In the Grandiose Parlor…

I wonder why their demeanor does not correlate well with the hopelessness of their situation. Not only is their house flooded, the whole neighbor is under water, from the rains. Is this a form of adaptation to hard life?

This is what I see: Continue reading…

Oil company Royal Dutch Shell accepts responsibility for two oil spills in Nigeria’s niger delta between 2008 and 2009 about the same time a UN report reveals (PDF) that decades of oil spills and flagrant disregard for environmental safety in oil-rich Ogoniland region may require at least $1 billion cleanup cost.

The clean-up exercise would be the the world’s largest and costliest, lasting up to 30 years. The report, released by the U.N.’s environmental program, said that drinking water supplies within the oil-rich Niger Delta have been damaged by 50 years of crude oil spills. In some areas drinking water is contaminated so severely it needs immediate action.

Nigeria recorded at least 3,000 oil spills between 2006 and 2010.

Last year a Nigerian federal high court ordered Shell Nigeria to pay 15.4 billion naira (about US$100 million) in special and punitive damages to a Rivers State community for an oil spill that occurred in 1970.

What’s to be a sobering, nerve racking and proud moment for the people of Chile commenced today. I’m watching the extraction of the 33 Chilean miners who have been trapped half a mile underground for 68 days. As I watch, I could not help but imagine what could have happened had this been Nigeria. Continue reading…

I once read somewhere that “development is the gradual emergence of a problem-solving system”.

Nigeria is fraught with problems, the tooth-achy type that seem to last for ever. Power failure, crumbling infrastructure, failing institutions, etc.

Half a century down the road, can one say Nigeria has developed over the year?

Has any problem-solving system emerged since 1960 when the Brits passed on the baton? Food for thought!

To show how little ‘tourism’ is understood in Nigeria, I once saw the website of one of the western states list a cenotaph as a tourist attraction in the state. To the undiscerning reader, there is probably nothing wrong with that statement — if the structure in reference was a pedestrian-accessible grand masterpiece sitting a well manicured landscape.

But this is not the case: The structure stood derelict, overgrown by weeds, at the intersection of three major roads! Continue reading…

“Welcome to Lagos,” is a BBC documentary showcasing the experiences of three Lagos slum dwellers: Olusosun rubbish dump, where thousands of people live on, and rake a living from, scraps and garbage; Makoko, the “Venice of Lagos”, the extraordinary floating slum on the Lagoon, where everyone travels round in boats; and the 1000+ beach squatters living adjacent to the Atlantic.

It is a pity that the government and some Nigerians would rather not have the documentary shown; there are reports of protests from the government and pockets of Nigerians living in UK and USA.

The government states the documentary is “an attempt to bring Nigeria and its hardworking people to international odium and scorn”, saying, It’s a “deliberate distortion of life in Lagos, and totally unwarranted.” Very strong words to describe an excellent piece of work, I think. Continue reading…

Another ghastly but preventable road traffic mishap in Nigeria. Excerpts from AllAfrica.com:

The people of Ondo State have continued to mourn the death of about 42 pupils including teachers of Arisent Nursery and Primary School Ore in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State, last Wednesday night in a ghastly motor accident along Ondo/Ore road.

The unfortunate incident occurred at about 8.15pm when the pupils and the teachers of the Islamic School were returning from an excursion to Idanre hill. The school bus conveying the pupils and some staff of the school had a head on collision with a trailer due to the ray of the light of the trailer that distracted the driver of the ill-fated bus.

Some questions needing answers Continue reading…