduced to the barest minimum within six
months to one year, and adopting a low cost approach, where would that leave
LASTMA?

Where would that leave the police check points that take advantage of the traffic
gridlocks and the street hawkers who minister to weary motorists and passengers?

Where would that leave the touts who use the traffic gridlocks as
opportunities for collecting levies and charges?

What would it mean for the night marauders who take advantage of traffic holdups
to rob occupants of vehicles?

How would street beggars and those who bring their medical problems to the streets of
Lagos react to free flowing traffic?

What excuses would Lagosians now proffer for arriving late at their destinations, and
how would motorists now know they have mechanical problems with their cars?

Who will be willing to patronize commercial motorcyclists, and what will the Okada
riders do for a living?

More importantly, how will all the agencies and ministries of the Lagos State government
who prefer the high cost long term approach to solving the traffic gridlocks react?

Assuming for purposes of this write up, both the low cost short term and the high cost
long term approaches are implemented, would that solve the traffic gridlocks in

35
Lagos?

Put another way, are these two options our traffic gridlocks eureka, able to accomplish
for Lagos, what the Archimedes Principle has done for shipping?

There is a saying in Lagos that even a single Okada rider, i.e. commercial motor cyclist
can cause a hold up on an empty three lane high way.

Implied in this saying is the belief that Lagos is synonymous with go slows or traffic
gridlocks, and that solving it will take more that implementing the options stated above.

That the go slow mentality is part of the psyche of the average Lagosian, and this is
what translates into the chaotic traffic situation in the metropolis.

According to this view, implementing these options is like taking malaria medication,
while leaving the mosquitoes to breed in an uncontrolled manner.

The ideal solution will be to eradicate or minimize mosquitoes, and on the issue we are
discussing, change the psyche and attitude of Lagosians to go slows or traffic gridlocks.

To properly address the malaria scrounge, one has to find out how and where
mosquitoes breed and reside and then implement solutions from that perspective.

To find out how the average Lagosians has ended up with a go slow mentality, we
have to find out how and where they reside.

At least 75% of Lagosians reside in one room apartments, with an average of 80100 in a
house (810 per room), that has only one toilet and bathroom.

Again, only 4 million Lagosians have access to pipeborne water, with the rest having to
queue in public taps, buying water or operating wells and boreholes.

When from birth, one sees people queuing every morning to use the toilet or queuing to
get water to have their bath, what sort of mentality will such a person end up with?

The way such people drive on the streets of Lagos shows that they are under pressure,
the sort that makes a man with unwashed body and full bowels act in insane ways.

Try to imagine the pressure build up in those who congregate daily on the streets of
Lagos and the impact that has on driving.

So what is our eureka, that so long as majority of motorists live in houses where they
queue to use toilets and bathrooms, so will traffic gridlocks persist in Lagos.

36
This means that traffic gridlocks are connected with the living conditions of the
average Lagosian, which will eventually make nonsense of any short or long term
solution.

To quote Professor Olusanya, “Of all the cites on this planet with comparable population,
Lagos has the most inefficient use of prime urban land.

Kilometers upon kilometers of low density low valueadded development resulting in an

endless sprawl that cannot be adequately serviced”

What is needed according to Professor Olusanya is a systematic rebuilding of the

metropolis towards high density four to six storey walkup apartments.

Each flat in these apartments will have a toilet, bathroom, kitchen and pipe-borne
water, whether the apartment has one or more rooms.

Lagos can learn from the example of Singapore and of how a third world mosquito
infested swamp with no known natural resource was transformed into a developed
nation.

Today, 85% of Singaporeans live in flats built by the Housing Development Board, the
equivalent of the Lagos State Development and Property Authority.

Through the HDB’s Home Ownership for the People Scheme, Singaporeans have an
asset in their country, a means of financial security and a hedge against inflation. 7

The push for home ownership has also helped in the overall economic, social and
political stability of Singapore.

Compared to Lagos’s 3, 577 square kilometers and official population of 10 million,

Singapore only has a land mass of 699.1 square kilometers for its 4 million citizens.

Yet 3, 400, 000 Singaporeans live in their own homes, while over 9, 000, 000 Lagosians
pay a substantial part of their earnings as rent with no hope of ever owning a house.

The average rent for a room in Orile is N2, 000 a month, and you have not added the
cost of water, kerosene, electricity, medication, feeding, education, health, or
transportation,

Why won’t motorists in Lagos drive like lunatics? Why won’t passengers sit quietly in
public buses driven by insane drivers as if they all have a death wish?

