Fred Edoreh
Just as we were trying to recover and move on from the most nonsensical election that can best be described as open, brazen robbery, news came of the collapse of the building in Lagos that housed a school.
The details of casualty are so disturbingly grievous that you can almost run out of your skin in anger.
A mother whose two children died in the collapse reportedly took “Sniper”, insecticide poison, and was found dead yesterday evening.
She gave birth to the two children through Caesarean operation. She couldn’t stand the reality of no longer having them.
Another family, the Adedoyins, had four children in the school. It is said the kids had been out of school for two weeks because they had not paid school fees.
The family struggled hard to raise the funds. The kids returned to school on the day of the building collapse. Three of them, Malik, Fawas and Taiwo died. Only Kehinde survived.
To add insult to injury, it is reported that the hospitals are insisting the parents must pay money before the survivors can be treated.
Even those who have the money to pay for the drugs are made to go about by themselves to search for where to get them.
Now, how could this collapse have happened? It is before our society itself has collapsed and we don’t seem to recognize it or we have chosen to remain living in denial.
We are told that the Govt had marked the building as weak and unsafe, so why was it still being occupied? How could the Govt not enforce the regulation for the safety of the public and our children?
How was the regulatory and enforcement system compromised to lead us into this tragedy. It is because nothing has happened really to the culprits of earlier cases of building collapses, including the one at synagogue in which people died in their tens.
We live in a country with a government that feels no pain and feels no shame…
Really tiring…
