Gov. Fashola's "Village" Habits

There's a good reason to admire Babatunde Fashola, the hardworking Governor of Lagos State; it’s so easy to see that the man wants to contribute a key chapter to, and not become another footnote in, the history of Lagos. All well-meaning folks should therefore support his ongoing efforts to make Lagos a better place for the coalition of tribes and tongues that reside in this former federal capital.

Regrettably, I have once again found cause to disagree with the Governor on another social message that he is trying to sell. I refer to his characterization of Nigerian city habits as “village” habit. Mr. Fashola was quoted by the media to have said that his government “will not fold its arms while some residents live in Lagos as if they are living in their villages.” His words: “You can’t continue to live like you are in your village here in Lagos. Life in Lagos is changing by the day. The government has spent a fortune to ensure good environment, drainages, roads and transportation system. It is unfortunate some people are still living as if they are in their village. Please, if you can’t obey our environmental and traffic laws, stay back in your village.”

On reading what His Excellency said, my mind went back to my village and I found myself violently disagreeing with the governor. In my village, we do not spend a fortune on public works but the village is better: the air is fresher; the roads, though un-tarred, are always weeded and kept clean through communal efforts; our pathways are adorned by natural green shrubbery; there are no traffic snarls occasioning mad and reckless driving; and no group of people goes into virgin village land to construct and live in shanties. My village evokes nostalgic feelings in me, and I am not alone; this is one reason why a certain ethnic group performs “mass return” every December - because village life provides an opportunity to escape from the madness of city life; they can breathe fresh air, free themselves from traffic wahala, and enjoy the sense of community that city life gradually drains from us all.

The point must be made that Nigerian city habits – which the governor incorrectly describes as village habits – is caused by bad governance. The masses are merely victims. Bad governance is reflected in poor urban planning, poor and compromised supervision of public works that lead to poorly constructed and maintained roads, poor waste and sewage disposal management, poor enforcement of building codes, and poor transportation systems. Poor governance puts pressure on low income urban dwellers, forcing them to react in ways that the governor describes as village habits. Governor Fashola is wrong. Nigerian city habits are symptoms of a terrible disease vended by bad governance; poor people’s reaction to this state of affairs is not and cannot be characterized as village habits.

I have been living in Abuja for 10 years now, and I lived in Lagos for 16. Thus, I have seen firsthand the devastation that poor planning has wrought on these two city-states when we forcibly converted them to federal territories. Poor city planning and poor supervision of environmental and building laws forced poor people to congregate in areas that would enable them have quick access to opportunities in choice locations that the rich appropriated to themselves; this is the only way they could catch the crumbs as they fell from their masters’ tables. In addition, lack of attention to the needs of original inhabitants compelled them to also flee to shanties akin to the abodes of the resident poor.

The worst parts of Abuja are areas inhabited by poor residents and original inhabitants. Yet, before Abuja was annexed and made a federal territory, it was known, among other things, as the place where great potters were produced. A certain Mr. Michael Cardew, a colonial officer and renowned porter, was given the task of choosing a site for a pottery center for Northern Nigeria. In April 1951, after an extensive tour, he recommended to Kaduna as follows: "We decided Abuja after all…; it is good and central for Northern Nigeria, wonderful local pots, a nice town where trainees can live…” This is not the description of Abuja where the original inhabitants live today. Fashola’s state is the same: Makoko and Mushin, the areas where original inhabitants live in Central Lagos, are the worst neighborhoods in Lagos.

It is instructive that when public officials wake up from their criminal slumber to rev their bulldozers of destruction, they bore into the sabon garis abodes and side-step the areas inhabited by the original settlers. For instance, on Saturday, 14 July 1990, rather than face north towards Makoko and Mushin, Gov. Raji Rasaki’s bulldozers turned south to crush Maroko; they have continued to growl at Ajegunle and Okomomaiko since then. In Abuja, Malam el Rufai’s bulldozers left the unsightly huts of original inhabitants and went after slums created by poor residents. The current FCT Minister is completing the devastation, beginning with Mpape.

Our bad city habits are not a Lagos phenomenon; every Nigerian city, including Abuja, is equally guilty. The point is that these city habits were not caused by poor residents but by bad governance that dehumanizes the poor. I commend Fashola because he is taking proactive measures to right the governance wrongs that give rise to bad city habits, but to suggest that this phenomenon is a “village” habit is to betray a state of mind of someone who was neither born nor grew up in a real village setting in Nigeria.

A thief, the law and an Ass

Someone needs to find out why a fellow called Danbauchi John cannot resist stealing television sets … and getting caught each time he does it!

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the first time that John appeared before a Gudu District Area Court for lifting a TV set from a shop, he was discharged by the presiding judge, Mr. Adamu Wakili, for want of evidence.

Apparently emboldened by his acquittal, he promptly went out and broke into another goods store to steal a Sony 14” TV set, valued at N 21,000.

He was not only caught but also charged to the same court for criminal trespass and theft.

 Judge Adamu was scandalized. ``You were just discharged from this court less than a month ago for a similar offence for want of evidence but now you are being charged for two offences,” he said in disbelief.

This is where the story gets interesting. Although the TV set was worth N21,000, Danbauchi was sentenced to one-year imprisonment, with an option to pay N4,000 fine and go home.

This is the trouble with criminal prosecution. The State takes over the case and decides appropriate punishment for the culpable. If the owner of the store did not recover his TV set, he has lost everything except the satisfaction of knowing that a thief will have a criminal record to his name: The N4,000 fine which Danbauchi is sure to pay goes to the state.

Lesson learned: if you want the courts to return your stolen property or get monetary compensation, find a way of turning the matter between you and the thief into a civil case.

Ochuko:The labours of power sector workers

The Guardian Tuesday, 14 August 2012 00:00 By Kendo Ochuko Opinion - Columnists

That "Summons" from the House

I dismissed, as an act of mischief, the “summons” issued by the House of Representatives on President Goodluck Jonathan to appear before its members in camera to discuss the state of the nation. Thus, I was taken aback when Gov. Fashola, someone who has earned my respect by his conduct and remarks thus far on burning national issues, reportedly backed the action of the Reps.

Did I miss something ...then? Ours is no longer a parliamentary system. This means that the House of Representatives is not the same as the British House of Commons which can summon a Prime Minister to appear before it and explain his or her actions. The difference is clear. The prime minister is, first of all, a parliamentarian, elected from a small, local constituency from where he is handpicked to lead a government on behalf of the party that won majority of seats in parliament. In a presidential system, the president is elected by majority of voters in the entire country to lead a government on behalf of the people. Unlike the Prime Minister that has a defined constituency before he became king, the President has the entire country and her citizens as his constituency. This is why the President is automatically bigger than his political party and every other elected official, unlike the Prime Minister who is a servant of his party and a primus inter pares among legislators in a parliamentary system.

The point seemed obvious to me when I dismissed the House "summons" as an act of mischief. The president is therefore not a member of parliament who can be “summoned” by the House. In the United States, which we are often quick to cite as a model of presidential democracy, no one – not even an opposition politician – ignores an invitation by Mr. President for a discussion, whenever there is an issue that needs to be sorted out. It is never the other way around. The President could, on his own, decide to address the nation through Congress on the state of the nation but is never “summoned” to appear and talk to the Reps and “in secret” for that matter.

 

I rest my case