Why won’t motorists turn their vehicles into battering rams, and daredevil Okada riders
daily swell the population of mortuaries and keep bone menders and hospitals busy?

37
Death proudly walks the streets of Lagos, severely challenged by its increasing
difficulty in meeting the daily expectations of many who leave home, not expecting to
return.

But when shall we be able to sing in Lagos, Death where is your sting, Grave
where is your victory?

38
10

When minds are the same that which is far off will come – East African Proverb

Temples of Worship in Lagos

I had agreed to attend a meeting in Ikoyi on a Monday at 6.00PM, without

thinking much of the traffic implications.

As I drove towards Ikoyi through CMS from Apapa at about 5.00PM, I could feel
the tension in the air and it was then it dawned that I had made a terrible mistake.

I had committed myself to coming into the Island when millions of pilgrims who come
daily to the Island to worship were heading for their homes on the Mainland.

You could try cutting the tension with a knife and not make any headway. It was a
tension arising from millions whose hearts and minds were set on a return journey home.

Unlike the children of Israel who exited Egypt for the Promised Land with open desert
before them, pilgrims who come to worship on the Island are restricted to three routes.

Cater, Eko and Third Mainland bridges link the Island and the Mainland and ensure
that the daily entry and exit rites of these pilgrims are harrowing experiences.

On two of these pilgrimage routes are markets and bus-stops located in such a way as
to add to the stress and trauma the pilgrims already face at the temples of worship.

I shook my head, completely bewildered at the long queue of vehicles of all makes and
configurations, fully laden with pilgrims, crawling their way back to the Mainland.

Some of these pilgrims were heading back home to far flung locations that lie at the very
fringes of Lagos State, and would get home very late in the night.

Yet at the smell of dawn, most would be up again to begin the mad rush back to the
Islands, i.e. Lagos and Victoria Island, to worship at the financial and business temples.

As I sat in the car now aware that I could not make it through to the meeting venue
by 6.00PM, I decided to pay attention to the madness that was going on around me.

The commotion was intense as drivers used their vehicles as battling rams, to make their
way through although they were all heading for the Third Mainland Bridge.

To my left was a siren blaring vehicle that added to the honking, abuses and insults
flying between motorists, coupled with shouts of bus conductors with blood shot eyes.

39
The commercial bus drivers were even more daring, looking for openings barely wide
enough for motorcycles to squeeze through, urged on by wearied and irritated pilgrims.

Hawkers were every where, ministering to the needs of pilgrims, and literally bringing
their markets to the streets knowing most pilgrims would never have time for
shopping.

Soon it would be dark, and another set of hawkers would descend on the pilgrims as they
sit in the vehicles, ministering pain and suffering as they rob with impunity.

The complete darkness on the routes to and from these temples seems to be a design to
make the experiences of the pilgrims more excruciating.

How people could face such daily ordeals twice a day, and five days in a week was
completely beyond my imagination.

Did they have a choice I wondered? I was forced to concede that those who made these
pilgrimages daily had chosen a slow and painful death.

For some of the pilgrims it took the better part of five to six hours daily to and from
the temples, and they had to be in their places of worship by 8.00AM.

So, if they usually spent five hours in traffic, and another nine hours worshipping at
the temples and them arrive home by 11.00PM, where were their lives?

How were husbands ministering to their wives and vice versa? Who was keeping
watch on the children and teaching them the way to go?

The lives of those congregating that evening to perform exit rites looked to me like a man
starring at an hour glass while the better part of his life slowly ebbed away.

But how did we arrive at this utterly messy situation, I was let wondering? How could
we continue to allow the productivity of a people to be wasted in such a manner?

How were the pilgrims able to endure such experiences and yet live normal lives? I
had to conclude that this was not normal but insanity. It was one big insane reality.

In my search for answers as to how we had arrived at this nightmare situation, I

considered the population of Lagos, the state of the roads and the number of vehicles.

I also considered the ignorance of driving rules and regulations, the land size of Lagos, its
economic attraction and the unplanned development of communities and slums.

40
The closest I got to an answer is contained in the report of Chief Akin Mabogunje
Presidential Committee for the Redevelopment of the Lagos Mega City Region.8

This was a committee set up by President Obasanjo to examine how Lagos had
become an urban jungle and to prescribe solutions.

The setting up of the committee followed persistent complaints from foreign investors
that Lagos needed to be cleaned up in order to attract foreign investment.

