.
The Article seeks to explain the spate of population explosion in NIgeria,specifically
in Lagos state.
Certain information contained in a publication by one of the governorship candidates for Lagos in the just concluded polls may explain why Lagos is likely to implode very soon. According to the publication, 72.5% of Lagosians live in one-room apartments, with 8-10 persons per room; while only 4 million Lagosians have access to pipe-borne water. Add 2, 600 unplanned communities and over 100 slums, compare power demand of 2000MW with actual supply of 500MW; then consider the high vehicular density, flooding, inadequate and decaying infrastructure and menace of area boys, and it is obvious that Lagos is primed for an implosion. How many Lagosians leave their homes without the luxury of taking their bath? With all the rooms converted to meet the ever increasing demands for rented apartments, most buildings have no kitchens. The end result is that the passage ways are littered with kerosene stoves, resulting in environmental pollution. And with the night spent having no electricity, people sweating profusely and slapping themselves in vain attempts to kill the ever-present mosquitoes, hardly can any one sleep well enough. For the average Lagosian, the distance between home and the workplace is like traveling across the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan, only that, in this case, work is no Promised Land. Some Lagosians need between three and five bus rides a day just to make it to work, with one or two Okada rides thrown in-between. For those who have cars, it is about two or three hours’ drive, just to make it to the office. The condition of public buses are atrocious. With people squeezed in like sardines, every conceivable space in the bus is utilised for carrying passengers. The roads are riddled with potholes the size of craters, yet handling more traffic than they were ever designed to do. Throw in the Police check points and the usual harassments from the Police, agberos, LASTMA and now the BRT, it is all a long story of suffering. The workplace, for most Lagosians, becomes the ideal environment for sleep, using the toilet, eating and preparing for the maddening 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. Stay at the toll gate on the outskirts of Lagos and count the number of vehicles carrying corpses out of the Centre of Excellence on a daily basis. Most of them came with hope and expectations, but were overwhelmed by the challenges of living in Lagos. Despite this gory statistics, more and more people daily pour into Lagos in pursuit of their dreams. These are the drivers, gate men, house helps, cooks, stewards, nannies, clerks, typists, messengers, gardeners, mechanics, plumbers, carpenters – name it. They also include the touts, dock workers, policemen, security guards, market men and women, hawkers, job seekers and a host of others. Which schools do their children attend? What health care facilities are available to them? What do they eat, considering the pittance they earn? How are they able to clothe? How does it feel to live 8-10 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 of 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 a poultry, and staffed with frustrated and ill-equipped teachers? Yet you daily ferry you boss’ children to and from a private school where the fees for one term is enough to train your child to university level? No wonder, religious houses in Lagos are always full and bursting at the seams, with people believing God for one miracle or the other. No wonder that, at the slightest provocation, people resort to fisticuffs and, sometimes, murder.
Published: April 25, 2007
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