Of Oranges, Bananas and Bullets!

"If he wants the chances that you took from him
Oh, and nothing that you own
Then there'll be no place to run to
There'll be no place to run
And if he finds himself to be
A reflection of us all
Bang bang bang
He'll shoot us down"

Have you ever heard Tracy Chapman's song "Bang, Bang, Bang"? If you have not, it bears hearing at least once, especially in the light of the continuous disregard of the weak and vulnerable by the rich and powerful in Nigeria. Tracy Chapman says one day "he" will get tired of being treated like a sub-human and he will seek to enforce his own justice. Bang, Bang, Bang - he'll shoot us down. Someone else put it a little less delicately, saying "When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich..." But clearly the Nigerian socio-political/financial elite have heard neither the song nor the quote or they simply do not care. What am I on about? Otodo Gbame.

How can a Government in a democracy disregard a Court order and go ahead to evict an entire community by force, to the point of killing them in the process? Even if a Court did not restrain you, does the Government not have a conscience and sense of responsibility? You are destroying their lives and livelihood having made zero arrangements for them to be resettled; do you not see the many things that are wrong with this? What is the motivation for this barbaric insensitivity and irresponsibility? The Lagos State Government has said it is because there are militants living among the people and the militants have perfected plans to attack the State. Maybe the Government should have simply kept quiet because this is one of those cases in which the medication for an illness is worse than the illness itself!
For one, since this exercise started we have not seen any militants arrested or killed - in fact the ones who have been killed and injured are the harmless and defenceless. Again, if the Government knows that criminals reside in a community should they be thinking of protecting the many innocents from the few criminal elements or destroying the homes, lives and property of the innocents in a bid to catch the bad guys? Is Governor Ambode asking me to believe he would burn down his house to exterminate rats from his store?

You have to think there is something else behind this callousness. The rumour is that the area currently known as Otodo Gbame has been earmarked for re-christening, that the LASG, in the light of the success of Banana Island, wants to reclaim it and restyle it "Orange Island". If this is true then it is to say the very least most unfortunate. The socio-economic disparity in our society is already too bad and perpetuating it will only lead to more grave challenges, complications and problems for us all. Years of failing to heed this sort of warning has already created the likes of Boko Haram, IPOB and the kidnapping industry among others. Otodo Gbame is of course only one out of uncountable illustrations of a major problem with the way our society is set up. We can pretend this is not a problem but as we have already seen and are still seeing, there will be hell to pay.

Bang, Bang, Bang. They'll shoot us down.