While it has taken the allure of foreign investments to motivate our government,
one of the findings of the committee is important to this discuss.

The committee found that one of the main causes of the chaos in Lagos is that it has
predominantly three business districts, or what I call temples of worship.

These temples are Victoria Island, Lagos Island, and Apapa. To even get to Victoria
Island, most of these pilgrims have to pass through Lagos Island.

Although plans had been made by successive governments over the years to
develop more temples across Lagos State from three to 25 or more, nothing has
been done.

As a result of this inaction, these three temples have predominantly remained the
financial, business and maritime hubs of Lagos State

On working days of the week, millions of pilgrims arise in the wee hours of the
morning coming from thousands of densely populated communities and slums across
Lagos.

For those heading to the temples on the Island, they must first congregate at the Carter,
Eko and Third Mainland bridges respectively to perform their cleansing rites.

Those heading to the temple at Apapa also mostly congregate at the Oshodi-Apapa
ex Expressway to also perform their own cleansing rites.

In the evenings, the movements are in the opposite directions as pilgrims perform their
exit rites on the long journey back home.

The first implication of having mainly three temples in Lagos is that the location of
residential accommodation becomes very important.

This means that the cost of land, building a house, buying a house or renting
accommodation in Lagos is determined by its proximity to these temples.

41
The big winners here are those who own the properties, office or residential, in the
temple areas, and those saddled with the responsibilities of regulating land matter.

The minor winners are those who are able to pay the high cost of rental on the Island, or
have been provided accommodation there by their employers.

The big losers are the tenants who continue to pay more rent as housing development
in Lagos is continually outstripped by influx of pilgrims.

Secondly, the ownership of a car becomes imperative for those who do not live in the
temple areas, and who feel dehumanized by the public transport non-system.

It makes no difference that these cars will never be optimally utilized due to the
congestion on the streets of Lagos.

Thirdly, those who live in the vicinity of the temples are envied by the others who do
not, notwithstanding the deplorable state of facilities and infrastructure in these areas.

This envy is heightened by the ‘them’ and ‘us’ mentality possessed by some who
reside in the vicinity of the temple areas.

Some of those who dwell in the temple vicinity on the Island only come to the Mainland
when they want to travel out of Lagos through the airport in Ikeja.

For those guys who live on the Mainland and want to marry babes who dwell in the
temple areas, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Fourthly, relocating from the Mainland to any of the temple locations becomes the
goal for most businesses.

Once this is achieved, increase in the prices of the goods or services offered by
such businesses are expected in the light of increased operating costs due to
relocation.

Fifthly, slums and densely populated communities have over the years sprung up
proximate to the temple areas for those who cannot afford the cost of commuting.

So a room in a slum like Orile-Iganmu costs N2, 000 a month because it is about 10
minutes drive on a good day from Orile to CMS.

The flip side of the proximity of these slums to the temples is that pilgrims using the
pilgrimage routes and those who dwell in the temple areas are not safe.

The main recommendation of the committee is the establishment of the Lagos Mega City

42
Development Authority, similarly in concept to NDDC in the Niger Delta.

While a bill to this effect is pending before the National Assembly, I have my
reservations as to whether the LMCDA can ease the pains of worshippers in Lagos.

The practice of government setting up an agency, funding it and appointing its

management has not been too effective in addressing social and economic issues.

Whether or not LMCDA becomes a reality and is successful in the execution of its
mandate, Lagosians need more temples of worship as a matter of urgency.

I do not believe that constructing more routes to the existing temple sites is best solution
as the main beneficiaries of such a solution remain the temple priests and servants.

Neither do I believe that the solution is to reserve one lane in the existing limited and
dilapidated road network for the exclusive use of the Bus Rapid Transport Scheme.

Even if all Lagosians were to become LASMA officials and traffic wardens, and all the
existing roads in Lagos were well tarred, it would still not address the situation.

Already, 28 new temple sites have been identified in Lagos for development
purposes, so why wait for the passage of the LMCDA bill before taking action?

Let us begin immediately to develop additional temples of worship in Lagos State

43
11

Energy flows where attention goes – Serge Kahili King

Lagos Unproductivity Index

According to Economist.com, economic growth depends on two things: how fast the
number of workers rises and how much more they can produce.

In the past two decades the American economy has enjoyed the fastest growth of the
developed world because both of these factors have grown briskly.

