Detty December: Day Lagos Nearly Had A Heart Attack, by Muyiwa Adetiba

Doctors would say that a heart attack results when a seizure probably caused by a blockage of blood flow to the heart occurs. They would also opine that the causes leading to a heart attack don’t just happen. There is a buildup – my doctor friends should be laughing as I venture into this uncomfortable medical territory – that can go on for years but which can be stemmed or controlled at different points along its journey. Unfortunately, its many warning signs are often ignored leading to fatal incidents in susceptible individuals.

A situation which can make people believe it is hereditary and therefore, unpreventable. It is an erroneous and dangerous assumption. Although it can be hereditary in cases, it is often exacerbated by lifestyle choices. Simply put, anything that causes plaque to accumulate along the blood vessels can cause serious damage to body organs especially the heart. So, irrespective of birth or circumstances, it is left to every responsible adult to lead a lifestyle which prevents narrowing of blood vessels and thus ensures that life giving blood flows unhindered around the heart and brain.   

Lagos, in this instance is like the heart. Its location and situation make it to contribute significantly to the wealth and well-being of the country. Lagos State is largely an island and a peninsula with very limited land and more limited opportunity to expand.  Its wealth has unfortunately made it susceptible to a high influx of people from all over the country. This daily influx is like a plaque building up, threatening to clog the vessels. Unlike similar cities in the world whose location and situation have also made them commercial nerve centers, Lagos has not done enough to open up its transportation arteries with the large influx of people seemingly overwhelming its facilities. Rail transportation is at its infancy.

Water transportation is still experimental at best. Air transportation, including cable, is still at the drawing board. Even road transportation, the main one people are constrained to use, is laughable given the sheer volume of people that need to be moved on a daily basis. In other words, Lagos State, choked by its size, population and commercial activities, does not have a mass transportation system that is anywhere near adequate to alleviate its traffic problem. If we liken the Lagos situation as an island to a hereditary problem which requires careful management, then the lifestyle choices of its residents make it prone to traffic heart attacks. 

These lifestyle choices include, but not limited to, indiscipline, impunity, selfishness, lack of empathy for others and gross lack of basic civility. An average Nigerian doesn’t like to queue. He doesn’t like to obey rules or respect due process. There is an innate joy in thinking he has outsmarted the next person even if undeserved. This psyche cuts across education, tribe, position or religion. This attitude of ‘I before others’ is the Nigerian identity. It starts with a President who locks up a busy City in the afternoon sun so he can have an unfettered ride across town.

A simple but sensitive gesture could have made him consider the most undisruptive period. Or use a helicopter. Or a Governor whose convoy disrupts traffic on a very busy street knowing it is going to leave chaos in its wake. Or a religious leader who thinks more of revenue than the well-being of the poor. It goes on to the wife who sits on the only toilet seat in the house pressing phones not caring if the husband is getting late for work; and a driver who exchanges Oga’s new tyres for fairly used ones so he can make some money for himself at Christmas. A basic empathy and consideration for the interests of others would lead to a more sensitive and functional society.

Instead, what we do is take our ‘I before others’ attitude to the streets. If we want to know how our society runs, we should visit Lagos streets on a busy day. There, you find our Armed Forces, the so called ‘Disciplined Forces’ at their most undisciplined. They are the ones who will lead the way in breaking traffic rules. There, on the streets, you will hear the strident blare of sirens as they lead their elite passengers on a ‘one way’ street. You will find armored vehicles and expensive cars jostling for illegal spaces with ‘Korope’ and ‘Danfo’. There, you will find the educated and the illiterate; the rich and the poor swearing at each other with gusto.

There, you will find the most basic lack of sensitivity and common sense as a traffic intersection is willfully blocked by vehicles that are not going anywhere fast. When all rights have been abused and every available space blocked, and emotions spent, then a street urchin emerges to free the gridlock and endure a temporary flow of traffic. It never ceases to amaze me how educated Lagosians allow themselves to indulge in this unenlightened self-interest. It doesn’t take much education to know that traffic signs are there for a purpose; to ensure safe and orderly movement of vehicles.

Lagos nearly had a traffic heart attack on the Thursday before Christmas. Several recordings showed how Lagos almost chocked itself to a standstill. The videos showed the popular Ozumba Mbadiwe and several major streets on Victoria Island blocked at 3am. What the videos didn’t show was that many side streets were also affected. The newly opened Coastal Road also had its share of the bumper to bumper traffic as late as 3am. Many exasperated, but as usual undisciplined motorists, simply packed on the road and walked to their destination thereby worsening the situation. Although Lagos Island took the brunt of it, the gridlock was also on the Mainland, especially Ikeja on that fateful Thursday. 

Like the human heart attack, the warning signs are always there. But the traffic management authorities choose to ignore them. Especially at Christmas. We know Lagos traffic builds up around December. We know that the new phenomenon called Detty December has added to the pressure in recent years. We know right of way and intersections are the first to be ignored followed by traffic lights when traffic builds up. Yet, those critical areas are not sufficiently manned. Instead, this is when some security officers choose to do their ‘stop and search’ putting more pressure on the traffic.

Lagos roads – and people- deserve a better transportation system beyond ‘Korope’ and ‘Marwa’ buses. They should have outgrown those ones. Lagos needs a more comprehensive, integrated and modern transportation system. And no disciplined City allows people to be dropped and picked up anywhere along the road. The phenomenon of ‘one-chance’ buses where passengers are deprived of their phones and money has gone on for too long. It should not become part of life in a City that wants to keep welcoming diaspora visitors. Lagos in December deserves better planning and better foresight to prevent incessant traffic heart attacks. Lives might literally be lost if these gridlocks continue.

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