IT has always been less than fun driving through the crammed streets of Lagos, what with the huge traffic and pothole-riddled roads. Sometimes, too, the rubbish from a nearby refuse dump spill out onto the road, and everywhere gets all smelly and messy. But, even more annoying than traffic jams, potholes and overflowing dirt is the sight of a decomposing corpse, a human being, lying dead out on the roadside.

Sadly, this recurring scene plays out everyday, much the same as if it were a flower garden or a piece of artwork put there to beautify the road. A regular road user, Mr. John Isiekwe, once found himself caught in a slow moving traffic beside a body and even months after, he still grimaces as he narrates his experience. “I was so angry and irritated...I mean, I had to sit right there in my car because I just couldn’t get out and walk away. The corpse was beside my door and I was in the middle of a hold-up...� he said.


According to Mrs. Uche Johnson, another respondent who feels burdened by the incidence of corpses on the streets, no one should be left to decompose on the road, even the so-called armed robbers. Her words: “I just can’t imagine it. I know that we all shall one day leave this world, but if someone dies on the road, it is good for him to be buried by his family or even the government. Even if they put him in the ground without a coffin, it is still better than for the body to just stay on the road, in rain and sun, and just be decomposing there! How can a humanbeing be left to decompose like a common fowl?� Speaking further, Mrs. Johnson expresses dismay at people who leave their homes without telling their loved ones where they are going or without a form of identification.


“Anything can happen; we don’t pray for evil, but this is life. If for instance, you have an accident, people can trace your family and say, ‘come oh, something has happened oh...’ But when you’re like a nobody; no name, no address, how can people help out? These are some of the victims who remain on the street for days, I tell you.�


Corroborating this opinion, a health worker with the Lagos State Government who gave his name as Tunde Esan, says that his department is often compelled to carry out mass burial of unidentified and unclaimed bodies who have stayed in the morgues for days. “Only two days ago, I and some of my colleagues went to remove a body that had been along Sanya bus stop for three days. The people around said the man was killed by a hit-and-run driver. No document whatsoever was found on him. Can you imagine?� Indeed, around the city of Lagos and other cities of this country, we find corpses on the streets almost on daily basis. It has reached an alarming proportion, I daresay, for we are not in a war situation. Surely, accidents happen every now and then, even in the so-called first world countries.


It is also possible that someone who perhaps had been terminally ill, or hypertensive, whichever, could just slump dead on the street. And then again, there are those suspected criminals who get lynched or roasted alive on the streets. But after a person, for whatever reason dies on the road, what happens? When a dead body remains on the ground for a full day, or several days, what does that say about us as a people? That we have gone back to the stone age, or that we have no regard for the sanctity of man, breathing or dead? What about the council officials and health workers whose job it is to evacuate corpses from the roads?


This seems to be a sore spot and Mr. Esan is quick to exonerate himself and his colleagues from any blame, whilst pointing accusing fingers at the general public. “Do you think we (the council) like it when a corpse is on the road for days? But we can’t be everywhere at the same time. The ones (bodies) we see, we evacuate them quickly. But I challenge you (the public); if you find a corpse on your street or on the major road, what do you do? Tie handkerchief on your nose and turn your face, abi? What stops you from coming together, residents of the affected area, to remove the corpse?�


The reason as to why people rarely want to get involved in such matters is not farfetched, as Mr. Festus Iheanyi, a boutique owner at the Alaba Market, Ojo road, explains. “Sometime last year, a car killed one man on this road, so we all (traders) gathered ourselves and went to call the Police. They (the Police) advised us to go to the council. When we went there, the council officials told us to bring N10,000. We asked them, ‘what for?’ Were we responsible for the man's death?� In the same vein, Mr. Stephen Atuche, a resident of Okokomaiko, a suburb of Lagos, says that doing ‘that kind’ of community service could land you in trouble, like it did him. “I’m not sure I want to try it again (helping to evacuate a corpse),� he said, recounting how he and a few of his neighbours ended in the police detention cell for almost 24 hours, and then bailing themselves with N2,000 each, because they tried to remove a corpse that was found near their street.


