Throughout the week, several events occurred that prompted me to ponder once again at the way we are, why we behave the way we do and how we can’t seem to connect the dots between our actions and the functioning of our society.
A.The addition of an extra date to the Eid holidays.
The federal government’s last-minute addition of an extra day to the Eid holidays was, at best, irresponsible. Despite knowing well in advance the dates of the holidays, the decision seemed rushed and poorly planned, failing to consider factors such as consulting religious leaders, accounting for the solar eclipse, or evaluating the impact on the economy and citizens’ lives.
I am aware that the sighting of the moon is significant in declaring Muslim holidays but in this case, everyone including Google knew right from the beginning of the year that the holidays will fall on Wednesday and Thursday. The rush to announce the holidays, without first checking with religious leaders, taking into consideration the impact of the solar eclipse on the dates and the non-consideration of the cost to the economy or the private lives of its citizens is a testament to the wishywashyness of our planning.
B.The revocation by the Lagos State Government of the title documents of Landmark Beach Resort.
A man or company buys land, gets his plans approved by the government and builds a multi million dollar resort only to find out that part of the property had earlier been acquired by the same government that approved his plans. The questions that come to mind are, who approved the plan and didn’t any of the agencies see that the property would encroach on the land acquired by the government?
C.The most recent crash of a danfo bus on Third Mainland Bridge.
It was to be expected that due to the smoothness of the newly repaired bridge, many drivers would find it difficult to restrain themselves from driving at top speed and I guess that’s why the government put a speed limit of 80 kilometers on the bridge. But truth be told, even when the bridge was not in top shape, we have had several accidents caused by speeding cars that are not fit to ply the roads, drivers that are too inebriated, exhausted or unqualified to be behind the wheels. The state of those tin contraptions called buses, the tightly-packed seats which are not befitting to carry animals much less humans, tell the story of how anything goes as far as profit is being made.
The question we should ask is what apart from the speed limit will the government do to ensure accidents of this nature are reduced?
D.The death of the actor Junior Pope by drowning.
A man goes to work, has to cross a river to get to the location and is seen on video onboard a canoe fitted with an engine, without a life jacket shouting that the boat is going too fast. An accident happens, he and others are thrown into the river, he is rescued and then taken to a shrine, then to the mortuary and finally to the hospital where he is pronounced dead. There is no evidence that there was any attempt to resuscitate him medically at the scene of the accident, perhaps apart from fanning him.
E.The fire inferno at Dosunmu Market in Lagos Island.
It is on record that this latest fire outbreak is the sixth on Lagos Island this year. This particular fire lasted for over seven hours and engulfed several properties and even though the fire trucks got there, they were unable to do much because there was no water. But more importantly, there was no access to the site of the fire because the houses are tightly-packed, every space both in front and beside those houses have been turned to stores and shops.
F.The unparalleled heat wave being experienced.
It has never been this hot before and whilst we can point an accusing finger at global warming, it is my opinion that our total disregard for town planning policies, the exchange of green areas for concrete have increased the effect of global warming in our climes.
The few examples I mentioned just happened during the last couple of days but our anyhownness extends well beyond the days mentioned and is seen both in the public and private sector. We’ve seen cases where a school plans a sports day without having an ambulance on standby, where people have died because electricity cables are left to dangle in public spaces, where people drown because there are no lifeguards at the pools or beaches.
We are a people not given to thinking about the future, that’s why we don’t write wills or plan for the tomorrow. We make fun of people from other climes who follow rules eg the appropriate ages for children to be admitted into certain classes, scoffing at them for wasting money and time by putting measures in place when there is no foreseeable or conceivable reason for doing so and we will cut corners on operational costs when we can.
We are a people who think that thinking ahead to what may happen and planning against it will bring on our heads what we have planned against. We would rather give our energies to wishful thinking and prayers when it is a fact that reactions follow actions and that anything can go wrong even with the best laid out plans.
In so many areas we don’t have contingency plans and don’t know what to do in times of emergencies. We don’t have a knowledge of the basics of CPR (which by the way should be made compulsory starting from primary school). We go to parties and don’t know where the exit is in cases of emergencies. Apart from multinationals, most offices don’t have fire drills nor know where to gather in case of a fire or emergency. We are not security conscious especially in these times of economic recession and do not believe in insurance cover for our lives and or properties apart from those made compulsory by the law.
Rather than learn lessons from mishaps we tend to look to all sorts of reasons (especially spiritual ones) as to why they happen and do not plan against a re- occurrence because surely affliction shall not arise the second time. So, instead of ensuring that a public bus should be well maintained and that fines and strict compliance with the speed limits be enforced, we blame the government for making the road so smooth and then put road bumps to forstall speeding instead of educating, training and enforcement. We are impatient with, and abuse anyone who is concerned about safety measures labeling them evil or dark minded because they dare to think of “what if” and we talk down at people who berate a driver from going too fast by saying they are welcome to sleep on the road or who insists on not boarding a boat without a life jacket that they are delaying everyone from leaving the parks on time.
We do not give adequate time to training and planning believing that talent, skill or our customary brashness will give us undue advantage over others. And that is why although our sportsmen are talented we never do our best in international competitions and we manage everything, always finding ways to survive even though it is killing us.
We want a society that works like other climes but are not willing to put in the work to make it work, nor follow the rules and regulations that make it work forgetting that in those societies we admire, they never underestimate any situation, always have a contingency plan in case things don’t go as planned, prepare for emergencies and review policies from time to time to ensure that they are in line with the present realities.
Apart from the challenges of good governance, let it be known and understood that our slapdash attitude and anyhowness is one of the main factors why we are the way we are and that connecting the dots of our individual actions to the way our society is, is the only way we just may be able to change the narrative.