By Bisi Lawrence
When I was very young, a stripling lad of about seven years old, the Victoria Bar Beach in Lagos seemed to be at the other end of the world. It is now so near that the trip from any part of the Lagos Island takes less than twenty minutes – on a clear day.

But there was no public transport between the town and the beach in those days: the only bridge across them was a wooden affair which, though solid, scared us the young ones because it really did look fragile; and there was an even greater scare lurking at the end of the journey because of the legend that the sea carried little boys away. Happily, traditional picnics took place there only once a year, and that was on Easter Tuesdays.

And despite the prospect of trekking some five miles on the average, and under the sun, no one who had a pair of sturdy legs would eve think of missing the trudging, and the sweating, accompanied by the camaraderie that accompanied the picnickers all the way. It cost nothing.

But we have moved on. Not even many sane men would dream of walking the entire way to beach these days. It is no loner an Easter picnic rendezvous, but a mass of residences, and shopping centres, and office complexes, and schools, and hotels, and places of worship, and good roads under construction and a severe pain of toll gathering. In fact, it has everything that constitutes a booming town now. Every facility is increasing by leaps and bounds. Only one aspect is going the other way.

A beach is a strip of sands extending along the seashore. The strip used to be a very, very wide one at the Victoria Bar Beach, no less than 200 metres long. There was a vast plain of sand on which you could roll to your hears content.

There were also coconut groves where young couples want “ramblin”– and maybe steal a cuddle or two, and maybe a little this-or-that, if you know what I mean. And it was “nice work if you can get it…” Well, the sand and the golden romantic moments they afforded have all but disappeared.

This is as a result of the encroachment of the Atlantic which has been moving in steadily but relentlessly over the years. Other features have also disappeared. For instance, there was a salt-making factory, or plant or whatever, whose ownership was ascribed to late Sir Akinola Maia. He had a modest but tastefully designed building there too. But both factory and classic house have all disappeared.

A succession of the Lagos Sate Government has initiated or inherited some “high profile measures designed seemingly to justify the price tag that came and went with them. The threat of the ocean surge remains. The efforts to contain the danger have failed. It is necessary now to treat this matter with the seriousness it deserves

Floods are occurring in several parts of the world, many of which had never seen it so bad. An outbreak of flood can be so devastating because unlike firs, there is no putting it out. It just goes on rolling and seeping all before it. It also gives little warning, employing surprise as its chief weapon.

I have a weatherman’s premonition that Lagos and its coastal environs may need to watch the weather situation at this time responsibly. The “August Break” seems to have come a bit early this year. That is frightening. The rains tend to intensify their force when they return if the break is very early. It is indeed somewhat early this year, it would seem, and it would also tend to be prolonged into the dry season.

We are rightly preoccupied with political matters these days, but the other issues of nature are not thereby preempted. If they are ignored, the consequences may be catastrophic. This may have little to do with climate change, a prospect that is itself fraught with universal peril. But it reposes in normal weather to take advantage of, or react to a system that has been in anyway distorted by extreme phenomena. An example is a flash storm, or flood, which may suddenly erupt in a locality where the conditions have suddenly summarised the ideal.

The unfortunate aspect of this circumstance is that the tell-tale warnings might have been present but ignored, or under-assessed over a period of time, during which the populace might have been obsessed with the important matters of  “upstream/downstream palaver”- “militant rehabilitation”, post-election trials” of three years’ duration., “impeachment of Speakers up and down the nation’ “Constitutional amendment or change”. “Zoning or nor zoning”, will Jonathan run, or walk, or just sit down quietly where he is and say nothing until the walls begin to crumble around his ears… and other essential concerns interlaced with earthshaking distractions.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic rolls in and out, taking out more than it’s bringing in, until it suddenly brings in more than we can take.

discipline in high places
You may recall the comment of the irrepressible former Minister of the Federal Territory, Nasir el Rufai, whilst those five kidnapped journalists were still held in durance vile, to the effect that there was really no effective government in control of this country. Frankly, I felt he had allowed his mouth to run away with him. And yet, after just a cursory look at the passing scene. I am beginning to wonder if  he wasn’t very near the truth, after all.

