Governor Fashola

Governor Fashola: Stop this Wickedness

Tochukwu Ezukanma

An article in the Washington Post summed it up succinctly, “Africans have a limitless capacity for suffering”. Nigerians truly have a boundless capacity for suffering. Subdued by poverty, ignorance and depredatory government policies, they stoically bear insufferable humiliations and deprivations. For some unfathomable reasons, the Nigerian power elite have all their arsenal of oppression and intimidation deployed against the people. Lately, in Lagos State, the Fashola administration added a new dimension to this power elite’s inexplicable cruelty to Nigerian citizens. It is using the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) officials to destroy the businesses, and consequently, the lives, hopes and dreams of innocent, hard working people trying to earn an honest living. Governor Babatunde Fashola should put an end to KAI’s assault on the peace, dignity and means of livelihood of these hapless and indigent residents of Lagos State.

On one of my evening walks, I stopped to buy akara. The woman selling akara operated her business from an old, unused petrol station. Her business was set completely, about 25 feet, off the street. She was assisted by her three children. Her son and one daughter did the selling and the other daughter helped her with the frying. In addition to akara, she sold fried yam and fried plantain. The son seemed like an undergraduate student and the daughters like high school students. I was very impressed by the son’s cultured mien, her daughters’ conviviality and courtesy, and their evident devotion to this meager family enterprise.

A few weeks later, I went back to the same place. While waiting to buy akara, the woman was informed that KAI officials were around, and were approaching her direction. Immediately, the woman’s mood changed. She became very agitated and panicky. Her children’s jovial countenance changed; they became very nervous and terrified. They all frantically started packing their things. In that confusion and in their hurried attempt to take the big frying pan off the fire, I was afraid that somebody will get hurt. I tried to explain to them that they were on private property, and consequently, were not breaking any law. That KAI therefore, should not bother them. They were scrambling and rushing, trying to escape before the arrival of KAI; they did not listen to me.

They carried their wares, including akara balls still simmering in the big frying pan, and ran towards the back of the unused petrol station. I followed them, still telling them that as far as they were on private property, they should not worry about KAI. The woman explained, “oga, dem dey come disturb us here. For this our business too much game (gain) no dey am. Everything, even oil, don cost. We dey try dey mange to fed our children but KAI no gree us”.

I told them that the solution was not in running. That they should stand up to KAI officials and explain to them that they have no legal right to harass them, as their business is neither on the street nor encroaching on the street. Her son said that KAI officials do not listen to explanations. That if KAI gets them, they will readily arrest them, and charge them 10,000 naira, maybe 15,000 naira each for “bail”. That they had previously arrested his sister and it cost the family 8,000 naira to “bail” her. Her sister looked like she is about 16 years old.

I left the place sad and roiled. I was deeply distressed by that botched opportunity for this family to earn a little income from a legitimate endeavor. These are people that subsist at the best of times. This unwarranted disruption of their commerce was really heartrending. I was extremely disturbed by that their frantic attempt to get away, as though they were escaping an invading enemy army. I was profoundly troubled by the horror on their faces. I have not seen people frighten as much since Biafra. The horror on their faces reminded me of the last day of Biafra. After the surrender of the Biafran government, the Igbo, having believed the Biafran propaganda were exceedingly frightened by the prospect of a general massacre by the Federal Forces.

However, in this case, there had not been an invasion by an enemy army or misinformation about an impending slaughter by marauding, battle-harden, trigger-happy soldiers. It was just an abhorrent government policy harassing and humiliating citizens of Nigeria in their own country; stripping them of both their self-worth and means of livelihood.

Walking back home, about a quarter of a mile down Opebi Road, people were gathered, and a few older women were bewailing their lot. I inquired, and was told that KAI just passed by. Evidently, they left tears and sorrow in their wake. They had targeted a number of makeshift road side restaurants. They pulled down structures, broke chairs and tables, seized some valuables, carried away some food, meat and other edibles, and threw the rest into the gutter. People, disconcerted and confused, stood around lamenting the KAI officials’ vindictiveness, wickedness and corruption. With tears in my eyes, I sauntered home, perplexed as to why Nigerians are very cowardly. Why can’t they raise a voice in protest or fight back?

Ostensibly, the government of Lagos State is trying to sanitize and beautify the streets of Lagos by among other things, ridding the city of street trading. Undoubtedly, Lagos deserves a face-lift. However, an urban renewal policy that refuses to respect the depressing reality, that Nigeria is teeming with the unemployed, and that some of these unemployed are forced by circumstances to eke out a living selling akra, food, fruits, etc on the street, is unconscionable.

Moreover, the KAI officials’ modus operandi is devoid of decency and civility; they are treating human beings like animals. They are terrorizing and brutalizing innocent people. They enrich themselves by seizing valuables from them, arresting them and giving them “bail”. For the most part, the “bail” money goes into the pockets of KAI officials and their police escorts. There is a streak of criminality in the behavior of KAI officials, that criminality that is the hallmark of Nigerian public life. Every situation must be exploited, every standard perverted and every rule broken, just for self enrichment. It is unmitigated wickedness to persist in hounding the weak and the poor, and in destroying the means of livelihood of those who, even at the best of times, can barely make ends meet. Please, Governor Fashola put an end to this wickedness.

Governor Fashola should understand that these individuals being degraded and dispossessed of an opportunity to earn a living are just as human as even the richest and the most powerful. He should realize that just as wealth and power and all their trappings have failed to place any man beyond the human realm, poverty and all its attendant miseries and limitations can not diminish any one’s humanity. In the final analysis, men, irrespective of their stations in life, are the same, equals, the embodiment and expression of God. And our belief in God demands that every man - his life, humanity and dignity - be handled with utmost reverence.

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria