(And Nigeria Must Pay For It)
In celebration of my 75thBirthday on 13th January 2019, I was hosted to a sumptuous dinner at The St. Regis Hotel, Houston, Texas by Lagosians living in the diaspora. Many of them have been living in the United States of America for several decades and were entirely sold on the American dream – if you can dream it, you can achieve it through sheer grit. The American branded slogan: “The land of the free and the home of the brave” as well as the exhortation on the Statue of Liberty:
“…Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
were apparentlyborrowed from Lagos two hundred and fifty years ago and now it is payback time.
For me, the most agonising part of what was otherwise a truly excellent celebration was the showing of the epic documentary film: “A TASTE OF 1930’s MIDDLE-CLASS LAGOS” (Lagos Has Always Been At The Cusp Of Urbanisation)
It captured Lagos in all its majesty, glory and splendour – providing ample evidence that it was a city that firmly connected with civilization.
The streets were clean and everyone appeared to be at peace with each other.
The camera dwelt nostalgically on the leading men and women as well as institutions of that era.
Included in the array of superlative and captivating catalogue of legends of that time was a snapshot of Chief H.O. Davies; Sir Louis Mbafeno and ErnestEgbunna (1938). The camera was even granted the indulgence of straying beyond Lagos to Yaba which was itsimmediate suburb – displaying neat row upon row of houses, each with its own pristine garden.
Back to Lagos, the camera zoomed on Lagosians enjoying their well-earned leisure and recreation as well as sports at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club.
Everything went well until the exotic wines and champagne chose to play havoc. From a corner of the vast hall there was mischievous applause when someone started protesting loudly. Then he delivered his bombshell demand:
“We want a wall around our beloved Lagos and Nigeria must pay for it!!”
What had started as a mild applause suddenly acquired fresh momentum and traction.
Thereafter, matters went haywire as the demand for the wall became a crescendo.
It took the intervention of an elderly gentleman who introduced himself as Professor Yusuf Olatunji to calm matters. According to him, he was born in IsaleEko area of Lagos. He was one of the first set of babies to be delivered at Massey Street Hospital and he had found fame and fortune in the United States of America as an authority on authentic African drumming and choreography. Over the years, he had lectured at several leading American universities – Harvard; Princeton; Yale; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford; University of Chicago etc.
Professor Olatunji literally turned the table on us when he proceeded to show a short film of his recent visit to Lagos to spend Christmas and the New Year. It was a litany of anguish and woes – rubbish heaps everywhere; traffic gridlock; the uncompleted (abandoned) monorail; restless youths/miscreants wandering all over the city; armed robbery; ritual murders; kidnapping; “419” (Advance Fee Fraud) kingpins; Joblessness, homelessness, hopelessness galore; road rage; suicide with the Third Mainland Bridge as their favourite jumping off pad; the stinking toilets at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport plus leaking roofs and no lights; people sleeping under bridges etc.
To cap it all were the trailers ad tankers that had taken over the roads and bridges causing total chaos in Apapa (which used to be part of an expansive serene and tranquil “GRA” Government Reservation Area) with obvious threats of danger that may trigger the collapse of Carter Bridge as well as the roads linking Apapa, Western Avenue (Funsho Williams Avenue), Abebe Village (no connection with Dr. John Abebe!!) and Ojuelegba Road.
Then the camera shifted to the front page of “Rolling Stone” magazine of October 24, 2017which featured a little boy in a basin/bowl swimming in the flood waters that had overwhelmed the slum dwellers of Makoko on the shores of Lagos. It was also featured on the front page of “The Punch” newspaper.
The scale of human degradation and abject poverty was beyond belief. It took one back to the middle ages.
Even more amazing was the huge surprise – former President of the United States of America Barack Obama gate-crashed the party!! There he was in T-Shirt and jeans accompanied by his delectable wife, Michelle whose book:“Becoming”is already a blockbuster.
She was the first to speak:
“When they go low we go high.”
The rest of her speech was drowned in the spontaneous standing ovation which erupted.
Barack ever so gently persuaded his wife to surrender the microphone. Thereafter, he held us spellbound when he launched into his inimitable brand of oratory:
“I listened to Professor Olatunji and watched the film. Things are never as good as we think, when they are going well, and never as bad as we think when they aren’t. Let me tell you what I believe. I believe in a vision of equality and justice and freedom and multi-racial democracy, built on the premise that all people are created equal, and they are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. And I believe that a world governed by such principles is possible and that it can achieve more peace and more co-operation in pursuit of a common good. That’s what I believe.”
He was rewarded with wild applause that went on for over ten minutes.
He was not done yet.
“Too much of politics today seems to reject the very concept of objective truth. We see the utter loss of shame among political leaders where they are caught in a lie and they just double down and they lie some more. When you look at American (Lagos!!) history, there’s always been a push and pull – between those (like J.K. Randle) who promote the politics of hope and those who exploit the politics of fear.”
The audience went into rapture.
That was the juncture at which the Pulitzer prize winning American Journalist, Thomas Friedman, interrupted proceedings and insisted that rather than adopt the United States of America’s model which (arguably) has become obsolete and is crumbling under President Donald Trump, Africa would be better served by buying into the political culture of China which is anchored on the concept of “one game at a time” reinforced by “the political tradition of selecting able and capable people and governing the country with the support of the people.”
Ironically, it was Alhaji Sani Sanda whose family roots are in Kano (which he has never visited) but he along with his father and grandfather were born in Lagos, who insisted on chipping in what he described as a word or two.He then proceeded to enthral the audience with his voyage into nostalgia–how he grew up in Isalegangan area of Lagos (Agarawu Street) speaking Yoruba as his first language. It was much later that he learnt to speak Hausa, the language of his ancestors.
He could not recall any harassment, tension or conflict in Lagos until the military took over. Since then, whatever fault lines may have existed have been recklessly exploited and cynically exacerbated.
Not to be left out was an Ibo, Obi Ezenwa who was my classmate at Lagos Government School (a primary school). His father was a policeman who had two wives and six children. All of them lived in one room in the police barracks. Regardless, everything in the barracks was spick and span. How the father was able to juggle his challenging domestic arrangements must have been in the realms of the superhuman.
Bashorun J.K. Randle
