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The Tejuosho Fire and a Perilous Mindset By Tochukwu Ezukanma
I was deeply troubled by the fire at the Tejuosho Market, Yaba, Lagos. I could not help grieving over the lives lost in the inferno. I also empathized with those traders who lost their goods to the fire. In a country like Nigeria, with poorly developed insurance system, how will they reestablish them selves? Undoubtedly, sources of livelihood have been irretrievably lost and people’s futures irreparably damaged. What a miserable way to celebrate all the festivities of the month of December, and to start a new year?
The newspaper account of that fire disaster revealed a major problem of the Nigerian society. The fire fighters arrived at the scene of the fire, “but there was no water.” And as water is an indispensable ingredient of fire fighting, the fire fighters could do very little in the face of the raging fire. So, the fire ragged on. How can a market like that have no water? The market, I presume, has more than one thousand traders, constituted into a number of market associations. It also has an Iyaloja (women leader) and a Babaloja (male leader). What can reasonably be the roles of these associations and their leaders if they cannot provide an absolute necessity, such as water, in the market?
The value of goods in the market at any given time will be worth billions of naira. While I have no financial record of the activities in the market, I believe that the collective annual earnings there will also run into billions of naira. So, with so much income, the traders and their associations can comfortably afford to provide water in the market. Why did they not do it? With so much merchandise, money and livelihoods at stake, did they not see the need for water and anti-fire gadgets, like smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and sprinklers in the place, especially after there had been at least three previous fire outbreaks in the same market?
The Babaloja of the market, Chief Adeshina Oyegunle, had an excuse as to why there was no water in marketplace. He said that “the former source of water supply to this place was blocked by the contractor who worked on the roads around the market about a year ago”. That is, the market has been without water for about one year. Nothing was done in a whole year to restore water in such a big, sprawling market. The mind boggling question readily arises, in such a teeming commercial activity node that houses so many traders and their stalls, and attracts thousands of customers every day, how do people do the basics, like wash their hands and ease them selves?
In the past, before the advent of oil boom in Nigerian, individuals, associations, communities, etc got together, and through communal efforts solved problems and improved lives. Scholarship programs were started; schools, hospitals and community centers were built; roads and drainage systems were constructed; etc. Then we had the spirit of volunteerism that allowed us to volunteer our time and resources for the collective good. Life was not all about self, self-seeking indulgence and gratification. Then money was expected to be earned. Free money and other sorts of unearned riches were frowned at. Those who assented to free money were considered cheats who reaped where they did not sow.
Then came the oil boom, and we developed a windfall mentality. We started to expect that money, free money looms in the horizon and will drop into our laps if we press the right buttons, sit at the right place and/or wait long enough. We stopped despising free and unmerited money, and began to cherish and applaud it. We got caught–up in self. We became selfish, self-absorbed, and self-seeking. We lost the will to volunteer our time and money for the general good. The individual became unwilling to make impute into anything that does not readily benefit him directly. We now believe that we can sit around, do nothing and watch our communal problems magically sort them selves out. Consequently, we expect that everything and anything should be done for us by the government. We all became babies awaiting an entitlement, spoon-feeding by the government.
There are a number of things the government is obligated by law to do for us. But then there are so many things we can also do for ourselves. It is inexcusable, actually morally reprehensible that the Tejuosho market associations led by their Babaloja and Iyaloja failed to provide water in that market. Even if the provision of water is the government’s responsibility, to have allowed the market to remain without water for such a long time was a profound act of irresponsibility on the part of the associations and their leaders. After the first fire some years back, commonsense demanded that the associations should have made strenuous effort to ensure that there will never be a repeat of such a tragedy. In addition to water, they should have installed fire hydrants and smoke detectors and sprinklers in the market.
Even after this recent fire, which is the fourth that this market has experienced, the Babaloja is yet to see the need to take the initiative and work in concert with the other traders and their associations to guide against another fire catastrophe in future. Still shackled by this retrograde and perilous mentality, he still thinks it wise to wait on the government. He appealed to the government “to provide the market with fire hydrants and smoke detectors”.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
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