Nigeria’s commercial capital is not the easiest place in the world to live in. When you think about the noise, traffic and the sheer restlessness of Lagos, it’s tempting to pack your bags and head to the village.
Lagos boasts of being a megacity but until Governor Raji Fashola’s tenure as governor, there was no real evidence of this. Governor Fashola gave Lagos state a new direction, putting in place structures to set Lagos on a sustainable path to long term development.
When the campaigns for the general elections began, it was easy for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to sell the electorate dreams of continuity. The party boasted that with the groundwork laid by Fashola, voting Akinwumi Ambode would ensure a consolidation on the efforts of the last eight years.
Governor Akinwumi Ambode won the election by quite a large margin and was expected to hit the ground running. Luckily, Lagosians and Nigerians as a whole do not demand too much from our leaders-surely this meant we would immediately start reaping the fruits of continuity.
If we had any such illusions, the past two months have cured us of such as the new face of Lagos has emerged. Traffic has worsened as the legendary “hold ups” have resurfaced, making it near impossible to get anywhere on time.
In a city where a large number of people make the Mainland-Island commute daily, traffic congestion means that most of us spend the larger part of our existence on third mainland bridge.
The larger problem has become the recent incidence of robberies in Lagos. Taking advantage of the traffic congestion, daring armed robbers attack motorists at all hours.
In the past week, there have been at least ten reported robberies in different parts of Lagos as it becomes glaring that the Lagos of old is returning.
As anxiety mounts, there has been little or no response from the Nigerian Police force and the Lagos state government as helpless citizens are left at the mercy of gunmen.
There’s no denying that Lagos now feels like a rudderless ship, quickly drifting into the waters of anarchy.