The recent decision by the Lagos State Government to ban rather than regulate okada (commercial motorcyclers) and keke Marwa (tricycles), sounds posh, innit? Big city! Oho!
But beyond the urbanisation rhetoric is sprawling, gnawing poverty and misery left unaddressed: millions of people across Lagos whose survival depend on these sources of livelihood now have their basic existence threatened. And this is in addition to the neck-breaking inconvenience to millions of commuters who crisscross smaller road networks across the state every single second of every single day and utilize these modes of transport. One of the millions of people directly impacted by the fall-out of this monstrous policy is our own Miss Aisha Saleh, the Glistening Genius we discovered in one of our Lagos communities. Fifteen year-old Aisha, academic genius, polyglot and child’s rights campaigner, whose refusal of an international passport by Immigration officers at the Ikoyi, Lagos passport office to attend an international children’s conference in Geneva last November as the guest of the United Nations and representative of our country, made some news.
Aisha’s dad, Saleh Mohammed is a keke Marwa driver. That’s the only thing he does for a living and from which he fends for Aisha and her brother Mohammed (their mum being dead since about a decade ago). Their dad has refused to remarry, dedicating his life to caring for the duo who stay with their grandmother in Monkey Village. Besides the educational scholarship from CEE-HOPE, the weight of feeding and every other thing rests on the fifty-something year-old. You can then imagine the impact on these kids and for millions of others like them across Lagos who are barely surviving a fragile economy- multifaceted impact.
Dear, so that’s how Lagos ‘nourishes’ its young, especially those sired by their perennially criminalized urban poor adults.
Clearly, government entities across the world make conscious efforts by their policies and body languages to project their poor-friendliness outlook and overall inclusiveness. But Nigeria, and especially Lagos State prides itself by how it terrorizes and pushes its most vulnerable into extinction. Check it up; it’s the biggest news that emanates from Lagos every single year: ban on this, ban on that and targeting the struggling poor, or shooting to death of slum dwellers in routine illegal and crude raids in the name of forced evictions. Count: Maroko. Makoko. Badia East. Otodo-Gbame etc. and just recently, Tarkwa Bay. All inhabited by millions of kids, school age kids, chased into homelessness, instability and damp directionlessness. And yet we are the country with the highest number of out of school kids. Common on, where is the sense in that?
Nothing wrong with aspiring to be a big city, but then, you have to have the big city reality: infrastructure, standards of living, employment rate and other indexes. And even then, in achieving that status, does it have to be overnight, and at what cost? How about consulting the potential victims of such sledge hammer policy for alternative livelihood engagements? What about bringing to life a non-existent welfare system?
And if you cannot improve the lot of your impoverished population, must you necessarily habitually crush and push them into further misery, actually, extinction? Does it actually make any sense that the country designated the ‘Poverty Capital of the World’ also has the worst anti-poor policies?
And what about child-friendliness? What about preserving the interrupted development of its vulnerable young population?
But then that’s what happens when the worst among us are thrusted the jagged reins of power.
No creative thinking. No empathy. No care for perceptions. No thoughts for sustainable development. Emptiness. Savagery.
That’s the tragic story of Nigeria.
A BIG SHAME ON YOU, LAGOS!
Abah, a journalist and child’s rights activist, is the founder of CEE-HOPE, a child’s right and development NGO
Reports reaching InsideBenue reveals that some gunmen have on Sunday attacked a Benue Link passenger bus, abducting not fewer than 10 passengers.
The incident occured around Olanyega community along Otukpo-Otukpa road in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State.
According to the Secretary General of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (Benue Links chapter), Comrade Gabriel Tachia, the fully loaded bus was on its way to Makurdi from Onitsha before it was hijacked on the Benue road.
“Four passengers were released as at yesterday night (Sunday) after the army gave the abductors a hot chase. It was a fully loaded bus (with 15 occupants). The bus was returning from Onitsha to Makurdi,” Tachia told newsmen.
Mr Omale Omale, the Commissioner for Power, Energy and Transport who confirmed the development to newsmen in Makurdi said information are sketchy.
The Makurdi Zonal Centre of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), said among the passengers abducted was a staff of the organisation.
According to the report, the kidnappers demanded N60 million, but reduced the demand to N16 million as ransom before their victims gain freedom.
The operation which lasted over 30 minutes, according to locals, occurred at 2:30pm on Sunday, leaving motorists plying that section of the highway helpless.
A local chief in the area, who escaped being caught up in the attack, narrated that the spot – Olanyega/Okpudu – where the incident happened on the Otukpo-Ugbokolo-Enugu Expressway had over time become unsafe for commuters.
