The recently opened coastal highway also opened up a few more things than the road itself. It opened the eyes of many Nigerians to what is possible. A friend and professional colleague, who in the almost fifty years that we have known each other, has consistently been a sworn enemy of all that is bad in governance – every government including this one, has its share of bad governance – visited Nigeria in December from his base in the US. He was subsequently invited to visit the Dangote Refinery and had to travel by the partially opened coastal road to get there.
He was amazed at what he saw on the way and at the refinery itself. He was in his report, man enough given his past criticisms, to acknowledge not only the feat that was the refinery, but also what has been achieved on the coastal road and what could be achievable at the completion of the road. Roads improve accessibility and reduce traffic tension. I have a birds’ eye view of this coastal highway from a vantage point and I can ascertain that thousands pass the road everyday now and hundreds of thousands must have passed it in the last two months. Especially during the Detty December fever. It is even busier now than the Oniru bypass which was meant to take traffic away from the ever busy Ozumba Mbadiwe Road.
This coastal road, which must be a relief to those living near the refinery, takes commuters straight to the Eko Hotel end and thus saves them from having to pass through the treacherous Lekki/Epe Expressway and the congested Ozumba Mbadiwe/Alfred Rewane axis. Roads open up communities and rural areas. I will not be surprised if new, viable towns spring up as this road progresses to Calabar. Roads can also reveal what has been unwittingly hidden. That seems to be the case here. The revealed level of development along the lekki/epe axis is simply astounding. The sheer number of beautiful estates and high rise buildings in this area will take anyone’s breath away. You can’t but wonder where the money for these elegant edifices has come from. But that is a story for another day. I have also often wondered where the daily influx of people into Lagos was being accommodated. Now, I have a probable answer. The sprawling estates along the Lekki/Epe area might be one of the answers.
Another answer, or perhaps an eventual solution to the growing Lagos population, is that Lagos is going up. Most new buildings now are high rise buildings. And old buildings are giving way to chrome and steel as they compete for the sky. The Lekki/Ikoyi axis as well as Ikeja GRA, are examples of this transformation. Ikoyi and Ikeja GRA particularly, were initially planned to have small, three-bedroom town houses on large acreage of land – I have friends whose parents learnt driving in their compounds in the 60s. Now, the space is gone; the trees are gone; and in many cases, the scenery is gone. Now, tall buildings are choked together with barely enough space for parking, let alone for any playground.
These architectural masterpieces are beautiful in their own way, if you like aesthetic and maybe antiseptic kind of beauty. This development is, in any case, the reality of the moment. It is the urban phenomenon. Land globally, has unfortunately become grossly inadequate due to the many things competing for its use. The first casualty are urban settlements. Lagos is an urban settlement. And therefore, Lagos must go up to accommodate its teeming population. Going up has its challenges however – starting from structural integrity which can depend on the integrity of the developers and that of the supervising agencies, to laws of association by the occupiers, to the competence and commitment of service providers. The comfort and safety of all occupiers could be compromised by just one occupier. A dirty or noisy occupier is an albatross. A careless one is a disaster waiting to happen. Preventable accidents can happen, security can be breached and fire can be started.
A fire incident is about the most devastating thing anyone can witness. Most fires start small and grow in minutes. Most fires if given air and time, are ruthless. They are indiscriminate. They destroy everything, including lifelong treasures, in hours, sometimes minutes. To give it air and time is not to have fire extinguishers on every floor and not to teach occupiers how to use them immediately. It is not to have fire drills teaching people how easily fires can be caused and how quickly they can be extinguished. To give it air and time is for the State Fire Service not to respond in time and not to have adequate equipment. The fire incident at the Great Nigeria building on Martins Street, Lagos is an example of giving fire air and time. It is an example of everything going wrong. It was a Christmas present no one wanted because it took rather than give. It was particularly saddening for those of us who had cause to visit the place regularly when it was newly built.
All over the world, fire incidents in high rise buildings are by their nature, very difficult to put out – we have seen this again and again in more technologically advanced cities – so it always better to put in measures that prevent fires. As Lagos goes up, it has to learn lessons from this 25 storey building that went up in flames on Christmas eve. If the fire itself could not have been prevented, what about quick containment? I’d hate to be a prophet of doom, but as Lagos goes up, more fire incidents affecting high rise buildings should be expected given our attitude as a people and the quality of materials that are sometimes used.
Is the State Government prepared for this? To be prepared means investing heavily in its fire-fighting capabilities. This includes sensitizing vulnerable areas like markets and commercial buildings, insisting on extinguishers in high rise buildings and ensuring that fire drills are carried out frequently. Regulatory Agencies should also constantly check the quality of materials used in high rise buildings as well as installations that might be prone to a fire incident. Then, communication, response time, right equipment and knowledge will help to mitigate the loss should fire happen. It has to be said that whatever Lagos State spends on preparing its Fire Service for the city it wants to build, and the city evolving before our eyes, will be nothing compared to what it would lose in any major fire. Losses that cannot be assessed only in gold or silver.
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