Tuesday 2 August 2011

WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK HOME

When I woke up on the 2nd of August 2011 I did not expect that I would be sitting in front of my laptop and actually writing this piece, however as the day unfolded it became inevitable that I let out my mind on the issues discussed here.

Waking up this morning was just like every other Tuesday when I had to travel from Northampton to Coventry (a 30 min journey) for a physiotherapy class and a meeting with my project supervisor, it was supposed to be regular. As usual, I got to the physio class pretty early and I sat down in the lobby waiting for my session to commence and just there and then it sounded; the fire alarm.
The sound of the alarm was extremely loud I’m sure people who are 300 miles away from the hospital could have heard it, but as a naija boy, this was quite alien to me, I just thought it was just a routine meant for just the hospital staff and there was nothing to worry about, but right there before me I saw an evacuation team so I said to myself this must be very serious. Everybody in the building were hurriedly escorted out in to an open ground called a fire assembly and in roughly two minutes I started to hear the sirens of the fire services, then I sighed in relief because I had thought I would probably take about 45 minutes before they get there.
This little incidence left me thinking and wondering why the Oduala’s residence and the Osusanya’s residence were burnt down beyond recognition.
Space and time would not permit me to go into the situation of this two families who happened to be one of my closest family friend, but what I can say is this incidence is another reason why Nigerians in diaspora would not come back home.
At the Oduala’s residence when the fire started a phone call was immediately made to the fire service HQ, where it was confirmed that the Alagomeji fire services (10 minutes away)had a shortage of water and as such cannot respond to them, therefore they would have to call the next available station which was somewhere on the island, however before they go there the house was no more and there was no more fire to quench.
The situation at the Osusanya’s residence was also similar, the only difference is that it is a more annoying case , because there is a fire station just at University of Lagos about three minutes away from the Osusanya’s however when they were called their response was anywhere outside the university is out of jurisdiction and then the call was forwarded to Alagomeji which is also close to the house and the same story of no water was told before it was finally forwarded to the station on the island and believe me your guess is as good as mine there was no more fire to quench when the fire men got there.
Looking at this true incidence which happened in the same year around the same environment would answer the question my friend Bisi had asked me which is when are u coming back home.
When are you coming back to the country with so much opportunities, but all can be lost in the twinkling of an eye?
When are you coming back to the country where you stand a 60% to get killed by unknown reasons (98% for those in the north).
When are you coming back to the country that has gold on the floor, but a three square meal is difficult to come by?
When are you coming to a country that has a 70% literacy rate yet 0ver 70% of the population are living below the poverty line?
The answer is I don’t know, in fact I probably wish I did not have to.
I know a lot of people would have one of two comments about this article, please kindly leave them in the space provided at the bottom.