EIGHT LAGOSES
November 2011; I was with the Federal Road Safety Corps in a Summit that was to prepare their officers and men to ensure safe year-end commutes around the country. Venue was Merit House, Maitama, Abuja… where the roads are almost paved with gold. How was all that pretty talk going to translate to safety on the rocky paths that led to Ugbene-Ajima, an obscure town in Enugu’s backwoods? I couldn’t tell.
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August 2012; I was with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as their sound and vast resource person led us through the steps for formulating and implementing migration policies that are healthy for both the emigrant and immigrant countries. Venue was Chelsea Hotel, Central Business District, Abuja… A place so beautiful it can stifle the hunger of wanting to go abroad. How was all that wisdom in International Law on display going to affect the 25-year-olds of Ozubulu with no visible path to a reasonable future but South Africa, Malaysia…?
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July 2015; I was at the Summit on the North-East. Buhari had taken over, and discussions on how to curb the Boko Haram menace and rebuild the region were rife. Venue was the NAF Conference Center on Ahmadu Bello, Abuja. When it was lunch time, I saw the resplendent buffet and wondered… How’s all this cheese and chicken and desserts and all these fine food going to alleviate the trauma of Chibok, Biu, Gosa, Damboa, etc? How would this gathering so far away from the troubled spot reasonably affect anything? Would all these pot-bellied men even survive an hour in Sambisa?
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August 2017; I wasn’t there, but I heard: The eggheads of Nigeria’s economy percolated in one of the finest hotels in Nigeria’s Economic Capital. Easier to say who wasn’t there than who was! But everybody from Dangote… Soludo to Lamido; Ezekwesili, Iweala, Obi, Fashola, name them. All the Bank MDs and Captains of Industries, and the vast clan of the Yoruba elites! They were there. The issues were population growth, and the economic growth that ought to accompany it: youth engagement – that is employment; and then other things… including politics of course.
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Was a fine Lagos hotel the right venue for that conversation? YES! The finer, the better! And I hope their microphones were loud enough to reach the elites ensconced in the suites within the hotel enjoying the niceties of this life. The consensus was that, by 2050 when Nigeria’s population would be hovering around 500 million, there better be eight more Lagoses to accommodate the explosion. Because Lagos, as it is, is not sustainable. The high and mighty that dwell in Ikoyi, Magodo, Banana Island… that spend their weekends in suites inside Intercontinental or Eko Atlantic… ought to know that their bliss is not impregnable. It is in fact at a perilous junction, heaved now and again by the vagaries of the weather and climate, but ultimately at the risk of human pressure.
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Yar’Adua’s government tried to create Mega Cities, that is, support the most cosmopolitan and populous states with the financial might of the Federal Government to speed up infrastructural development. I’m not sure that’s still on course. In any case, no one can be more concerned now than the elites of Lagos. If we recall, the war in Syria pushed refugees outwards into Europe; at first, the immigrant countries tried to stem the inflows with force, but later resorted to devising containment strategies that they’d never had to devise in times past, including becoming more interested in the Syrian Civil War.
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If Lagos wants to survive, it must inspire the building of other Lagoses. Is there even time for inspiration?! It must roll up its sleeves and go about building the economic cities that will relieve it of some burden.
That was part of what the economic bigwigs were discussing in Lagos. Yes, Lagos is the right venue for such a discussion; the very mighty hotels where the influential sleep with their guards down.
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Good morning.