However, since 2001, the American economy has been in recession as the labor force has
not grown as robustly as after previous downturns.

If the size of the labor force does not track population gains, the remaining workers
will have to work harder or more efficiently, if living standards are to keep rising.

Of course, rising living standards are associated with Americans having more credit
to lavish on ever expanding consumptive patterns.

One measure that has been effectively utilized over the years to address the slowdown
in labor force growth has been to get more American women into the work pool.

An extension of this measure was the drive to have single mothers takes up jobs rather
than depending on social security or welfare benefits.

But the expected retirement of the baby boomers generation is causing another
enormous demographic shift in America.

This is expected to place an extra burden on tomorrow’s American workers

unless productivity growth is strong enough to plug the gap.

The gap that has to be plugged is between American productivity and the nation’s
ever increasing number of dependants.

So the advice of Economist.com is that America has to undertake more structural

reform to make its economy more competitive.

The implication of not undertaking any structural reform is that America will struggle
to support its ever increasing number of dependants.

44
Some of the proposed reforms include trade liberalization, ending distortions caused by
farm subsidies, and tax reform to broaden the base and remove inefficient tax breaks.

Others are changes to social security in order to encourage savings and delay retirement,
and deep changes to the education system at all levels.

Recently, there was uproar in America, over plans by Congress to grant citizenship
and residence status to millions of illegal aliens residing and working in that nation.

The earlier visa lottery program for skilled workers, which was embarked upon by the
American government has woefully failed to bolster the nation’s productivity growth.

Nigeria was granted 50, 000 slots annually under that program, which was designed to
use skilled workers from other nations to improve living standards in America.

Now the new thinking is that if the millions of people illegal residing in America
are granted legal status, this will improve productivity growth strong enough to plug
the gap.

This would allow the system capture the productivity of millions, increase taxes,
empower millions, increase social security generation, etc.

Talk of sinister motives; whether it is getting single mothers back to work, or the visa
lottery or the legitimizing of aliens, the objective is the survival of the American nation.

Rather than embark on a change of values and lifestyles, the Americans would prefer to
improve on living standards by bringing in more workers to increase productivity.

Monthly, economic pundits closely analyze the productivity and consumption

indexes released by relevant authorities in America.

They also monitor home sales and inventory indexes, interest rates as determined by
the Feds, stock exchanges etc in order to keep track of the overall state of the
economy,
While you can accuse the Americans of being self-centered, at least the continued
survival of their nation and its flourishing remains their primary concern.

The reverse seems to be the case in Nigeria in general and Lagos in particular and
probably explains why some believe this country will cease to exist 15 years from now.

In spite of having a National Productivity Center, there are no accurate indices for
measuring productivity in Nigeria, as we mostly rely on guess work or estimates.

45
But even at that, one would have to surmise that hardly any serious productivity takes
place in a city like Lagos because the living conditions do not permit for that.

An estimate 75% of Lagosians live in densely populated communities and over 100
slums where water, power, facilities, adequate housing is almost nonexistent.

In these communities and slums the predominant accommodation is one room

apartments having communal toilets and baths, and averaging 58 people per room.

Many Lagosians start there day as early as 4’o clock in the morning to be able to use the
toilet and bathrooms in their homes to avoid the morning rush and go-slow.

Then to add insult to injury, these Lagosians have to spend 5 to 6 hours daily commuting
to and from work in conditions that drain them of energy even before they get to work.

This is because most workers and business people reside on the mainland, outside the
three main business districts in Victoria Island, Lagos Island and Apapa.

Then there are only three routes linking Lagos mainland and the Islands, with markets
and bus stops strategically located on two of these routes.

The third route now has a lane on either side dedicated for the exclusive use of the Bus
Rapid Transport Scheme.

In work places across Lagos, power supply mostly comes from generators that depend
on petrol or diesel, severely curtailing productivity and making work conditions very
harsh.

The immediate implication of this unproductivity is a thriving group of middle men

and women who have perfected the act of reaping where they have not sown.

Since the system does not encourage genuine productivity and people have to survive,
this group has learnt how to transfer their burdens to the few who engage in
productivity.

Don’t ask me to name names but these people are in their millions and are easily
identified by their chief trait of making money without being productive.

But more worrisome are those who cannot partake of the fruit of their productivity
through no fault of theirs.

For how long can they continue to tolerate the condition of ‘monkey de work, baboon
de chop’ situation that they face in Lagos?

