Hon. Oghene Emma Egoh again?

My parents stay in Satellite Town. My formative years were spent there.

What was supposed to be structured for middle class public and private sector retirees but is now torn between estates (Chevron, NNPC, Mobil, CBN, Agip, Shell, Daily Times, Federal Civil Service etc) and Igbo trader money, the latter increasingly having the upper hand. I’m talking Igbo business men dealing in everything from jewellery to spare parts, from Alaba down to Tradefair.
So it’s only natural that Igbos are a majority and that is reflected in voting patterns every election year. For years they have mostly voted as a bloc, for years their votes haven’t counted and they I would presume, have been punished by the government at the centre for doing so. Remarkably poor power distribution, constantly deteriorating roads, non existent water supply, grossly inadequate healthcare facilities and a general failure of social infrastructure. It’s not unusual for us to thrive with or without government support so nobody makes a fuss but we all feel the pain of living without dividends of democracy year after year.

That pain drove me to the ballot in 2015 to vote for the first time. I was super excited and I bought packs of water and glucose to keep people motivated while staying and waiting for their turns, I kept countless strangers company till my vocal chords hurt, I spoke to people playing soccer on the streets to go get their pvcs and vote, I was non partisan about it but super inspired and I stayed all the way to protect my votes. It was an opportunity for me and many others from my generation to see actual change in government away from the monopoly we had been used to in Lagos state.
And for the first time since 1999, 8 of the seats available to Lagos in the House of Representatives were won by minority parties including the seat representing Amuwo Odofin constituency, where I voted.
So you can imagine my excitement that Hon Oghene Emma Egoh defeated the incumbent and was stepping up to the green chamber. This was a man who I didn’t know personally but lived a few blocks from the street I grew up on in satellite town and so he was someone I could relate to. Or so I thought.

I was wrong.

Between 2015 till date, the state of the already scarce amenities worsened, infrastructure disappeared, insecurity is rife, everytime I think of going to visit my parents I’m almost discouraged. On my way home for the crossover service, there was hardly a 50m stretch of road without dangerous potholes all over, even okadas can’t escape them, a lot of roads are totally not motorable and the traffic is too severe for a residential area. Let’s not talk about touts popping up all the time with strange tax requests.
I honestly wasn’t expecting a miracle from Hon. Oghene but at the very least, whether by appropriation or some bill or by some constituency projects or by throwing his weight around or exercising leverage, I was expecting the lives of the people of Satellite Town and Amuwo Odofin to get even slightly better for his time there but it wasn’t to be. When there was a fire and a portion of the Festac link bridge was destroyed, as far as I know, less than 100m of that bridge took over a year to fix completely. Incredible.
All our hopes dashed. In retrospect, his time in the house seems to have been 1 step forward and 2 steps backwards.

For those who’ll say there is a local government chairman, member of the house of assembly and a governor who have more responsibility on this matter, I say we’ve always had those people but they never do anything, they are unfortunate constants. The only variable in this equation was Oghene and how I expected him to be the winning hand but sadly he wasn’t.

This is another election year and I promise to go back to the polls with the same zeal from four years ago. Partisan zeal this time. Wherever in the world I am, I will return to vote and engage others to do so too. Let’s give someone else a chance to help make our lives better in Amuwo Odofin. I will put my time, money, abilities and energy where my mouth is.

Hon Oghene Emma Egoh has to go as well as the rest of the “constants”. This is what democracy is about

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