Is there hope for Lagos?
I’ll be 25 on the 14th of June and, with some effort, I can count the number of hours I have spent outside Lagos.
Most of the habits I exhibit, I've learnt from growing-up and living around a few places in Lagos Mainland. Growing-up at Oshodi & relocating to somewhere around Abule-Egba at 13; primary & secondary schooling at Ikeja, university at Yaba, work at Sabo – all these contribute to etching the Lagos Boy status into me.
I’m basically a Lagos boy! Trust me when I say Lagos is CHAOS!
The roughness is inevitable
A fortnight ago, I was talking with my brother Anthony at one of the junctions at Sabo, around the place where Commercial Avenue meets Herbert Macaulay Road (where the danfo buses pick-up passengers to Bariga, on one side and to Oyingbo on the other), when a speeding okada had an accident. The scrunching sound caught both our attentions. Instantly, it occurred to me that this kind of occurrence would not be uncommon on that junction, considering the very busy and packed nature of the road. I wondered – again – how we all survive daily, living crazily around here.
People familiar with most part of Lagos mainland would be familiar with these:
· Danfos and salon cars coming in all directions and the bus conductors turning to makeshift traffic wardens when they reach a junction.
· Bumper to bumper traffic situation, with no one willing to let another go ahead on the next opening. Fuck the traffic laws; fuck giving the advantage to the guy approaching on the left-hand-side… Call this the “red-eye” effect!
· The failure of government ensured that there’s not enough road warden officials or traffic lights. Also, the ignorance (or stubbornness) of the people ensures that traffic is always chaotic, even in places where there are traffic lights or road wardens.
One week later, remembering that event, I recall reading of London being a terrible place to be at, sometime in history.
London was worse!
Sometimes, I wonder what accounts history would have of Lagos in the next 100 or 200 years. However, it appears London was terribly worse!
In the book “The Birth of Plenty – How the Prosperity of the Modern World was created” (a very interesting read), William Bernstein described London with the following words:
In 1500, the very concept of law enforcement as a governmental charge seemed unimaginable. The London bobby got his name from future prime minister Robert Peel, who gave the world its first metropolitan police force, in 1829. Before then, the prudent gentleman did not venture onto London streets without his hangar (sword), dagger, and pistol.
Beyond the city walls, lawlessness reigned absolute. Highwaymen plied their trade, sometimes in roving gangs and sometimes alone, with near impunity. Soldiers, when not engaged in Crusades, dynastic feuds, or papal ambitions, periodically swelled the ranks of highwaymen. Only walls provided a town with effective protection against its lawless environs.
Order came to London in 1829, not so long ago?!
I know it’s more than a hundred years ago, but if one of the favourite destinations of Lagosians can be described in this light, and Lagos isn’t this bad, then there’s definitely hope for Lagos.
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Danfo: Privately owned, commercial, 14-seater – sometimes more – commuter bus.
Okada: Commercial motorcycles.
