Plea on Behalf of Opeloyeru Community, Orile-Iganmu, Lagos

I had received a phone call to attend the monthly meeting of Opeloyeru Community Development Association in Orile.

I packed my car on Babs Animashaun Street, Surulere and made my way by foot to the house of Chief Savage on Opeloyeru Road, the venue of the meeting.

Opeloyeru road is one of main roads running through Orile, which motorists except big trucks had long abandoned due to its deplorable state.

In a good condition, Opeloyeru Street serves as a alternative to decongest the traffic bottleneck at Doyin-Orile bus-stop and goes all the way to Coker, Aguda.

As I stood at the entrance of Opeloyeru road, I was faced with a sea of water as far as the eye could see as it had been raining almost non-stop for about 3 days. The only way to get to the venue of the meeting was to take off my sandals and preferably my trousers and wade through the water. Around me, men, women, and children going back and forth on the road were stripping and putting their clothing and shoes on their heads to come out or enter
the community. Before my eyes, young girls and women who would ensure
that you ordinarily needed a microscope to see their legs were exposing themselves.

Imagine having your bath, putting on good attire, and leaving home to attend a function, only to get to the main road and strip to wade through filthy and foul
smelling water.

The last time I had done such was about 19 years earlier during my NYSC in Borno State when I needed to cross a river that had no bridge to inspect a land that was in dispute. Not prepared to take that risk again, I searched for an alternative and that was how I met Ralph, a teacher with a bucket full of dirty water at the back of a house close to the road. I enquired of him if there was an alternative route to avoid the river on Opeloyeru road, and he offered to
take me through the corridor of the tenement where he rents a room.

Taking this unusual route would ensure I avoided the deep side of what I now referred to as river Opeloyeru and pass the front of other tenements to get to my
destination. I noticed that the house which was at the back of the Orile canal had also been flooded as the canal had overflowed with water due to blockages.

The flooding in the house had been so bad that water had risen as high as the knobs on the doors completely soaking, and damaging properties and other items. Ralph informed me that he had completely abandoned his room for the past four days and had taken temporary refuge in his church. Aside from having not properly slept, he had been wearing the same shirt and trouser during this period and since 5.00am that day had been bailing water out
of his room.

Other residents in the tenement were doing likewise, and the doors of some of the rooms were still under lock indicating that other tenants were yet to show up. He pointed out his room to me with his furniture, electronics, and clothing still floating on water and the other rooms that were opened were in a similar state.

He also showed me the toilet in the tenement that discharged its contents directly into the canal, but with the canal overflowing some of its contents had swam back. I grimed trying to block out from my imagination pictures of the stuff that was floating in the water in which I was wading through in that tenement. Speaking on behalf of the other residents, Ralph explained how the slumlord of the tenement had misled them into believing that the tenement was not prone to
flooding.

They now knew better, but there was no escaping the present reality as the slumlord was not prepared to make any refunds and neither could they raise fresh funds to relocate.

I remembered that I was on my way to a meeting, so I invited Ralph to come along with me since he was not aware that a CDA existed on his street to state his predicament. At the CDA meeting the issue of the havoc been caused by the flooding was the main subject of discussion.

It turned out that the canal, which receives floodwater from some parts of Surulere, was blocked at its point of discharge.

When it rains, the accumulated water ends up discharging onto Orile, and Opeloyeru Street, which is closest to the canal, is the worst off for it. Complaints to the local council were met with the retort that there was no money as the Federal Government was yet to release LG funds belonging to Lagos councils.

Therefore, the CDA decided to impose a levy of N500 per house to engage local contractors to clear one of the blocked drains for the discharge of the canal water. Yes the community had bad roads, lack of pipe borne water, insecurity, but the flooding was causing them much anguish, and to them they needed to rise up to this challenge.

When I asked if a preliminary, costing was done toaffect the discharge of the blocked drain, the answer was in the negative as they were too weary to wait for that. Ralph was happy to hear this and promised to mobilize those in his tenement as they were already raising N750 per room to raise a wall between their tenement and the canal. It was at this point that one of the CDA officials stood up to thank me for attending the meeting and made a statement that captured their state of mind.

According to him, the community does not know whether to curse God anytime it rains as this brings flooding, which in turn comes with anguish.

I was quick to add that their problem was man made, and that God who causes rain to fall on both the good and the bad, is a good God.

In my heart, I was saying that the people who deserve to be cursed are leaders who end up converting to their personal use monies intended for development purposes. However, I remember the injunction, which enjoins us to pray for those who are in authority.

As I left Orile I knew that was one prayer point that no one would enjoy praying but Ralph was too much in a buoyant mood to notice.