First Niger bridge Vs idiocy of vandals

When President Muhammadu Buhari was in office many Nigerians from the South East and South South harassed the man repeatedly over the non-completion of the Second Niger Bridge. The first Niger Bridge had become very inadequate to ferry people from that part of the world to the world opposite it. People would sleep in their cars for days waiting for their turn to cross the bridge. Government was, of course, the battering ram. Mercifully, Buhari rose to the occasion. He gave us the second Niger Bridge, a bridge of gleaming newness and we returned to the happy shores of smooth transportation in that part of the country. But recently, there was a graceless burst of bad news: the first bridge had been vandalized, by who else, vandals. We thought that salvation had knocked at our doors and that the days of sleeping at the bridge was over. But the vandals were ready to turn our days, once more, into nights. They stole and removed structural components including bolts, nuts, iron bars and portions of the expansion- joint steelwork. This activity compromised the stability of that transport corridor that links Onitsha in Anambra State and Asaba in Delta State and the rest of Nigeria. The Minister of Works, Mr David Umahi moved smartly to survey the scene and found the setting to be sordid. He shut down the bridge on September 7, 2026 for urgent repairs and safety upgrades. This rehabilitation work involved resurfacing work, provision of solar street lights and CCTV cameras etc. Many people have got into paroxysms of outrage about the state of the bridge but that is not enough. How could people vandalise a busy bridge, even at night and nobody sees them or stops them? A bridge is the property of everybody, men and women, rich and poor, bicyclists and motorcyclists, car drivers and lorry managers. It is a property that is jointly owned and ought to be jointly protected. Is this what is called the winner’s curse, a situation where you have something useful that you do not want or you let it turn into a calamity? One would have thought that with the kind of steam-rising frustration that travellers experienced before the second bridge was built people would be happy to stand guard over their two bridges so that they do not return to their wilderness days again.

Late Buhari

The barbed wire of this issue is that doing the opposite of what can make our country better, much better, than what it is now is becoming a habit formed by our citizens. Take the flooding issue as an example. Several States in Nigeria such as Lagos, Ogun, Delta, Rivers, Kebbi, Anambra and Edo have been devastated by flood. Flood is caused by rain, heavy rain and nobody can stop rain from falling, from doing its duty to mankind. When rain falls it waters our farms and our gardens. It provides water for use in people’s houses for different activities. That is the good part. But when the rain is heavy, too heavy, it disrupts people’s lives and neighbourhoods, damages what should not be damaged. That is the bad part of it. In some parts of Africa including Nigeria, there are people who claim to be rain doctors, people who can stop the rain from falling but instead get the sun to shine brightly during the rainy season if there is some ceremony that is going on. I wonder where these fellows are now that there is heavy rain in most parts of Nigeria and the world. If they can stop rain from falling they can become instant billionaires in states and countries where rain has caused serious flooding and damage to people’s lives. They would actually be much sought after in several countries where flood has killed several people and submerged buildings and destroyed businesses. But that is the fraud that has gone on in Nigeria for decades.

In Lagos, heavy rains have often submerged areas such as Lekki, Agege, Alimosho and Surulere largely because some residents dump plastic waste, nylon and refuse directly into canals and gutters, thus blocking the flow of water. When that happens, they don’t blame themselves for bringing the calamity to themselves. They blame the government. How can the government be the battering ram for a problem caused by us, caused by our refusal to do what is right? And it is not only in Lagos alone that this is happening. It is the case in virtually every part of the country. In Gombe State, for instance, flash floods have submerged thousands of houses and shops in communities across local government areas like Dukku and Funakaye due to heavy rainfall which is worsened by blocked culverts and poor waste disposal. Blocked drainage and indiscriminate waste accumulation at the wrong places are the main causes of the woes we face at this time. And then we shift the blame to other people especially the government. Yes, governments have the major responsibility for the efficient planning of our cities and towns but we also have a role to play. There are areas not designated for building by the government; some of us still go ahead and build there. If the government bulldozes that building we say it is human rights violation. If there is an area where we are not allowed to dump refuse we ignore the warning but go ahead and dump refuse there. If we get taken to court we say that the government does not have a human face and that it does not want the poor to survive. Or are the poor prevented from obeying laws that are good for all of us? We may have some governments that have not done much for the enhancement of our nation’s good but we certainly do have, also, citizens that have not contributed to the progress of our country. A country’s progress cannot be achieved by a slam dunk method as you could have in basketball. It comes inch by inch and with the cooperation and support of those who live in the country. We, as citizens, are not doing much to help our various governments to achieve the Eldorado that we want. If you look at what some of us did to the first Niger Bridge, what some of us have done to accentuate flooding in the cities where we live, what some of us did during EndSARS revolt, you will agree with me that we are not generally performing our own duties efficiently in the Office of the Citizen. We are like the scorpion that chose to sting the horse that carried him across the stream. That is wicked. That is repaying good with evil. You may also look at the baby that bites the nipples that give it milk. But that is innocence. The baby does not know that wounding that nipple may affect the flow of the milk on which it survives. So the baby is forgiven. But the people who vandalised the first Niger Bridge are adults. They know what they are doing. They are simply wicked, selfish, uncaring; they should not be forgiven. They should be punished. Besides, people who see people do something wrong, something that can mortgage our collective patrimony, or affect, negatively, our future must do something to stop them. That is part of the duty that we owe to ourselves and our country. That is what can halt the idiocy that some of us get involved in which at the end of the day affects us all negatively. The message here is that while the government has a duty to do to make us happy, we also have a duty to ourselves, a duty to make us happy too.

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