By Adebayo Eleduasomiji Adedeji
Lagos like they say is the land of Riches. A city full of different attributes that had added to it growth economically. A city with enormous human resources of over 20 million inhabitants. A city arguable the economical and social hub of west Africa and it also house the busiest sea and air port in west Africa. Lagos city is the land of the opportunists in business establishment and it has a strong viable service industry which it government remitted heavy taxation to boost it IGR ( internal generated revenue) above all other states in Nigeria. Billions of Naira is generated yearly in lagos but it time to do an examination if truly with it economic prospect has reflected in improving and safeguarded lives of the masses from the wealth of the city or it has been cornered in the hands of few individuals.
Abstractive studying the index of the foremost social amenities attached to the masses lives in Lagos State shows how degraded public affairs is handled carelessly in hand of it ruling class. Housing which is one of the foremost important social amenity to the people welfare is taken for granted i.e The government most of the time complained about people living in shanties & slums but ignore to judge their antecedents how their political policies have left people living in Mysteries. 30 years ago under the military Governor of Lagos Col Raji Rasaki, he ordered the demolition of Maroko that rendered thousands of people homeless and there was no compensation given to them. Later on, the maroko land was sold out to the rich which we knew as lekki of Today.
Another typical example of mass eviction is that of the iponri railway houses which was demolished under Babatunde Raji Fashion tenure. The police came with guns to forcefully chased the people unaware and this same coercive action was used to demolished ijora railway shantytown and after some time an exclusive housing estate had been erected on that same land the poor once lived. The demolished iponri railway land as at today had be modernized into flats to suit the rich and the middle class. A flat sold under the Lagos State housing scheme cost 25 millionaire, For crying out loud how would the poor going to afford this ? You’ve left them with no choice than to sleep under bridges & parks.
In Nigeria generally, between the 60s down to 80s Nigerian doctor’s are one of the best in the world before the health sector is handled carelessly. The Doctors we have presently in Nigeria are not taking good care of by the government, majority of them are underpaid and the health sector is underfunded. All these manner of disrespecting the health practitioners and underfunding the sector had made Nigerian doctors seek greener pasture in other countries to aspire their careers and it has also increased the privatization of the healthcare in hand of few individuals profiting from it. And Lagos city has the highest private hospitals and pharmacies which is not properly regulated by the government in terms of price control to be affordable for the masses. In Lagos and Nigeria at large it only the wealthy few that has the assurance of healthy life and the poor has minimal hope to survive that why we have high rate of deaths.
The educational sector also suffers degradation in the hands of the government from sabotaging the salary of the teachers, the ignorance approached not building more advance classroom i.e As at today, a public classroom in secondary schools contained more than 100 student’s and the failure of our tertiary institutions to expand in scientific research to produce bright minds to the labour market for solid economic growth. How would we produced future leaders when the children of this country are been deprived and they are nurtured in a chaotic environment that later affected their mental state of mind. And if the children of the rich are entitled to all they needed in life growing up on the expanse of the human resources that is meant to benefits all, then we are not in a democratic society but the land of the feudal lords and the exploited serfs.
A democratic society should be for the people interests not for the centralization of economic, social and political benefits in hands of the ruling class and their puppets. If truly humans are more sane than animals then we should create a cordial and safe environment for all and the accumulation of capital should be abolished in our cultural lives. The examination of the political field in past and present in Nigeria has failed the people and there must be an urgent system change in this country. We need to speak,act and defend the equality and equity of humanity and through ideological consistences of scientific,socialist, pan African contextualization that had been proven in the past, present and also a future guide to the people of africa to developed their continent.
IRE
