Monday 29 April 2013

Signs of danger

AS I strolled through the neighbourhood, feeling quite relaxed after a tedious day’s work, I noticed a few cracks and bulges in the walls of a storey building. These are warning signs that the walls were no longer able to support the weight of the building’s upper floor and would soon collapse. “Shall I warn the occupants or send to the authorities that there was danger of an imminent building collapse?”
I chose, instead, to tell one of the occupants who seemed intelligent enough to recognise the danger. “Sir, we did notice it too and informed the landlord. He promised he would do something about it when the next rents were paid.” I pleaded with him that he should tell everyone in the building to pack out quickly before it caved in on them. He simply smiled and asked, “Sir where do we go? I have paid for two years and only spent 6months here. We shall continue to pray. “No evil fashioned against us shall succeed,” he said prayerfully. I responded by saying, “Amen,” and moved on before I was regarded as agent of the devil, wishing them bad luck.
A few yards away, a huge tree had fallen across the very busy road bringing traffic to a standstill. I watched as some of the men tried to remove a few of the obstructing branches to create an opening for vehicles to pass. I approached them, “Why don’t you get more cutlasses to chop down the big trunk. This is a busy road and at night someone will surely drive into it with dire consequences.” They were all too busy and in a hurry. “Anyway, what’s the job of the local government? What do they do with all the allocations they receive from the Federal Government and the various taxes and rates they collect from us?” they echoed in unison, walked away to their vehicles and took turns to drive through the path they had created.
I was helpless. I had an uncanny feeling that someone would die on that spot that night. With the help some young boys we placed a few leaves on the road to warn drivers of danger and prayed that they would stop in time before they ran into the tree.
It was getting dark and as there were no street lights, I decided to take a short cut back home. I ran into a middle-age woman – a fishmonger. Her eyes were red as if she had Apollo. It was only when I saw tears dripping from her face that I realised she was actually crying. “Why?” I asked. She replied that the government had pulled down her road side stall because of the city’s beautification project. I explained to her the rationale behind government’s action. “It is laudable,” she said and added “but hungry people want food. Will that put food on the table for my children and I? Please tell your friends in government, I have succeeded in keeping my children away from the streets so far. Now that I cannot provide for them, stopping then from joining the hordes of young miscreants in our area will be a daunting task.”
The following day, a young woman in her 40’s who had left home very early to beat the traffic on the road, ran into the tree. She died before help could reach her. A few days later, I received the sad news that the building had collapsed killing the young man and eight others in the house. I cannot predict the fate of the fish seller’s children. I can only pray that I am not a victim of the hordes of jobless youth she was talking about. I do however know that those who have no stake in the society would not baulk at pulling it down.
When we ignore obvious signs of danger, we court disaster. A painful red eye could be due to an acute conjunctival infection or glaucoma or an inflammation of the middle coat of the eye – the uvea. A wrong diagnosis, a delayed or inappropriate treatment may lead to blindness. Visual disturbance may be a sign of optical problem and often can wait until the appropriate correction is given but when caused by a disease process, prompt attention can limit complications and prevent blindness.
Some warning signs may not be obvious to the patient thus there is need to pay a visit to your ophthalmologist once a year even if there are no noticeable problems. All diseases have silent phases during which there may be no obvious signs or symptoms. Your eye doctor, quite often, can pick up the hidden signs of danger and prevent your eyes from going bad or blind.

Security cameras in Lagos Blocked by FG

The cold war between the Federal Government and Lagos State Government may be the reason why the latter has stopped the Lagos Safe City Project, a scheme aimed at providing 10,000 solar-powered closed circuit cameras all over the metropolis, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.

This emerged against the backdrop of the increasing cases of kidnapping in Lagos, a menace that has defied efforts by the police and other in the state.
While making enquiries about police effort in tracking kidnappers through the security cameras in the state, a police source at the State Criminal Investigation Department told our correspondent that security cameras had never been used in their investigations.

"The only time we make use of CCTV cameras is when our investigation takes us to a hotel or mall with security cameras. But if it is a crime committed on a Lagos road, forget it," the source said.
Governor Babatunde Fashola had stated in January 2009 that the 10,000 cameras the state planned to install were to help to reduce crime in the state.
At a demonstration event, Fashola said the number of policemen in the state was inadequate considering the number of people in the state.

He said at the time, "Eighteen million people cannot be protected and policed by 33,000 people. This is impossible. No matter how much we try to increase the number of policemen, we cannot continue to do the same thing and expect a different result.
"In an information technology-driven world, we have to be counted as one of those states and communities which will adopt best practices. Cameras, sensors, tracking devices are the nerve centre of these facilities that would assist men and officers of the police force, fire service among others to do their duty much more effectively."
The project was to be funded by the Lagos Security Trust Fund while the cameras were supposed to be managed remotely through a central security command unit. Four years after this announcement was made, the state has not had a taste of those promises.
Our correspondent contacted the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, on why the cameras have yet to be installed as the governor promised.
Ibirogba simply said the matter was out of the hands of the state government.

He said, "The problem with the issue of security cameras has nothing to do with the state government.
"When we were about to embark on their installation, the Federal Government contacted us and said we needed to stop. The reason we were given was that the FG had a scheme in the pipeline, which involved the installation of security cameras all over major cities in the country.
"According to the Federal Government, Lagos was going to be in the first phase of the project. That was why we stopped our own project.
"But we have since written a letter to the Federal Government, asking it to tell us those locations where the cameras will be installed so that when we begin to install ours, we would not duplicate locations. That is where we currently stand."
A state government official, who is also familiar with the issue, said the Federal Government's negative attitude to it might be political.

"We all know the security cameras issue may remain buried as far as the Federal Government is concerned. If you think the Federal Government is overly concerned about Lagos, a state that is not controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party, then you are naïve," the government source said.
Efforts to get the Presidency's reaction did not yield positive result on Thursday as the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, could not be reached on his not pick the calls made to his telephone line.

Sunday 28 April 2013

PFA Team of the Year


Premier League champions Manchester United dominated the PFA Team of the Year with David De Gea, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Robin Van Persie all lining up.
United's bitter rivals Manchester City had only one representative in defender Pablo Zabaleta while London clubs Tottenham and Chelsea each had two.
Everton's Leighton Baines and Luis Suarez of Liverpool completed the line-up.

David de Gea

Pablo Zabaleta

Rio Ferdinand

Jan Vertonghen
Leighton Baines

Michael Carrick

Eden Hazard
Gareth Bale

Juan Mata

Robin van Persie

Luis Suarez
Read more: DailyMail