Lagos: Between Screeching and Crowing

Tony Monye

Lagos is different. Because it is different there is an urgent need for the nation’s former capital and its commercial heartbeat to review how it views itself. At the TMBC Business, we understand that both the need and the choice for the city to deliberately hug a paradigm shift are quite stark, cogent, pressing and burning. Thus far, the extant ways Lagos views itself have been nothing short of inappropriate, opportunity-evading, archaic and self-limiting. Our dear Lagos is ill-advisedly attempting to speed forward by gazing into the rearview mirror. Views, regardless of our individual slants, are extremely important and cannot be easily discountenanced. What we see defines and shapes our comprehension and response mechanisms. Truly, views can be demanding, rewarding and punishing as one of the cornerstones of actions.

Views, as we know, can present some awesome or awful expositions. On the surface, the four-lettered word – view – appears simple, defining sight but that, in no way, completely spell its power to illuminate and become the causal energy behind actions. Views shape perceptions, offer vent and strength and even form our sense of missions and visions and the follow-through actions to the attainment of objectives. Appropriacy, or otherwise, of views, therefore, has got its consequences. At the moment, strangely and sadly, Lagos views itself as so much less; more of a chicken when in fact it is supposed to be like the king of all feathery fellows – the imperial eagle. Lagos proudly hobnobs with the other ‘fowls’, crowing when it is supposed to be the lone-flying eagle, screeching. Instead of Lagos embracing the elegance, candour and grace of the eagle, the centre of excellence is firmly holding the shiftless and guardedness persona of the chicken. Instead of Lagos espousing the typical royal and inspiring voyage of the eagle, it is forcefully clutching the characterless and shabby short flight of the local fowl. That is the Lagos we experience daily.

A slothful Lagos consistently compares itself poorly. The city benchmarks itself against Port Harcourt, Asaba, Kano, Ibadan, Akure and the rest of the horde. Lagos even views itself more from the booth of a state – like Rivers, Delta, Anambra or Jigawa. Internationally, the land of rich aquatic splendour likens itself to Lusaka, Cotonou, Accra, Nouakchott etc. when, under the torchlight of economic appraisals, none of them are in any way like Lagos. As the awkward chicken, Lagos invents and sustains programmes of significantly less value. For instance, the Thursday environmental exercise for markets, which impoverishes traders. The loss of 12 man-hours every month has both tax and wealth implications. The cancellation of the exercise present job creation opportunity as professional cleaners can be engaged. As a graceless fowl, instead of hastily embracing its meta-city and growing cosmopolitan status, Lagos is harping its glorious tribal past. To deny this is to rebut one of its essences. The various administrations’ slogans have remained tribal in spite of the greater wisdom, which should disclose and revel in inclusiveness. Viewing Lagos as a tribal enclave bears very little berries.

It is time Lagos went for a paradigm shift in views. Lagos should discontinue playing tone-deaf to the challenging and quixotic loud calls from international capitals like Berlin, Paris, London and Tokyo etc. The city should view itself a lot more, embodying and displaying the genetics of the eagle rather than exhibiting the transmissible traits of the chicken. Lagos should embrace multiculturalism (in dictating and shaping plans, thoughts, policies and visions) for it is another source of unbelievable growth. In its best context Lagos is a mini-Nigeria. A stitch in time, they say, halts nine.

•Tony Monye is Publisher/CEO, The TMBC Business