Lagos city, a highly populated Southern State
in Nigeria has made a name over the years for all the wrong reasons one can
think of.
When the immediate past Government in Lagos came
on board with so much vigor to deliver what is now popularly termed the
"benefits of democracy, many Lagosians wholeheartedly embraced the
Governor Babafemi Raji Fashola's reign.
But in spite of the Governors towering
achievements more infrastructural development is still in dire need as the
residents of arguably Nigeria's economic capital still await a
"messiah".
Take the roads for instance which is the
basis for this write-up; people leave home for work each day as early as 5am
only to report late.
The stress continues at close of work by 5pm
to get home between 9pm to 11pm and the life sucking cycle goes on every day.
The catalysts to the painful long vehicular
queue are: bad roads, inadequate roads, lack of alternative transportation
platforms like railway and seaway which would have made a lot of sense being
that Lagos is an Island surrounded by water.
So every day people go through this
life-shortening experience because the Government they elected to provide
amenities that would ease life are either too short-sighted to see opportunities
to serve or they just blatantly elect to ignore and focus on other
"lucrative" aspects of governance.
Ikeja and the Island are major torture centers
for Nigerians who dare to work for a living rather than stay home.
World report has it that the life-expectancy
age of Nigerians is falling drastically and people do not know that they are
dying gradually but steadily.
Husbands get home and can't mate with wife or
wives as they have been exhausted; children hardly get quality time with
fathers or working Mothers. Yes, you get the point, it is destroying family
life.
Health is also another side effect of bad or
inadequate or lack of alternative for road transport as people spend more time
in a gas fumed traffic that raises the risk of lung cancer and other related
ailments even without lighting a stick of cigarette.
At this stage maybe one should put the Logic &
philosophy 101 course in the University to test: "if Government is
supposed to provide infrastructure to reduce life’s stress and non provision of
those infrastructure leads to death, so therefore, since Government has not
provided these infrastructure then Government is killing people".
This scenario reminds one of the popular
African saying "you can't be surrounded by water and still wash hands with
saliva”. Lagos is surrounded by water but are we not washing our hands with
saliva and pea?
