Onto to the next one!
A house stands in Mafoluku Oshodi with someone’s last name printed boldly on it, chipped paint falling off its sides, cracks in the concrete driveway spreading through, algae on its sides, and the once red colored brick darkening from years of neglect.
Inside that house lives a family of 4, the mother a teacher at a private school, and the father a banker at Wema Bank along Oshodi-Isolo express way. At the time, this was a middle income family that could afford to send their kids to private schools, take them to Water Park in Ikeja on some weekends, stop by Sweet Sensation on the way there, all while supporting a few extended family members. However, it never occurred to them to do routine renovations like repainting, re-caulking, patching up the cracked concrete, or cleaning the gutters. Fast forward five years into the future and the same family is building a new house in Ikeja and complaining bitterly about the state of the house in Mafoluku.
Head Scratch moment: Choosing not to maintain an existing property but then complaining when it stops serving you well. Also you’ve been secretly planning to replace it in the future.
Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos, Nigeria connects Lagos Island to the mainland and was at some point, the longest bridge in Africa. According to Nigerian records, the first phase of the bridge construction was commissioned by President Shehu Shagari in 1980 and was completed by President Ibrahim Babangida in 1990; this tidbit makes me laugh and shake my head at the same time.
Omooo this one come mean say na 10 years wey Giant of Africa take construct bridge? Orisirisi!
Since the time of its construction, the bridge first saw an attempt at maintenance in 2006 when motorists reported that the bridge was noticeably vibrating. The government then embarked on forming a task force (because a task force is needed for everything in Nigeria), then they conducted some findings and addressed the issue. Every 6–7 years, Lagosians complain about the bridge’s unsafe state, then the Minister of roads/transportation or the governor of Lagos will proceed to form yet another task force to address the issue. There doesn’t seem to be the foresight of maintenance within the government — this includes government hospitals, schools, roads, historical sights, airports, etc. I am convinced that if there was another third mainland bridge or a similar convenient route connecting the mainland to the island, the government would have long abandoned this bridge.
Head Scratch Moment: So if we don’t complain bitterly and call out politicians or form social media campaigns around deterioration of infrastructure in the country, no maintenance will happen?
Similarly, the hosts of the 234 Essentials podcast visited Ile-Ife in southwestern Nigeria, the birthplace of the Yoruba tribe, and complained bitterly about the state of things there. The lack of care for its historical sites and the neglect of buildings that make up the formidable Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). Again, the lack of foresight by us as a people to maintain our history.
Growing up, I always wondered how people’s engines “ knocked” (engine failure), I would hear people exclaim about having to replace their car or the car engine. Now that I am older and have had a chance to own and maintain a car, I now know that one has completely neglect their car for an extended period of time for the car engine to fail. The three major reasons an engine can fail are : Improper lubrication, Overheating, and Detonation. All these three things can be prevented by 3-month service appointments but one would think that there were no mechanics in Lagos with the rate at which people talked about engine failure. It’s important to note that owning a car in Lagos already indicates an inching towards being middle class so quarterly service appointments are not far fetched to car owners especially because labor is generally cheap in Nigeria.
It is possible that most Nigerians are so preoccupied with meeting their daily needs that they can’t afford to bother about re-painting their houses every 2–3 years. However, maintenance is what creates longevity — a house cannot keep servicing it’s inhabitants without care. Third Mainland bridge can’t keep supporting Lagosians if it doesn’t undergo periodic maintenance, our hospitals and historic building will continue to be an eye sore and eventually cease to exist if the government and Nigerians at large continue to neglect it. A car cannot run on petrol alone, it needs servicing and for its owner to pay attention to dashboard lights before it requires bigger repairs.
I want to hold on to the notion that we care about these things but that we think there are more important things i.e. food, water, shelter etc. but then I wonder if we also weigh the long-term repercussions for being so short sighted. Why is it that a middle income family can choose to ignore their home, with a plan to simply replace it down the line? Why is it that the Nigerian government finds it unimportant to maintain infrastructure across multiple sectors for years? Why would one ignore a check engine light in May and act surprised when the engine “knocks” on their way to work in September? This is not an attempt to condemn all Nigerians or depict us as generally neglectful but it speaks to a larger issue of how we deem everything as replaceable and tend to ignore things until the damage requires a complete overhaul.
To the individual, will you be happy when your engine knocks on your way to an important meeting?
To the family in Mafoluku, are you willing to risk a disaster in the years of neglecting the home before you move to Ikeja?
To the Nigerian government, do you have to wait until infrastructure starts killing people before you take maintenance seriously?
MAKE WE THINK AM WELL O!
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, please check out some of my previously published stories here.
