Gov. Ambode & the Michael Jackson syndrome
The urban renewal shenanigan of the Lagos State government aimed at getting Lagos to look like a Western city and its underpinning belief that to be an attractive and efficient mega-city Lagos must look Parisian is Michael Jackson Syndrome. Michael Jackson was an exceptionally gifted and talented man, an outstanding singer, composer and dancer. He […]
The urban renewal shenanigan of the Lagos State government aimed at getting Lagos to look like a Western city and its underpinning belief that to be an attractive and efficient mega-city Lagos must look Parisian is Michael Jackson Syndrome.
Michael Jackson was an exceptionally gifted and talented man, an outstanding singer, composer and dancer. He was, at a point, reputably, the world most successful and renowned entertainer. Unfortunately, he was deeply insecure.
In his insecurity and confusion, he erroneously believed that to be worthy, and thus, appreciated and loved, he had to look white. He refused to realize that with his black skin, flat nose and thick lips, he was handsome and admirable. In his desperation to be white, he bleached his skin and with repeated plastic surgeries, to acquire the whiteman’s facial features, ruined his looks. He distorted his blackness and still, failed to become white.
The attempt to recast Lagos in Parisian elegance is a charade that will erode the essence of Lagos -its Nigerianness, vibrancy and rough- edge splendor – and still fail to give it a Parisian look. Lagos is inescapably expressing the Nigerian reality. The evil mix of a corrupt and irresponsible political class and a spineless and passive citizenry is a salient element of the Nigeria reality.
The Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration urban renewal policy must factor in that Nigeria is teeming with the unemployed, and that some of these unemployed have been able to eat, feed their families, pay their rents and pay their children’s school fees by hawking and trading on the streets of Lagos. The attempt to herd them off the streets of Lagos by the enactment of draconic laws that severely punish both the street hawkers and those that buy from them is Michael Jackson Syndrome – frantic endeavor to cloak a black man’s (Nigerian)reality with a white man’s (European) façade.
The former Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) Marshal General, Danjuma Maigeri, once said that the presence of street hawkers in the streets of Lagos dissuade prospective foreign investors from investing in Lagos.
Actually, the presence of these indomitable and indefatigable men and women, struggling to earn an honest living under the most excruciating circumstances, does not turn- off foreign investors. They are actually impressed by it for it is capitalism in its most rugged and resilient form.
Prospective investors and many visitors to Nigeria are thrilled by the Nigerian robust, effervescent and irrepressible entrepreneurial spirit evidenced in many aspects of Nigerian life, including street hawking.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria