I should have given a thought to it but I didn’t. The breeze coming through the open French windows had become distinctively cooler and fresher, meaning it could rain. Instead, groggy with sleep, I covered my head and snuggled into my pillow for warmth. Then, in the small hours of the morning, the breeze brought in some tiny showers.

Small, almost imperceptible sprinkles on my face but they were enough for alarm bells to ring. If water could touch my face, then the floor must be wet. It was. Very wet. The heavy rain, propelled by a strong wind, had penetrated every opening to cause havoc. The next thirty minutes were spent doing damage control while being careful not to slip as I tidied up as much as I could. As I closed the windows, I could not help looking out for those whose ‘homes’ were along the developing coastal road.

I couldn’t see much since it was pitch dark and the falling rain made visibility even more difficult. But they would be there, probably huddled under their big umbrellas trying to wait out the rain. A pang of conscience hit me. If I could feel sorry for myself because the direction of a strong wind had allowed my place to be flooded, how about those who had no remedy to the strong wind or the falling rain? At least I could go back to sleep if I wanted. But how would you sleep if rain was falling in sleets on your scarcely protected head? How would you sleep if you were left wondering what state your worldly possessions would be in the morning? I was born the same way these people were born and therefore, I could, but for the grace of God, be in their position.

I dressed up in the morning without giving a thought to the notion that my driver might not be around. I came out only to be told he hadn’t come for the keys. My angry call met a distressed response. His place – where he stays during the week before going to his family at the weekend – had been flooded and they had been doing their own form of damage control since early morning. His place was flooded, not from a leaking roof, or open windows like mine, but from the floor.  According to him, water was oozing uncontrollably from the floor. I have heard that before, not once, not twice; people waking up to find their mattresses soaked from under and their belongings floating on water that came from under the ground.

The rains are here again. Rains are good for humanity. Rains cool the air, dissolving toxins and freshening the environment. Plants grow; flowers bloom and nature is happy. Besides, we need water to survive and rains replenish our oceans, seas, rivers and even wells. ‘Water no get enemy’ sang Fela, while enumerating the uses of water. Yet, for all its uses and advantages, there are people for whom water can cannot be considered a friend; people who dread the rainy season.

Among them are the homeless and those who have less than adequate shelter. People with an inadequate shelter include those whose roads to their homes become rivers during the rainy season; they include those whose roofs have gone beyond leaking and need replacement, they include those who are living in unfinished houses without doors and windows, they include those who live under the bridges, they include those who live in waterlogged areas and have water oozing from underneath, they include those who yearly send their electrical appliances out during the rainy season to prevent damage, they even include members of the so call middle class who have to relocate from their houses during the heaviest period of the season. 

It would be generous to say only about a third of people living in Lagos State are in this category – it is probably more. It would not be wrong to state that over three quarters of artisans, domestics and low level workers who work on the Lagos Island are in this category. Many of them, including those who have families in the mainland, live under sub-human conditions during the working week because that is what they can afford. That is what the economy offers to them.

It is curious, if not disconcerting, that a State that is planning to be a mega city, that is expecting to be a digital city, that is hoping to be a smart city, can be so oblivious to the accommodation plight of almost half of its teeming population. The problem is that when it comes to available land and its uses, Lagos State thinks largely of the elite or the upper middle class. Not the poor; hardly ever the poor – even beaches are becoming difficult for the poor to access. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong in earmarking large areas of land to accommodate the working class who service the so called rich estates on the Island. They don’t need much; just an affordable shelter from the elements. The use of porta-cabins or containers can be an emergency alternative to provide temporary solutions to low cost accommodation. I know of architects and young entrepreneurs who are thinking along this route but are afraid that Lagos State would somehow find a way to throw a clog in the wheel.

I will end with a true story. An elderly, but financially comfortable widow was compelled by the demands of age to move near his children on the Island. It meant he had to downsize. He found letting go of some of his long-held possessions difficult. But what he found heart wrenching was letting go of his driver and his cook/steward who had been living with him for over two decades. He could still have found use for them if only there could be a commensurate accommodation on the Island. The driver and cook/steward are themselves in a dilemma. They, and their families, have lived free with this elderly man in a big compound for so long that they are now like fish out of water in the housing, and even the job markets. They probably would earn more if they were young because the market now offers more. But they are not that young anymore. And more importantly, it is virtually impossible to get a decent accommodation in a decent place at a decent price in Lagos for people of their class. This is becoming another ticking bomb.      

Lagos State has to take housing issues for the poor more seriously. Even the colonial master did. It is called an enlightened self-interest.