46
As the Americans have come to realize the connection between productivity
and increasing populations, we have to know the implications of
unproductivity in Lagos.

The status quo, which creates sever disparities and distortions in economic and social
conditions, is not sustainable in the middle to long term.

The imbalances generated by the unproductivity in Lagos are making living

conditions both nightmarish for the rich and the poor alike.

Unless we are prepared to undertake structural reform in Lagos to both social and
economic conditions, Lagos may be in for a crash landing into an abyss.

47
12

The worst thing that can happen to anyone is his loss of faith in God - Gandhi

Curse God?

Curse God and die, was the advice Job got from his wife in the
Biblical Old Testament account of a rich man who lost all his
children and wealth due to no fault of his.

I had received a phone call to attend the monthly meeting of Opeloyeru

Community Development Association in Orile.

I packed my car on Babs Animashaun Street, Surulere and made my

way by foot to the house of Chief Savage on Opeloyeru Road, the
venue of the meeting.

Opeloyeru road is one of main roads running through Orile,

which motorists except big trucks had long abandoned due to its
deplorable state.

In a good condition, Opeloyeru Street serves as a alternative to

decongest the traffic bottleneck at DoyinOrile busstop and
goes all the way to Coker, Aguda.

As I stood at the entrance of Opeloyeru road, I was faced with a

sea of water as far as the eye could see as it had been raining
almost nonstop for about 3 days.

The only way to get to the venue of the meeting was to take off my
sandals and preferably my trousers and wade through the water.

Around me, men, women, and children going back and forth on the
road were stripping and putting their clothing and shoes on their
heads to come out or enter the community.

Before my eyes, young girls and women who would ensure that you ordinarily needed a
microscope to see their legs were exposing themselves.

Imagine having your bath, putting on good attire, and leaving home to attend a
function, only to get to the main road and strip to wade through filthy and foul
smelling water.

48
The last time I had done such was about 19 years earlier during my NYSC in Borno
State when I needed to cross a river that had no bridge to inspect a land that was in
dispute.

Not prepared to take that risk again, I searched for an alternative and that was how I
met Ralph, a teacher with a bucket full of dirty water at the back of a house close to
the road.

I enquired of him if there was an alternative route to avoid the river on Opeloyeru
road, and he offered to take me through the corridor of the tenement where he rents a
room.

Taking this unusual route would ensure I avoided the deep side of what I now
referred to as river Opeloyeru and pass the front of other tenements to get to my
destination.

I noticed that the house which was at the back of the Orile canal had also been
flooded as the canal had overflowed with water due to blockages.

The flooding in the house had been so bad that water had risen as high as the knobs
on the doors completely soaking, and damaging properties and other items.

Ralph informed me that he had completely abandoned his room for the past four days and
had taken temporary refuge in his church.

Aside from having not properly slept, he had been wearing the same shirt and
trouser during this period and since 5.00am that day had been bailing water out
of his room.

Other residents in the tenement were doing likewise, and the doors of some of the
rooms were still under lock indicating that other tenants were yet to show up.

He pointed out his room to me with his furniture, electronics, and clothing still
floating on water and the other rooms that were opened were in a similar state.

He also showed me the toilet in the tenement that discharged its contents directly
into the canal, but with the canal overflowing some of its contents had swam back.

I grimed trying to block out from my imagination pictures of the stuff that was floating in
the water in which I was wading through in that tenement.

Speaking on behalf of the other residents, Ralph explained how the slumlord of the
tenement had misled them into believing that the tenement was not prone to flooding.

49
They now knew better, but there was no escaping the present reality as the slumlord
was not prepared to make any refunds and neither could they raise fresh funds to
relocate.

I remembered that I was on my way to a meeting, so I invited Ralph to come along

with me since he was not aware that a CDA existed on his street to state his
predicament.

At the CDA meeting the issue of the havoc been caused by the flooding was the main
subject of discussion.

It turned out that the canal, which receives floodwater from some parts of Surulere, was
blocked at its point of discharge.

When it rains, the accumulated water ends up discharging onto Orile, and
Opeloyeru Street, which is closest to the canal, is the worst off for it.

Complaints to the local council were met with the retort that there was no money as
the Federal Government was yet to release LG funds belonging to Lagos councils.

Therefore, the CDA decided to impose a levy of N500 per house to engage local
contractors to clear one of the blocked drains for the discharge of the canal water.

Yes the community had bad roads, lack of pipe borne water, insecurity, but the
flooding was causing them much anguish, and to them they needed to rise up to this
challenge.

