Azuka Onwuka
How time flies! On May 27, 2017, Lagos
State will be 50 years old. It seemed like yesterday when the state was
created by Gen. Yakubu Gowon. In February, the Lagos State Governor, Mr
Akinwunmi Ambode, inaugurated a planning committee for the golden
jubilee celebration that has Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, and
industrialist, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, as co-chairmen.
Ambode, who faced an avalanche of
criticisms immediately after assumption of office on May 29, 2015,
gradually overcame the teething troubles and began to get some positive
press, especially with the action he has taken in the areas of
infrastructure, security, transport, among others.
But he seems to be cutting ties with
some key Lagos messages that will help him achieve better results in the
long run by reshaping how people view Lagos. For example, when was the
last time you heard “Eko o ni baje!” (Lagos will not spoil)? It seems to
have gone with Ambode’s predecessor, Mr Babatunde Fashola. This was an
expression that was on the lips of most Lagosians for many years. Why
was it jettisoned by Ambode? Maybe, because he wants to create his own
slogan. This reminds us of the American expression: “If it ain’t broke,
don’t fix it.”
That same fate has also befallen the
Spirit of Lagos campaign. The first time I saw the campaign of the Sprit
of Lagos, I fell in love with it. It was a campaign that sought to
change the orientation of Lagosians by making them take ownership of
their environment, by doing the right thing, by believing that Lagosians
are not bad people, by allowing their conscience to talk to them when
they want to drop trash on the road or cross the expressway or beat the
traffic light. These are simple issues that most of us don’t even pay
attention to. But they have a serious effect on the state.
Most people assume that Lagos is a
“jungle” where only the fittest survive, where nobody cares whether you
are alive or dead, hungry or thirsty, or unhappy or happy. Everybody is
hurrying off to somewhere without caring about the next person. People
get knocked down on the road and life goes on for others around the
scene. People get robbed in the traffic and nobody attempts to help.
This is the dominant narrative that most people want everyone to
believe.
But is that the whole picture or is it just the picture that will appeal to storytellers and those who cast newspaper headlines?
First is that Lagos is not as wild and
unfeeling as is portrayed. Second is that even in cities like New York
and Johannesburg where people are killed or robbed at a much higher rate
than Lagos, marketing and public relations messages are couched and
sustained almost on a continuous basis to blunt the portrayal of the
cities in a bad light. In some of the celebrated cities of the world,
you cannot walk in many streets once it is dark. Even in broad daylight,
you cannot walk in some streets without being robbed. You cannot flag
down a taxi and enter it without running a huge risk of robbery – you
have to use only recommended taxis. But these cities don’t have the
image of “jungle” because the authorities do not leave the fate of the
cities to the vagaries of word-of-mouth advertising. They make a
conscious plan to burnish the image of the city or state, celebrate its
positive sides, and inspire the citizens to buy into the vision of the
state.
Each of us has had some sweet
experiences in Lagos that made us know the other side of Lagos, but the
stereotyping of Lagos is usually allowed to dominate the discourse on
Lagos.
While returning from work some 12 years
ago from Victoria Island, I experienced the overheating of my car on
Marina Bridge, on Lagos Island. I parked by the side of the bridge,
opened the bonnet to see what the problem was. Another man suddenly
parked in front of me, and asked me what the problem was. I told him the
car was overheating. He opened his boot and handed me a four-litre can
of water, and told me to sort out the problem fast and get out of that
area because it was not safe for me. He left the can with me and drove
off. I waited shortly for the car to cool down a bit, poured the water
in the radiator and drove off just as some fierce-looking men noticed me
and began approaching me. I was thankful to this stranger whose face I
would never recall.
Again just last year, I decided to get
to Yaba through the Third Mainland Bridge rather than Ikorodu Road that I
was used to. I was driving from Ikeja. When I got to the Adekunle
junction in Yaba, the traffic light just changed to red. I stopped. No
car was in front of me. I was on the far right side of the road. On my
left a commercial minibus (popularly called danfo) had also stopped. I
did not know if there was a practice at that junction for motorists to
turn on red. I asked the driver of the bus if motorists going right were
allowed to turn on red. He said yes. I thanked him and slowly turned
right into Herbert Macaulay Road.
Two LASTMA officials, who had hidden
inside a filling station at the junction, emerged immediately and stood
in front of my vehicle. I wound down and began my explanation. While we
were at it, the danfo driver stopped in front of me and all the
passengers came down, some explaining, some pleading, some shouting at
the LASTMA officials. They told the LASTMA officials that they were the
ones who misinformed me. My eyes became misty over this show of care
from complete strangers. The LASTMA officials were overwhelmed seeing
all the occupants of a commercial bus, including the driver, suspending
their journey to defend a stranger. They let me go.
The driver later explained to me that
what he meant was that one could turn right but it would be after the
light had changed to green. He said he was calling me when I began to
move but I didn’t hear.
Even though the driver had “misinformed”
me, the driver could have driven off and left me to my fate. Anybody
who knows the typical Lagos commercial driver and passengers would tell
you that time is gold to them.
Therefore, Lagosians indeed care. You
can see that care when a house is burning and people risk their lives to
save the lives of strangers and their property. You can see that care
when a house collapses and Lagosians use their bare hands to dig into
the rubble in search of trapped human beings. You can see it when a car
is burning and passers-by stop, and use fire extinguishers, water, sand
or anything available to save the car. You see it when children are
standing by the r oadside and a pedestrian or motorist stops other
vehicles to get the children across the road safely.
The problem with Nigeria is that we
don’t allow any programme to last long enough to become internalised and
effective. A new government means a change of policies. The Spirit of
Lagos was one programme that was gradually taking root in the psyche of
Lagosians before a change of government took it off the media. Such a
programme needs to be resuscitated. It is even important at a time like
this when Lagos is planning its 50th anniversary.
Lagos has a lot of potential. It needs a
campaign like the Spirit of Lagos that will seep into the consciousness
of Lagosians and change their attitude and narrative about Lagos. That
will help Lagos to rise to become among the celebrated cities of the
world. It is possible.
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