AS the heartrending video of students of Mamuwadoka Orphans and Less Privileged School, Oko-Agbon, Makoko, Lagos, singing the Nigerian national anthem (both stanzas) even as they remained ankle-deep in grimy water has gone viral on social media, Nigerians have reacted with a mix of anger, sadness and utter disbelief. How, many commentators wonder, is it possible to have such a situation in Nigeria of 2021, and right in the heart of the country’s most prosperous and arguably most progressive state, one that prides itself as the Centre of Excellence?
To be fair to the Lagos State government, its reaction has been swift. The state Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, seeking to reassure disappointed Nigerians, announced that the video in circulation was an old one, that the building had since been demolished, and that her office was in the process of dispatching officials to the school at the beginning of last week to monitor progress on the rebuilding project. Mr. Kayode Adejare Omiyale, the chairman, Yaba Local Council Development Area (LCDA), also visited the school along with some officials of the state government.
Yet, the reaction of the Lagos State government, while commendably prompt, raises more questions than answers. Was there an existing plan to send inspectors to the site, or was the commissioner, perhaps stunned by public outrage and eager to stave off further criticism, trying to give the impression that something was being done? Why two visits at the same time by different arms of the state government when, from all accounts, there had been none since the apparent demolition of the school? It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Lagos State officials had no prior intentions of visiting the scene of the crime (for what else is being committed here if not a crime?) and that their visits were mere face-saving acts of desperation.
There is a good part to this story that we are hoping Nigerians will not miss. The truth of the matter is that Mamuwadoka Orphans and Less Privileged School, Oko-Agbon, Makoko, overseen by Mr. Martins Joshua, is a totally voluntary effort by a well-meaning individual to provide some form of education for orphans and the less privileged. As a matter of fact, the video which caused many Nigerians considerable consternation was actually shot by a non-governmental organisation as part of an awareness and fund-raising drive.
The truth that many Nigerians will find difficult to swallow is that there is nothing exceptional about the school at Makoko, and there are in fact thousands of such schools scattered across various parts of the country; schools without windows and scarcely a modern amenity, where children of the poor bathe in dust when they are not sloshing around in malodorous water. In those schools—we reiterate, there are thousands and thousands of them out there—teachers are few, and the few who soldier on in such desperate circumstances are not paid for months on end.
This is the real scandal here, and it’s about class. For hardly can you tell the story of Mamuwadoka Orphans and Less Privileged School, Oko-Agbon, without telling the story of Makoko, a floating slum on stilts, all but abandoned by the state, powered by the last fumes of local endurance, resilience, and mind-blowing ingenuity. There is a reason why all the children you see in that video look poor and hungry— they are children of the poor. If anyone can point out the child of a major politician from that footage, we will eat our shoes.
If the Lagos State authorities want to be taken seriously, they will invite Mr. Martins Joshua to the state secretariat and ask him what he needs to get his school back up and running. But we are not lighting a candle. Like millions of despondent Nigerians, we are sick and tired. Sure, like those school children, we will throatily belt out the national anthem, but quietly we will ask: Is there a future for us?
and then