Not Yet Ready for a Change

Also published in Daily Trust

Sometimes I wonder if the average Nigerian has moral right to criticize the ruling elite, in view of his equally active contribution to the general mess in the country, after all I even highlighted the elements of hypocrisy inherent in his attitude in a piece titled “Our Collective Hypocrisy” {Daily Trust, 23 Sept 2011} Yet, among all the challenges facing Nigeria, nothing, including corruption and incompetence of the ruling elite, nearly makes me lose hope more than the average Nigerian’s apparent unwillingness to adjust to the new realities necessarily associated with the change he often craves. This is quite obvious in the way he resists any initiative aimed at creating some measure of social orderliness in the largely chaotic society.

Over the decades, there have been many initiatives aimed at creating a sufficient social awareness about the imperative of imbibing some basic social manners, with a view to creating a civilized and conducive social and environmental atmosphere befitting human civilization, only to face resistance from the public, which in most cases forced the governments to abandon them paving the way for the return of the status quo of social mess and disorderliness.

  Various initiatives to enforce things as basic as environmental sanitation, proper waste disposal, respect for traffic rules, orderly parking of vehicles, respect for constructional development rules and standards etc have always been largely resisted and literally frustrated, even though, it is the same community who has always suffered from the hazardous health and safety consequences of such self-destructive attitude.

   For instance, the culture of indiscriminate waste disposal, where a presumably sane and perhaps educated person dumps his garbage in the very culvert that serves his immediate environment, is rather difficult to define within the context of conventional human behavioural perspectives; hence it could perhaps need psychiatric tools also in order to define the psyche of that person. This is because while doing this, he realizes for sure that it is he, his family and his community that will definitely suffer from the health and safety related consequences of his act before anybody else. In any case, hips of garbage continue to pile up under the watch of the very community to the extent of obstructing vehicular movement in the area thereby worsening the traffic mess particularly in urban areas.

Garbage blocking part of a street in Kano

Likewise, when he erects a building on a waterway, sewage or any public amenity, he realizes for sure that it is he also who will suffer the safety and health consequences of his act sooner or later. For instance, the largely preventable havoc caused by floods as a result of such random constructions, causes unnecessary loss of lives, mass displacement of people and outbreak of fatal diseases etc.

 
Also the worst part of it is that, many of such illegal constructions especially those erected on public amenities are done by some relatively rich individuals, who not only compromise some officials of the concerned regulatory authorities but also capitalize on the indifference of the local communities under whose watch their own neighbourhoods are being turned into urban slums. And once a preventable disaster occurs, the owners of such buildings would simply relocate to other places and abandon the communities to their fate.

Equally unfortunate is how such abuses are perpetrated under the pretext of erecting mosques, which are in many cases erected on any available space without regard to public safety and health standards. By the way, these lamentations are particularly aroused by the situation in my home town, Kano where even pedestrian pavements are converted to mosques or quasi mosques as the case may be.

As a matter of fact, apparently due to the existence of a structure that looks like a minaret inside the popular Yan kura roundabout in Sabon Gari, Kano, the roundabout was literally converted into a mosque, where people scale the fence of the roundabout every now and then to perform prayers right inside the roundabout amid the largely chaotic traffic flow around it, in sheer disregard for their own safety. By the way, Kano has unfortunately acquired particular notoriety in terms of chaotic urban constructions, messy vehicular traffic flow and of course accumulation of garbage, which have turned it into a huge slum of a sort.

Yan kura roundabout in Kano which also serves as a mosque  

Under circumstances like these where people hardly behave in a civilized way, and where for instance some traffic officials have to brandish huge sticks in order to scare motorists and other vehicle riders and force them to obey traffic rules, and also where hips of garbage literally constitute landmarks, I really wonder to what extent (if at all) such societies meet the standards of civilized societies?

        
Some people’s clearly self-centred excuses to behave this way and refuse to comply with the relevant security, health and safety standards in their individual and collective endeavours are sometimes too ridiculous. For instance, how could a fair-minded person argue against the current Kano state government’s effort to tackle the absolutely chaotic storage, supply and delivery of pharmaceuticals in the state? Where on earth would a presumably civilized people justify the sale of pharmaceuticals in market shops and stalls that fall short of even the basic hygienic standards applicable in a standard motor spare parts market?

By the way, in as much as I commend current Kano state government’s efforts to tackle some of such phenomena, and knowing the attitudes of the people, I believe it has to be more resolute and consistent to follow through all relevant standard enforcement measures it has taken, and should not hesitate to deal with anybody who refuses to comply no matter how influential. After all, the success of this undertaking depends on the government’s willingness and determination to vigorously fight the culture of impunity in the society. Once it proves its seriousness, fairness and truthfulness in this regard, the society will automatically begin to adjust accordingly while people will begin to enjoy the resultant positive impacts of the measures.

     
Meanwhile, there should be a vigorous social enlightenment campaign with a view to inculcating the culture of orderliness in the minds of the people, in such a way that no government can subsequently abandon it, because in their desperate quest for power, many politicians capitalize on the naivety of the common people to condemn such measures as unfriendly hence promise to do away with them once voted into power.