MEMORIES of what transpired at Ikeja Cantonment on 27 January, 10 years ago, are vastly being eroded by time and conspiracy to minimise the extent of the neglect that cost thousands of lives and more.

For more than four hours that Sunday, explosions erupted at the armours dump of the cantonment, started fires, shattered buildings in the neighbourhoods, caused road accidents and sent thousands of residents fleeing the mayhem to death at Oke Afa Canal in Ejigbo about 10 kilometres away from the blasts. The incident planted Oke Afa on the global map.

Annually, the victims mourn their dead and lost properties. The impact of the incident on the lives of millions of residents of Lagos State remains indelible. Governments made the usual promises, including turning the Oke Afa into a tourist haven in memory of the day and the dead. They were mere words that help to evaluate the sincerity of government officials.

Schools and hospitals the blasts destroyed are just being rebuilt. Minimal improvements have been made to the antiquated and over-loaded armours dump that exploded. It could happen again, as defence committees of the National Assembly had warned in their reports before the 2002 incident.

Those reports are still at the National Assembly, surviving the non-attention of its defence committees 10 years after. Another incident may be the appropriate time to remember them.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State handed out cheques worth N17.5 million to 70 families of victims (N250, 000 each) urging them to “let go of their grief and march on.” Fashola said, “ We must take solace in the fact that there will always be a special place in history for people whose deaths bring about change, and we must take solace in the fact that our loved ones will never be forgotten.”

Change came to the community through the establishment of a school, a hospital and a library. These did not require death of thousands of people through failed emergency services that have not improved. If there is another emergency in Lagos, the management could be worse. Last July’s flood said so.

In 10 years of mismanagement of this opportunity that should have forced change, little has been done to account for the N386, 439,180 corporate bodies and individuals donated to the Lagos Explosion Disaster Relief Fund, which President Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated on 30 January 2002. A fraction of that money can cause more meaningful change in Oke Afa, if not in the State’s entire emergency management services.

To “let go their grief and march on” without clearing these issues will do the memory of the dead – and living – no good.