However, Mr. Esan would not shift ground as to his position on the need to have the general public participate in clearing out the streets when necessary. He gives a word of advice on how to go about it. “Common sense should tell you that to remove a corpse, you first of all have to go to the Police and get a report. The people who go (to the Police) should look responsible and decent because appearance tells a lot. They should go with a work identity card to show that they are not layabouts or criminals. After all, the corpse cannot talk to say who or what killed him. I’m sure that the police are not animals. They will listen and give the necessary support.�

disgusting: i was in lagos in september of 2004, on transit, and yet i had ample opportunity to witness the scene. it was the same even at the time.

hallmarks of the breakdown of state apparatus.

human bodies, whether with identification or not, should be removed from the streets as soon as they fall. factually, an ambulance should be blairing horns to the scene as soon as a call is made of a hit and run, just in case a life can be saved, even when it is the life of a robber. it's an abomination to let a dead body lie in full view of people, including innocents like children. walk back into the near past and discover a people who had proper attitudes towards the dead. now it looks as though being the first people to "bury" their dead in elaborate ritual that has been adopted by almost all on this planet counts for nothing. there's always room for degeneration.

from the attitudes of the people interviewed in this article one gets the impression they do not have the proper attitude to some things. this, however, is just part of the degeneration of the people as a whole. it can happen to anyone. if the government in an industrialized country adopted a lax attitude towards refuse, then people will start throwing heaps of rubbish at the street corner, and eventually will not even find the need to complain about the situation to the government. it becomes the way things are. if western ambulances did not respond as soon as they can to people lying in a pool of blood on the streets, then eventually it would become the accepted norm,and dead bodieswill beseen lying here and there.

a government, as theleaders,is judged by thecondition of the people, just like a farmer will be judged by the state of the creatures he breeds. the problems of waste and dilapidation in most African countries, (dead bodies left for ages on the streets in Nigeria, and a few other countries on the continent), is plainly anindicator of the failure of state aparatus, and it is not due to poverty but an inability by individual African governments to prioritise the proper things, to le nothing stand in the way of these choices once made, like well being of the masses, to ensure they develop service capacities to react appropriately to situations that may impact negatively on the health and psyches of the population at large. this is an indicator the people running thiscontinent are in large part clueless as to what makes any country tick.

Africa knows a lot of competent souls, but this state of thingsshows clearly that the current leadersare not of that calibre. by design, since things fell apart, African rulers have beenselected from those among our people who are least likely to have leadership acumen, to lead a modern nation. this is why theyare often seen chasing economic development while the engine to that goal, the masses, are left to rot in filth. they are clueless and liable to be played/toyed with by such obvious imperialistic structures as the IMF and World Bank.

how are you going to develop a country if you do not invest in the people and land?the argumentthere is very little moneyon the continent for such endsdoes not wash. Africa remains a cheap continent, wherebasic necesities can be had for a few dollars. the money our leaders waste on trips abroad, the amounts embezzled, stolen, could have created social housing and clothed our people a number of times over, yesterday. today we would also boast the same kind of social tranformation seen in the west, and many parts of Asia,in the second half of the last century: neat neighbourhoods complete with local amenities and such, access to good medical facilities, with physically and mentally healthy Africans to take us into a brighter tommorrow... the ultimate fulfillment of the investment.

talkof the need for social security on the continent, and the same overspending, misappropriating and thieving leaders will come up with the same old, tired argument of empty government coffers. the cost of areturn trip to New York for the sake of sightseeing or such is enough to build a proper prefab house for an entire family in Africa. property prices are indeed that low in this part of the world. a new mercedes or SUV boughton such a tripis enough togive ten African families modern flat housing of the prefab kind.the amounts spent on a mansion bought in the rich suburbs of America or Europe could give many more African families confortable and modern abode.

no wonder Africans are running away from the continent to get better lives abroad. i mean, look at the choices... a drab African landscape with dried up looking Africans building houses of straw that get blown over by the wolf, recently in the Mozambique storms, or the easily available and lavish social housing and social security system that industrialized countries offer imigrants.

it is true that when all is said and done, when all is solved and there is no corruption on the continent, there would still be very little money, but then where things like the mental and physical health of the people is concerned it's not about how much money a country has, but the priorities the leaders set.tbhink about this... if African leaders had invested in the land and peoplea generation ago, if they had taken the sacrifice, tightened the belt around the belly, today's Africa would look completely different. we would not have as bad an intellectual drain, nor would the mass migration of Africans or even capital flight be a problem.

rather than be fool to wait for that elusive day when $£money£$ (moon-ey) will be sufficient to lavishly spend on social projects, invest the little you have in the masses now and let future generations reap the rewards.

but then who am i even tqalking to? those fools leading most African countries cannot be convinced, too obtuse. what we need isREVOLUTION, i tell you.we need change, fast... because things are just bound to get worse.