Recall that similar incident involving two buses of the transport company a fortnight ago around Ajaokuta in Kogi State. 28 people were kidnapped.
Tachia however added that eight of the 10 Lagos-bound passengers abducted in Kogi axis had been released remaining two victims.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Benue Command, SP Catherine Anene, confirmed the incident.
Following the nomination of Nollywood actor and son of the late Pastor Odukoya, Jimmy Odukoya as successor of his popular father by the Board of Trustees of Fountain of Life Church on Sunday, a social media influencer, Barr. Jov Tersoo took to his Facebook page to congratulate the new overseer. But his post with different reactions from his readers:
Tersoo writes: Congratulations to Jimmy Odukoya. This is why some people keep referring to Pentecostal churches as family empires. Also a reason why no one want to serve under another person as a pastor. No matter how good and faithful you are, the general overseer’s son is prepared to take the lead when the father is gone. May his reign be great.
Below are some of the reactions:
✍ Idoko Noah Sanni commented “The hair style if not natural dada (dread) and you still remain in the church you need check up,we thank God for orthodox background”
✍ Tertindi Teeter writes: “Thanks be to God Almighty who uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.”
✍ Ololade Paul writes: “With this kind of hair style? This is not how we met Christianity!”
✍ Usha Humphrey writes: “He looks like a superstar”
✍ Walter Ogar writes: “Joel Osteen took over from his father John Osteen, founder of Lakewood Church and has surpassed all expectations. Just listen to God, what is he saying?”
✍ Ishaya Danladi writes: “The founder of the Redeemed Christian Church of God followed a path that most overseers dread to take. He made someone not even related to him to take over the helm of affairs before his departure. Most presidents and founders of modern pentecostal churches start their work with the view that it is a family business.”
✍ Aondona Manta write: “Jov, Who was the leader of the Jerusalem council of elders, or if we must put it in today’s parlance, the Chairman of the Board in Jesus’ ministry after his death and resurrection?”
✍ Sammie Adoche writes: “Until you know the circumstances surrounding his nomination it’s wrong to call any church a family business. Jimmy is not someone who will normally want to take up such mantle but if it’s God’s what will he do.”
✍ Ayodele Yemitope writes “I feel that’s subjective… It’s not all churches that get another person that’s not a family member that ends up more Successful and it’s not all churches that has the son or family of the founder take over that becomes a Success. What matters is if God is leading in that direction. Jimmy has been a Pastor in TFL for a while now long before the Dad’s death. But for the Dreads that seems kind off out of place to many. Every other things is okay from man’s point of view from God side that’s for those that have heard in line. The real deal is when the Latter House Surpass the Former”
✍ Dommie Kay writes “Any man that can go sit in the salon, washing, conditioning drying and braiding, as in braiding his hair should be feared, e get why. Even women don’t enjoy the experience, we only enjoy it for the beauty of the outcome.”
Jimmy, a Nollywood actor and musician who featured prominently Netflix’s ‘Woman King’ movie as Oba Ade was announced to the church on Sunday as his father’s successor.
According to a member of the BoT, Pastor Rotimi Okpaise, the late Taiwo Odukoya confided in the board of trustees (BoT) members about the succession plan before his demise.
Late Pastor Odukoya
Okpaise said the BoT unanimously elected Jimmy as the senior pastor and chairperson of the board..
Jimmy will be formally installed on Saturday, September 30, 2023.
The former Senior pastor and founder died on August 7, Odukoya, in the United States of America aged 67.
Some angry youths have come out en mass on Wednesday, taking over the Gboko-Aliade highway to protest the poor state of the road and collapse of Nomnor bridge near Gboko Rice Mill.
The youths, numbering hundreds, barricaded the federal road, preventing any form of vehiclular movement.
Due to the situation, motorists and commuters were left stranded around Nomnor River Rice Mill, Gboko Local Government Area, LGA, of the state. They were forced to seek alternative routes to their destinations.
According to the youths, they had earlier protested and called necessary attentions to the situation but nothing was done about it.
According to them, heavy duty trucks had fallen into the eroded portion of the road. And most cases, , motorists use people’s farm lands as alternatives to avoid the bad portion of the federal road.
“And finally today after the heavy rain of last night the bridge linking Rice Mill and Fidei Polytechnic settlements was washed away by flood, thereby worsening our situation.
“So we cannot continue to watch because the destroyed bridge will also affect our people who use it daily. We are peaceful in our demands but we are so angry because before this happened we had protested over the state of the road but nobody listened to us until the situation got to this point.
“We have advised all motorists to seek alternative routes for now because the bridge is in bad state and the road itself is in a state of disrepair,” one of the youths told reporters.