Day phone thieves dealt with me in Lagos

It isn’t often that I feel sorry for myself. But last Friday, I felt like a mug that has just been mugged in a dark alley. The local slang is mugun and that is exactly how I felt when a twosome (phone thieves) stole my dear Nokia Communicator handset right under my nose. The worst part was that I could not do anything about it as I sat helplessly in my car in the early morning traffic jam on Apapa Bridge . Only the previous week, I had boasted to a couple of friends that since the advent of GSM in Nigeria, I had never misplaced or lost a phone. At the time, I was giving unsolicited Solomonic wisdom to an old friend whose phone for the umpteenth time had been ripped off his pocket by phone thieves.

I didn’t know that I was next in line. I had taken off for Lagos very early on Friday morning determined to fix a number of personal problems which I had left unresolved. My first port of call was Muri Okunola Street on Victoria Island at Lagos State’s New Town Development Authority. Getting to Lagos was easy enough but negotiating the Third Mainland Bridge from the Ojota end proved more excruciating. I “crawled” in the traffic for close to two hours before I finally got to my destination, where my matter was promptly and efficiently attended to. I decided that before heading back to Ibadan I must also see the Union Bank Registrars to fix some outstanding problems concerning some shares I bought during the bank’s last IPO. I thought the journey should be smoother since it was already close to 8.00 a.m. and I was in a way driving against traffic. The driving was okay until I got stuck on the Ijora Bridge where I spent close to two hours.

After a while, I thought since the traffic was practically at a standstill, it would be a good idea to give the car engine some rest. I switched off the air conditioner and rolled down the windows. That was my undoing. I did not know that I had been under surveillance for quite a while and that I had just set myself up for the villains. In a jiffy, a rough looking guy suddenly appeared at my side of the car murmuring some mumbo jumbo and dipping his right hand into his pocket nervously. I didn’t need anybody to tell me that this was a mean guy with bad intention obviously directed at me. Actually, I thought he had a gun in his pocket which I eyed anxiously, wondering what I would have to do if he brought out a gun. I didn’t know that his accomplice was by the passenger side of the car and had thrust his hand to snatch my Nokia Communicator 9300 and was just about to also snatch the other Nokia N95 Series when I reacted quickly. Well, I was able to prevent him from taking the Nokia NSeries. But I was not lucky with the Nokia Communicator as the two of them quickly took off across the road.

My first reaction was to race after them. But on second thought, I felt it was pointless as all the other motorists who watched the entire drama just looked away as if nothing unusual had happened. I could only lick my wounds in silence, wondering at the injustice of it all. It wasn’t really the cost of the Communicator handset that bothered me as much as the whole lot of priceless phone numbers and information stored in the handset. I was particularly surprised that no one who witnessed the theft of my phone bothered about my plight or offered any sympathetic word. I could see that they were all used to it. It had become routine in Lagos . By the time I crawled to my destination, 2 Burma Road , Apapa, time had moved fast. It was 11.30 a.m. Getting a place to park was a problem. My resolve was however broken when recklessly parked trailers and an unmoving traffic jam shielded me from my destination. At that point, I decided that I had had enough of Lagos for one day after spending more than four hours in the traffic and losing my phone in broad daylight to some scoundrels. I turned back.

As I drove back to Ibadan , I gave a serious thought to what had happened to me and I concluded that successive governments both at federal and state levels were to blame for my plight rather than the two scruffy-looking phone thieves who put me in misery. I wondered how much the phone which at the time I acquired it was N65, 000 will fetch them. They will probably sell it for N5, 000 or thereabout, feeding money which is not likely to carry them far before they go searching for another hapless victim. I think the truism that when the poor are hungry, the rich cannot afford to sleep with their two eyes closed is true here. And as Adam Smith, the renowned British economist once said, no society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. The truth of the Nigerian situation today is that the rising incidence of poverty in the country has spiralled out of control and unless our leaders begin to tackle the scourge urgently, the rich and powerful are imperiled.

It used to be the case in the past that the poor violently rob the poor, ravaging neighbourhoods of the poor and the average and generally keeping away from the upscale areas like Victoria Island , Ikoyi in Lagos , Maitama and Asokoro in Abuja and other upscale areas across the country. Today, things have changed. High barbed wire fences, dogs and even armed security have proved unsuccessful in deterring men of the underworld from the palatial abode of the wealthy. Now, the rich also cry. But one does not need a soothsayer to know that more gnashing of teeth may be in the offing for all, rich and poor if urgent solutions are not found to the twin problem of poverty and rising unemployment in the country. As I entered Ibadan through Challenge, weary and all the same happy to be back home, I saw a group of excited youth corpers. They were obviously part of a new batch and I felt sorry for the young men and women. I felt sorry for the country as well. By my understanding, Nigeria today has more than 80 universities who churn out tens of thousands of graduates every year with no job to graduate into. Maybe except crime. There is no doubt many of them will be tempted in that direction after waiting in the job queue for years.