Do you also recall that at the First Presidential Retreat On The Implantation Plan For The Vision 20:2020. And Public Private Partnership Framework For Infrastructure Development In Nigeria – yes, at that meeting with the twenty-word title, Ministerial Department Administrations received a directive instructing them to submit the details of their 2009 budgets to the Independent Corrupt and Other Offences Commission.

The Commission had to extend the date for the submission by one month to the 24th of June when only 74 had responded out of more than 300. Others had since replied, according to reports. Were they cajoled begged, threatened, or what? Where was government? And what happened thereafter?

The law which set up the Act under which the exercise was supposed to operate prescribes definite sanctions for defaulters in the person of the CEO’s of  these ministerial bodies and parastatals, and these are said to be applied with the expiration of the next deadline.

Is that the way a government works? Was that the pace at which administration moved in this country during the colonial period under the steel-bound “GO” – “general Orders”? Wee keep on harping on “corruption, corruption,” but what about simple official discipline – doesn’t that also have a part to play in the “Public/Private Partnership” of our over-all development of the nation?

Think for example, of  what President Goodluck Jonathan himself might call “perception” – the fixed image of situations in our consideration, or the mindset. How do we see our leaders in the light of discipline or propriety?

A Minister of  Finance declares, in a moment of embarrassing expansiveness that a certain parastatals is “insolvent”. Now, in the first place, we concede that where there is “government” – that is order – it is a statement that should never have escaped his lips. However, once it is uttered, it becomes a “corporate” gaffe for which every cabinet member must feel the burden of a share.

That is when the Minister of  Finance should have stepped in with an “explanation”or clarification” which would serve to straighten out the situation. But what happens? “There is no iota of insolvency”, his peers choruses like an ill-rehearsed choir. Loud-mouthed Public Relations underlings even have a field day – doing their “paid-for” job of course.

On the other hand, if the faux pas is of such a dimension that it cannot be glossed over, the Minister should have honourably thrown in his chips.

The people observe these improprieties and say very little, but it all goes to create a perception, a mental picture, of what our leaders are, and what we really think of them – or what they make us think of them.

Maybe one should also briefly touch on the “encounter on the bridge” in Ogun State recently. There we saw a State Governor wantonly refer in derogatory terms to no less than the Speaker of the House of  Representatives. He called the “fourth gentleman on the realm” his “Aburo” which in Yoruba means a younger relation, but can be derogatorily applied to connote inferiority or even inconsequentiality.

He did that in a derisive context, in a public speech, and without the slightest provocation. If they call that “politics”, we call it an example of shocking bad manners. And no doubt. It would have left its imprint of a low image about our leaders on the minds of the public.

how will you vote?
By the way, which electoral system catches your fancy? It is alright to keeping shouting. “One Man, One Vote!” from the rooftops, but how will this man cast this his one vote?

This, I must confess, is chiefly for my benefit because I am really confused. I was very much inclined to “Operation A4″but later discovered that knew much less than I thought. But it has worked once, and should work again. In any case, do you understand how you wish to vote? Add a bit of a description of the system and why you like it when you write. We will try to accommodate you in Echoes.

Echoes: Your column in today’s Vanguard was as usual incisive and forthright. Perhaps too forthright. That is the way it should be I am only worried you seemed settled that only the ruling party is bound to produce the next President. I do not share such view even if it seems palatable (08082373095).

Echoes: Zoning is good in principle but in the present circumstance and to inject merit and equity, it should be rotating along the 6 geo-political zones. If President Jonathan performs, it makes management sense to hand then hand over a Northerner after. In essence, let South-South take it now before a Southerner. That is pragmatic. (08052745718).

Echoes: All we are saying is hat for the sake of peace, this divine opportunity to mould this country into one perpetual, indivisible, and indestructible entity (Dr. Zik0) must be utilsied. The lesser risk would be to allow the President run.

There is nothing immoral here. The North, as elder Statesman Solomon Lar attested, has ruled enough. Or let us go true federation. Nigeria is for all of us. Think of the glaring injustice in the sharing of the oil wealth. Long live Nigeria (08063381529).
Time Out.