They call what happened in Ibadan  a force majeure. It is a happening that no one has any power over. My cousin in Ibadan told me when I called him, that there had never seen anything like it and he has lived over six decades. It was not an  everyday disaster happening.

Bridges collapsed; roads were also washed off. At the last count, about 98 souls were killed. This included men, women and children. The scale of the disaster was horrendous.

Of course, the Ibadan disaster compared with the Lagos one and people did say Lagos fared better. All the same, it cost Nigerian lives, limbs and hard earned money.

But even in well-endowed economies for example, the United States, it cost them more than pretty cents  and toils. The difference is that they had a system to warn and prepare for disaster.

Call it what you will-hurricane, tsunami, storm or tropical-visited the United States in the last week or so. A few people died and billions of dollars destruction was caused and a day or two after the flights resumed and work resumed. The difference between us and them was that they prepared and we were not.

We left everything to God and do nothing more. Isn’t it said that heaven helps those who help themselves? We must include in our emergency preparation drills that will help us.

Allah has been very good to us. We only suffer flood in this country and elsewhere they suffer earthquake, mudslide and even volcano. In China, in Japan and in Turkey they suffer two or three of these disasters or all of them together  year  in  year  out . And they cope.

In consoling Senator Abiola Ajimobi, Oyo State governor, his counterpart in Ekiti, Dr.Kayode Fayemi, prayed that such a ‘’deadly occurrence would not be witnessed again in the state or anywhere in the country.”

As far as prayers go, we should make them but natural disasters will happen. The only thing to do is to do things to  minimize them through our preparations.

State governors should get their priorities right. I would suggest the following: Security, roads, sanitation, hospital and education

Besides force majeure During the last Ramadan, all we heard and read were not about rumours but the actual fighting in Libya, Syria, in Nigeria, Chechnya, Somalia and Bahrain.

Bombs have manifested at the United Nations building in Abuja. It devastated the building and many people. Abuja is fast acquiring in notoriety of a bomb capital. They say Boko Haram claimed responsibility, a few days back; In Bahrain,  the other day  a 14-year old was killed by security at a demonstration. Of course, Somalia is perennially at war with Shahabad.

Syria was killing their people like no one’s business. It has been at it now for months and this Ramadan is no exception.

Libya takes the cake.50, 000 people are said to have been killed by Gadhafi in his attrition and he is still spoiling for more. The rebels have ran him out of his palace and no one knows where he is. Two of his children have been killed and  his family has ran away to Algeria.

The rebels of Libya have given him ultimatum to surrender his arms by yesterday or else… Gadhafi does not show the inclination to leave.

Most Libyans, I see without exception look very well-men and women. Those who have beards and few that did not look well-fed. Most of them speak English or a smattering of it. They must have had a good education.

That clearly shows that the Libyans I see did not or should not have anything to complain about-Either by way of food or shelter or clothing, and you ask: what else is there to complain about? Until they open the can of worms Gadhafi was the maximum ruler of his people. He has become the butcher of Tripoli.

Gadhafi has been in the saddle  for 42 years and it was possible that he did not want to go. He wants to die in office. He has his children to take charge of things.

He has a system of bunkers and his advisaries have uncovered them. The next few weeks should show if he can outwit them.