---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 10:13:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dr. Madiba Saidy <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: UTILITIES AND QUALITY OF LIFE
Any parallel with the motherland?
Best regards,
Madiba.
-----------------------------
POST EXPRESS
Category: Editorial
Date of Article: 04/05/2000
Topic: The Utilities and the Quality of Life
Author: Obaro Ikime
Full Text of Article:
IT was a Sunday morning. I was on my way to church at about 8.000 am. In
front of me was a beautiful Peugeot 505 car, its boot laden with kegs of
water. Until we dug a well that was the portion of my family for years.
Imagine the man-hours spent by that man, the husband and father, fetching
water every week. Imagine the constant anger and frustration. Imagine the
otherwise avoidable tensions and quarrels that waterlessness in the home
could cause. A Sunday morning. Wife and children wanting to bathe and get
ready for church. Breakfast being prepared. No water. What a life!
Some may react by saying the case I am dwelling on has a car. What about the
millions who have to treck kilometres to fetch water? Yes, indeed. That
merely underscores the point I am making. Three children go out with three
basins, the size they can carry. They come back, after may be one or two
hours. It is a family of six or even eight. Can they all really afford to
have a bath off those three basins of water? Not really. So they engage in
various stages of wet cleaning not to say dry cleaning! So clothes that
should be washed are not washed. So toilets are not flushed as they should.
So, so, so!!! The state of our public utilities nationwide is deplorable
such that the quality of life is high only for the bulk that have both
boreholes and generators. So the rest of our people can suffer and die?
Doesn't anybody care? Is there no way we can achieve what the smaller
African nations around us have achieved? The giant of Africa. Will this
always be in words only? Will confederation solve the problem of our
utilities? Is it aliens who steal chemicals meant for water treatment in the
states? Does nobody care?
Last week, I wanted to have a haircut I went to barbers. No light, so they
sat down idly for most of the day. These are young people who have learnt a
trade so they can look after themselves. NEPA undermines their means of
livelihood, and there is no way they can seek redress. Their takings for the
week would have been drastically reduced. The quality of their lives would
nose-dive. The small pepper grinders in the markets or in shades by their
houses eke out a living by this trade. NEPA takes off power for days on end
and deprives them of their means of livelihood. And they are utterly
helpless. They and their families suffer. So what? This is Nigeria. But this
is the 21st century. Have we no right to expect progress towards a better
life? I am again reminded of that joke that a Professor of Technology
included in his Inaugural lecture: in many Nigerian dances, we take a few
steps forward and many backwards! He wondered whether that explains our lack
of technological progress. Now I wonder whether that is what informs
governance in our nation - few steps forward and many backward. What is the
matter with Nigeria.
What about NITEL? You will wonder why NITEL cannot yet give you a phone for
which you are willing to pay their asking price. So your life is
disoriented, your personal and official commitments more difficult to keep.
Nobody cares. Sorry, there is nothing we can do yet come back next week. And
so it goes on, week after week.
There is a magic word in the air. Privatization. That will solve our
problems and improve our utilities. So we privatized the toll gates. I
reckon the reason was that the contractors who took over the toll gates
would pay lump sums to government which could be applied to the maintenance
of the roads on which we pay tolls. But look at the state of those roads
today. Take the Lagos-Benin Road. Four toll gates between Lagos and Benin.
Yet as we write sections of that road constitute death traps. A new rainy
season has begun. Those sections of the road will become worse and highly
impassable. The unwary driver could easily be ensnared. Nigerian lives could
be lost in accidents caused by the state of our roads. Who cares? What is
life after all. It is but a vapour! A vapour must evaporate!! So, why
bother? Yes, indeed, Nigeria? Happy New Millennium!!!
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