FROM MY MAILBOX

RE: SEE WHAT GLOBALISATION HAS DONE TO US
As regards the idea of “cultural imperialism” I think we need to look at ourselves collectively and see if the fault does not lie with us. As a people we tend to glorify everything foreign and rubbish our own. From our politics, to our law, our religions, our music and our languages, we have no faith in things from within and are always very eager to embrace everything foreign.
– Adebayo Kareem (omoalufa@hotmail.co.uk)

Thanks for reminding us on what globlisation has done to us. The fact still remains that most African citizens are inferior to themselves. We don’t even believe it is possible to do anything right on our own and that is one of the reasons our respectable culture is gradually going into oblivion.
– Rev. Alofun Bamidele, Ijagba, Ondo State (08086144148)

Great piece. I think adopting the western “madness” was a mistake the older generations made. Go to schools and you will be sad to know we are responsible for the murder of our own culture, heritage and values. Put aside the love for English football and ask a Nigerian pupil to recite his native alphabets, you will not fail to understand why the Germans, French and others treat us with so much disrespect.
– Tunde Ayanda (08055001975)

Nigerians are still battling with the shackles of under-development because our leaders who prefer to be servants of the western nations are plagued with inferiority complex. Nigeria’s continued acceptance of European and American cultures is the second colonisation.
– Alfred Victor Ayodele, Kogi Polytechinic, Lokoja (07055346433)

Your write up on how globalisation has affected us is commendable. However, whether we like it or not, the English Premier League is the best in the world and who would leave such an action-packed football match for a boring one in the name of the Nigeria Premier League?
– Bakare Lukman, Atiba Quarters, Ifaki-Ekiti, Ekiti State (07055151856)

One of the ways globalisation has affected us is the craze by the youth to secure visas and get out of the country to Europe, America or other developed countries. The same reason is the die-hard support Nigerians give all these foreign clubs, when our local clubs are nothing to write home about. Speaking about Africans, an Englishman once described us as the strength and sinews of the western world. Another said Africans are “untutored, defenceless and a prey to their more skillful neighbours.” If we continue to act like a race without roots, we will continue to be humiliated around the world.
– Dayo Oladeji, Saki (08027278748)

Globalisation is a world discourse. It holds both positive and negative concepts, depending on the angle from which one looks at it. Talking globalisation in Nigeria is like comparing the changes recorded during our medieval experiences with what we have at hand now. Nigeria, no doubt, has globalised but the question is, has globalisation helped us as a nation? However, if one considers all that is happening presently in the country, we can say what globalisation has succeeded in bringing to the country, has been bastardized by our self aggrandizement and corrupt tendencies.
– Femi Odutayo, Somolu, Lagos (08023149828)

I enjoyed your last piece on globalisation. It was quite instructive.
– Tunde Lawanson (08023375367)

Regardless of what antagonists might have said, globalisation, from the social, economic and political point of view, has done us more good than evil.
– Lekan Oladeji Olaosun, Ilora (08053049443)

RE: WHO WILL SPEAK OUT FOR OBASANJO?
Some weight, though the size of a grain, was lifted off my mind reading your piece on how none of the hangers-on of the Obasanjo tenure, ministers, friends, contractors, etc., has come up to speak on behalf of the embattled ex-president. This should not surprise you, for as we say in Yorubaland, "Owo epo l'aiye ba ni ila, nwon kii ba ni la'wo eje." Literally, this could mean that “success has many parents and family members but failure is always an orphan”. It couldn't be different with Obasanjo.
– Seni 'Toye Oluga. (sto1951@yahoo.com)

Nobody can vouch for a corrupt leader, nobody can support a man of questionable character. It is an indisputable fact that OBJ is a bad leader and that is the singular reason why his clique and cabal could not come out from their hiding to support their erstwhile boss.
– Olayiwola Adedapo Fire, Ekiti State. (08034355065)

I didn’t read your piece on Obasanjo, I only read the reactions. But the media think all Nigerians hate OBJ. I have met many people, like myself, who actually love OBJ passionately for his guts, doggedness and his style of governance. He is an evil man today because of the media campaign against him but is he really bad? There are so many positive things people can read about OBJ but the media are not ready to air or print such views. It is really annoying.
– Anonymous (08055301049)