When I asked if a preliminary, costing was done to affect the discharge of the
blocked drain, the answer was in the negative as they were too weary to wait for that.

Ralph was happy to hear this and promised to mobilize those in his tenement as they
were already raising N750 per room to raise a wall between their tenement and the
canal.

It was at this point that one of the CDA officials stood up to thank me for attending
the meeting and made a statement that captured their state of mind.

According to him, the community does not know whether to curse God anytime it rains
as this brings flooding, which in turn comes with anguish.

I was quick to add that their problem was man made, and that God who causes rain to
fall on both the good and the bad, is a good God.

In my heart, I was saying that the people who deserve to be cursed are leaders who

50
end up converting to their personal use monies intended for development purposes.
However, I remember the injunction, which enjoins us to pray for those who are in
authority.

As I left Orile I knew that was one prayer point that no one would enjoy praying but
Ralph was too much in a buoyant mood to notice.

51
13

True blindness is to have a darkened heart – K. Omose

What Do You See?

On the wall of my office is a picture of what one barrel of oil (42 gallons) yields,
i.e. the different value added products that can be obtained from refining one
barrel of crude oil.

It includes Gasoline 43%, Distillate 21.5%, Residual 11.5%, Jet Fuel 6.9%, Feed
Stock 4.7%, and Still Gas 3.8%.

Others are Asphalt 3.1%, Coke 2.6%, LPG 2.3%, Kerosene 1.3%, Lubricants 1.3%, and
Miscellaneous 0.67%.

That picture serves both as a source of despair and encouragement. Despair because I
an amazed that a country with such huge reserves of oil and gas is filled with poor
people.

Encouragement, because I can see what Nigeria can be transformed into when we are
able to harness these huge reserves of oil and gas for the benefit of the people.

Presently, Nigeria has the capacity to produce 2.5 million barrels of crude oil a
day with reserves expected to last another 40 years.

In the case of gas, Nigeria is actually a gas producing nation with crude oil, but
much of the gas is flared as at date.

Therefore, whether we are talking of crude oil or gas, we are like the owners of a
farmland who cannot even farm or is too lazy to learn how to farm.

First, we invite interested farmers to bid for the right to farm our farmland on
either a shared cost basis or sole cost basis.

The bid and acceptance fee initially paid by these farmers is supposedly used to train
our own people to become good farmers in eternity.

Second, we engage persons who hardly go to the farmland, to make sure that those
farming our farmland actually are doing the right thing.

Third, those farming our farmland declare to us their farm yield, after which in some
cases we allow them to deduct the cost of farming before sharing the proceeds with us.

52
Fourth, those farming our farmland take their share of the farm produce to their
homes in distant locations using their own transportation, and add value to it.

They have perfected many means of getting various byproducts from the farm yields
that are worth more in value and productivity than the original product.

Sixth, we take our share of farm products, sell them in their raw state and call a
monthly meeting, and share the income on some strange formula among artificial
entities.

The artificial entities are under the control of few people and are legitimate avenues to
corner the bulk of the farm produce for their personal and related uses.

Seven, to add insult to injury, those who originally owned and occupied the farmland
before the start of the farming exercise, have no direct access to the proceeds of the
land.

Even when the proceeds are channeled to them, it is routed through several artificial
entities with nothing going directly to these communities.

Then finally, the income derived from selling our share of the farm produce is used
to import valued added products from those who we hired to farm our land in the
first place.

The result is lack in the midst of plenty, and the absolute poverty that has held
Nigeria in a stronghold and made corruption the status quo.

In my minds eye, I see a Niger Delta bustling with refineries, plants, processes,
and operations that add value to the oil and gas we have in abundance.

I see unemployment as disappearing, and the Nigerian productivity index rising to

unimaginable heights.

I see the financial, manufacturing, and agricultural sectors as complimenting one

another and working at full capacity.

I see an educated, skilled, and robust Nigerian workforce that rises to meet the
challenges presented by increased development.

I see a nation where we allow the Niger Delta communities to collect 50% of the
rent from the use of their land for exploration and production of oil and gas.

We can do this because much more revenue will be coming into our coffers from

53
taxation and being shareholders of the companies adding value to oil and gas in the
Niger Delta.

Imagine our ports bustling with vessels some of which belong to Nigerians and
employing Nigerians, shipping these finished products worldwide.

Then we can use what some have called a curse to transform Nigeria by
generating wealth that endures long after the oil and gas is exhausted.

