ALASHOCK'S BLOG: MAKOKO: Until Govt Builds Homes, Schools, Hospitals, etc For People Of Makoko, It Has No Right To Take The Little They Have

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

MAKOKO: Until Govt Builds Homes, Schools, Hospitals, etc For People Of Makoko, It Has No Right To Take The Little They Have - Alashock’s BLOG OPINION

TEARS AS OF LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT DEMOLISHES MAKOKO HOMES…

There was pandemonium on Monday [July 16] at the Makoko area of Lagos State as truck loads of armed soldiers and police officers invaded the Makoko/Ilaje waterfront at Yaba to effect government order that the residents vacate the area which had been marked for demolition.

It was gathered that the security officers stormed Makoko about noon on Monday to forcefully demolish houses, shanties, schools and shops built in the densely populated area.

More than 2500 people were said to have been rendered homeless as a result of the demolition which spared no one. The residents, who are mostly from Ilaje waterfront, said they were not given enough time to vacate.

Others said the government had no right to forcefully evict them and demolish their homes as they were not properly informed and there was no alternative made available for them to relocate to.

Speaking on behalf of the residents, Ewanjane Osowo, the secretary of the Ilaje Cray fish / fishermen Association, said the Lagos State government has demolished the only place they call their homes.

“We have been rendered homeless from a place where we were born and grew up. I am 33-years-old and I was born in Makoko and all my life I have lived here. The government has demolished what we know as home without giving us enough time to vacate nor did they provide any alternatives", Osawi said as he watched the crane level his home.

"We heard that the Lagos State Ministry of the Waterfront came last week and dropped a notice for us that we should vacate our homes in the next 72 hours. We lamented that the time is too short and if government wants us to leave, they should provide us with alternative abodes; but we were shocked when about noon on Monday, we saw heavily armed soldiers, police and other security agents as they stormed our homes destroying things. Where do we sleep now? Families of eight, nine, ten lived here; where does the governor want them to sleep?”

Agbodimu Musbau, the chairman of the Mainland Otto slum dwellers, accused the Lagos state government of being insensitive.

He appealed to the government to resettle the displaced residents of Makoko, as well as pay them their compensation and provide the enabling environment for the poor to live and progress.

Via – Daily Times

MY OPINION ON MAKOKO DEMOLITION:

The demolition is absurd and sad, only if Lagos state government could resettle these displaced people before the demolition exercise…What about the school children? What about families who have grown up to know no other place aside Makoko as their hometown?

People’s lives should not just be a commodity that should be stockpiled and then scattered at will and/or as it pleases the government who ordinarily is meant to cater for its own people including shelter...

We are not saying Makoko should not be demolish for whatever reason/s, but please where are the re-integration plans for these homeless people in their thousands? Makoko people have been dealt with psychologically. They have blood and water flowing in them…They are human beings…even animals should not be treated like this. Height of irresponsibility and wickedness towards lives no man could create…

I mean, why would Lagos State government terminate lives it could never and would never create? Taking roofs off these people without alternative places of abode is synonymous to sentencing them to death…”Walking Corpses”. And what really was their offence?

Resettle them and improve their livelihood, rather than cut it short...

When you removed shelter (roofs) from your people, are you sending them to the streets to be grown and groomed and then "negatively" impact the society? The consequences? Your guess is as good as mine…I wish the government have a rethink.