Eight reasons why we need to fix our cities
I’ll go straight to the points.
- There’s so much noise in our cities.
Especially in business areas. Imagine you walk around a busy business area or a market and all you could hear is the soothing sound of money exchanging hands, transactions being completed and deals being signed. Trust me, everywhere would be sane. But in some cities within Nigeria, noise is a big deal and we need to curb this. From the shop shouting ‘come and buy your bible now’. ‘Come and buy your bible now’. ‘Favour, I can see you but you cannot see me’. ‘You’re wearing a green shirt’. ‘Come and buy your bible now’. To the music vendor selling music in his truck/wheelbarrow with a generator inside and a large speaker singing ‘we are in battle, we are in battle in this world’, to a church/mosque with heavy sound from its building.
Noise itself is pollution. We need sanity and serenity in our cities.
Here’s a beautiful tweet that captures this point.
2. Passengers siting two in front seats.
If you patronize public transport in some cities, you’ll notice that two passengers sit in the front seat, next to the driver. It has become normal that Law Enforcement Agents do not see anything wrong in this. The front seat is actually meant for only one passenger. We should not optimize our buses and taxis at the detriment of our collective safety. This is a recipe for accidents. Two passengers should not be allowed to sit in front. I think it’s greedy and does not portray value and courtesy to the passengers. Let the change start from you. Refuse to sit with another passenger in the front seat.
3. Power supply is still a challenge.
There’s still so much work to be done in the area of power distribution. While there’s been some structure to when to expect power, say for instance 6am-8am, 12pm-4pm and 8–10pm, totaling about 8/6 hours a day in some cities across Nigeria, power supply is still not meeting up to expectation. For some areas, once power is restored, it looks like a candle light which you can’t utilize to carry out energy consuming activities. What’s more: whenever it rains, don’t expect power for days. It has become a culture that when it rains, we need a few days or weeks for ‘’electric poles to dry’’ and power restored in some cities. I think we need to change this practice. Interestingly, in some cities, light is restored immediately the rains stop and I’m wondering why the case is different in other cities within Nigeria
4. The challenge of a stable telecommunications network.
Without a good local network, tech ideas will not thrive. We need more investment in this area especially for young people who want to build businesses. We need systems that support these young people to create and build startups from anywhere in the city. We have to be deliberate about this. Creating internet enabled zones, packs, hubs, co-working spaces that are designed to support creativity and innovation with technology and telecommunications in the mix will be the game changer for our cities and our people.
5. Locating bus parks and ease of commuting.
It’s normal for the government to re-organize public transport systems and bus parks. But what we’re seeing in some cities is that, for a journey that requires you to take a public transport from point A to B, the bus goes from A and stops you at A.5, not B. You’ll have to trek down to point B. So essentially, you end up walking a good percentage of the journey.
The goal should be to make public commute easy and flexible. And we have to think about safety too. Intra-city shuttles and trains can really ease off lots of the stress with public transportation with a focus on security.
6. The operations of area boys (agbero) in bus parks and bus stops
‘’Agberos’’ as they are popularly called have become part of our public transport system. But most importantly, they have constituted a nuisance to the entire public intra-city transport system. The government needs to review their operations towards making public commuting in taxis and buses safer, faster, easier and better.
A fix to agbero or area boys around bus parks would be that we develop a structure around this. Just like we have training programs for drivers via driving schools where they get trained and certified, we can have a public transport training programme for people who want to become conductors or road men who collect various fees from road transporters or assist bus drivers with sourcing for passengers. From this pool of people, we can deploy officers organized to collect designated dues around bus parks.
7. Cities are getting overpopulated because rural areas are not getting attention
Capital Cities in Nigeria are getting overpopulated as more people migrate into them for greener pastures. The government should work to expand and build more infrastructure to cater for the teeming population in various cities, especially with recent opportunities for youth development and empowerment programmes being run by various state governments. More work still needs to be done. We have to be deliberate about urban planning and distribution.
On the flip side, we cannot continue to neglect rural areas. Government authorities at various levels needs to renew their commitment towards deploying infrastructure and developing rural areas with basic amenities such as light, roads, youth empowerment programmes, telecommunications network, factories, companies and more.
8. Waste management
We need more synergy between government waste management agencies and private companies in the business of waste disposal. Waste is big business and this should be the culture. People should be able to outsource their waste disposal to waste management companies. I think we need more of them in our cities to complement the efforts of the state Government.
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Your role and my role as citizens is simple and here’s what we can do.
No sitting in twos in front seats of taxis or buses.
No dumping of wastes around and littering the environment.
Bagging of wastes properly at home before disposal.
No bye passing of electricity connections to outsmart the power guys.
No more building of houses that violates urban planning and extends into public facilities like roads.
No increase in bus fares when it rains.
What can we do to fix our cities? Add your voice!
Image credit: http://www.naijawinelovers.com
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