Then we can ensure that every Nigeria becomes a homeowner as happened in Singapore
that gave people in a multicultural society a sense of belonging.

Then we will no longer have slums in our cities, and everyone gets a fair chance at
succeeding in life.

Then we will be a nation where all the communities live together in peace and
harmony because all are well provided for.

Then we will be a nation that points the pathway to other nations that some call
underdeveloped and developing.

To achieve this, we can start by overcoming the small mindedness that has overwhelmed
our ruling class and the spirit of selfishness that rules in the average Nigerian heart.

We need leaders who are visionary and can make us elevate our sight from our
limitations to see the big picture.

We also need leaders who are developmental, and can set us on the path to that which we
have envisioned.

No easy task if you ask me, but what good thing ever comes easy?

54
14

Are We All Victims?

This week, I watched a film based on a true life story. It is about a female parole officer
in a US city who started an initiative in a high school that has lessons for us in Lagos.

Parole officers are government officials who among others ensure that prisoners on
parole keep to the conditions of their release or get sent back to prison.

This lady was motivated by the devastating effect imprisonment of one or both parents
were having on their children to start a program called “No Victims”.

The system was effective in monitoring prisoners who regularly went in and out of prison
for violating parole conditions; but no one was paying attention to their children.

This lady observed that such children were more often than not the ones who engaged in
deviant behavior and eventually entered into a life time of crime.

So she approached the authorities of a notorious high school in the city and was given a
year to prove that something could be done to help these children.

With the help of her former boss, she began a session of interaction and constructive
engagement with some volunteer children who had one or both parents in prison.

These children were encouraged to speak out about their experiences, pains, frustrations,
and hurts and were over time made to understand that they were not the victims.

They were encouraged to have dreams and aspirations and through the use of group help,
to improve on their school work and their care for one another.

The highlight of this film is not so much about the initial hostility that the No Victims
initiative faced from the teachers in the school.

It is also not about the skepticism which the children had about the initiative as many felt
it was meant for the weak and could not solve their problems.

Neither is it about the fact that the lady was attacked on several occasions by some of
these children, nor that she made immense personal sacrifices in the process.

This lady showed so much love, understanding and patience that it was difficult to
believe that she was human.

It even turned out that three years earlier, she had been attacked and raped by a knife
welding youth which had set her on a part of introspection.

55
Yes progress was slow, and results were initially few and far between, and some of the
children dropped out of the initiative.

Yes the initiative eventually succeeded, and the children who stayed through had
significant improvement in their grades and went on to graduate.

The highlight to me was taking the children to visit a maximum security prison to interact
with prisoners who were parents.

It was a moving experience seeing the children relate to these prisoners what their lives
were like without having the presence of fathers and or mothers who were in prison.

But more important was the resolve of these children that they did not want to end up like
their parents and to give their own children a better opportunity than they had had.

Tears were flowing freely both on the part of the children and these prisoners including
me who was watching the film.

There was something the lady said at an event organized to mark the first year of the
initiative that set me thinking.

According to her, many people believe that the monster of crime came from the streets
into the neighborhood and eventually found its way into the home.

The reverse was the case according to her, as crime actually has its origins from the home
from where it makes its way to the neighborhood, and eventually the streets.

And if nothing was done to constructively engage these children during the formative
periods of their lives, society was looking at the next generation of hardened criminals.

The lessons in this film for parents, school authorities, government and the wider society
are enormous. It is a story of constructive engagement and its impact.

While I leave readers to draw their own conclusions, permit me to quote from my earlier
write up on “A Tour of Hell”:

“The most disturbing aspect of the Easter Monday tour (of Orile) was the large number of
children and young persons I came across

The overwhelming evidence was there to see, of barely clad children with extended
stomachs

Of babies on the laps or backs of their mothers, or left crawling near open sewers, and of
young boys playing with objects that look like balls

56
There were men wearing singlet who hung near by as if surveying the proof of their
manhood and wondering if this was all there was to life

Then there were young boys and girls’ hanging out on the streets, seeing that was the
only available space

Thousands and thousands of them with looks of resignation on their faces, knowing that
their options in life were limited

There were no recreation facilities, with beer parlors providing the only means of
unwinding

There were no tarred roads, more like foot paths darting between houses. There were no
drainages; no proper sewer systems

There was no presence of any government health center or hospital, or a proper pharmacy
for that matter

But there were patent medicine stores selling predominantly fake drugs dotting most
corners”

This in a nutshell captures my obsession with Orile and why I write like a man possessed
and why I cannot seem to stay away from Orile.

57
15

The Frustration Gap

As I carefully navigated the car through the wide craters that had surfaced on Eric Moore
Road, Surulere since the start of the rains, my headlights picked up a figure in front of me

It was a young man delicately perched on a skateboard with his hands extended on both
sides who was doing his best to also navigate a wide crater on the road.

He was crippled and using the skateboard as a means of mobility whiles his hands, which
he used for propelling the skateboard, were padded with rubber slippers.

Seeing that there were more craters to navigate ahead of us, and fearing for his safety
from the possessed bus drivers that ply that road, I decided to give him a lift.

So I stopped by his side, opened the front passenger door and invited him into the car
with a promise to drop him at the intersection between Eric Moore and Bode Thomas.

I could pick out the expression of surprise on his face from the interior light in the car as
he used his powerful hands to lift himself into the car after putting his skateboard in.

As I drove on at snail speed on what is supposed to be a dual carriage road, I decided to

use the opportunity to know more about this disadvantaged youth and this is his story.

Sunday lives in Isaleko in Central Lagos but in the evenings on weekdays and Saturdays,
he makes his way to Surulere, were he begs for alms on the traffic congested streets.

He leaves home at about 6.00PM and makes his way on the skateboard through
Apongbon, Eko Bridge and Eric Moore road to his operational base along Bode Thomas.

Unlike the rest of us car owners, it takes him about an hour to get to Surulere where he
spends the next three to four hours begging alms from weary motorists.

His most priced possession is his skateboard which cost about N3, 000 and he spends
N320 every two months to change the bearings on the wheels due to wear and tear.

He also has to grease these bearings regularly to ensure that his skateboard functions
optimally, which is more than what I can say for most car owners in Lagos.

According to him, good skateboards are hard to come by and this explains why he has to
handle his with much care as it is central to his sustenance.

On my enquiry as to why he had resorted to begging, it turned out that he trained as a

cobbler having graduated from a special facility for the disable about three years ago.

58
On graduation, he was given a certificate while a generous expatriate friend of the facility
had provided him with the tools for practicing as a cobbler.

Unfortunately, no one had remembered that because he was crippled he would need a
shop from which to practice as a cobbler and this was his major challenge.

His earnings from begging alms can barely sustain him not to talk of financing the rent
for a shop, so his project has been placed on hold awaiting divine intervention.

I was completely subdued by his compelling story and amazed at his positive
countenance despite the conditions of his life.

After what seemed like an eternity, we finally got to the end of Eric Moore and as he
alighted, I gave him some money and my phone number telling him to give me a call.

As I made my way back on Eric Moore, my mind unusually failed me in my attempts to

put myself in Sunday’s shoes as the saying goes, not minding that he is crippled.

It was like trying to load incompatible application software on a Microsoft Windows

Operating System.

So I conveniently shifted my lazy mind to contemplating on how many other Lagosians

could remain positive like Sunday while not having the means to fulfill their dreams?

Sunday probably had no option due to his disability, but what if he was able bodied and
all around him were people who were displaying opulence?

Would he be able to swallow his pride and endure for three years the shame of not being
able to fulfill his aspirations or would he resort to self help?

What if there are millions of other people who unlike Sunday are not prepared to wait for
divine intervention but believe in taking from others what they think is rightfully theirs?

My mind shuddered at what it would mean to live in a society where the gap between
aspiration and realization is as wide as the Atlantic Ocean.

To make matters worse, UNFPA says living in urban areas makes people to develop new
aspirations which they may not always have the means to realize.

The statement is contained in a report which was released by UNFPA on the State of
World Population 2007.

An aspiration is a strong desire to achieve something high or great, while realization is

synonymous with accomplishment, gain, performance or completion.

59
This gap between aspirations and realization according to UNFPA may lead to a sense of
deracination (being uprooted) and marginalization (relegation).

Others implications of the gap between aspirations and realizations are identity crises,
feelings of frustration (bad belle) and aggressive (gra gra) behavior.

With global urban population expected to reach 3.3 billion by 2008, this has grave
implications for urban areas.

And with the official population of Lagos stated by NPC to be over 9 million
(unofficially 17 million) the implications are even graver.

Too weary to think about these graver implications my self indulgent mind switched to
the prospects of the hot dinner that was waiting for me at home.

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