Managing crises; The example of Lagos

By David Adegoke

An apocalyptic magnitude tanker explosion occurs in Lagos, fatally carbonizing a frightening number of lives and mutilating many others. Many more vehicles are burned, others are burned to ashes, and dozens of citizens have been severely bruised in the process. Pronto, inhabitants of social media, moves to action, sending in the virtual space a pictorial, video and textual coverage of bloody scenes.

Soon, Nigerian phones and messages from anxious compatriots in the diaspora wanting to know where their loved ones are in the country. Are they caught in the fire? Are they close to the area of ​​the accident? Are they safe? In the absence of immediate response, there is an urgent request to return a message to rebadure the agitated respondent

But amidst this ruckus, something else is causing a sensation: 39, sudden appearance of the governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, within hours of tragedy, wearing simple short-sleeved pants and jeans-like. Those around are surprised. Why? There are two reasons: Nigerians are not used to seeing their leaders arrive at the scene of disasters just after these incidents have occurred.

Secondly, because he is not dressed in costume or agbada who is the uniform of his leaders, there is more curiosity surrounding the presence of the man. Rumor has it that Ambode arrived at the scene without warning, without fanfare. This inflates the crowd of spectators. The entire development deepens the link between the leader and the leader who would make a difference in governance by his empathic acumen when the people are bereaved.

A governor can build large bridges and roads with other physical infrastructure. That would put him on par with others who do it too. A leader can deliver moving speeches such as the Gettysburg speech delivered by US Civil War president Abraham Lincoln. But it would only be in the circle of other speakers like the former Roman senator and the late Ghana President Kwame Nkrumah. None of these distinguish him from the pack. You are not good if you walk on the beaten track; history would trap you in the "as-run" group. This is a category of footnote, hardly counted in the annals of a country.

When he arrived at the scene of grief, blood and tears (to use the words of a legendary Fela song), Ambode's comforting and empathic leadership lessons that are lacking in our world. Assessing the situation, the governor made a kind of consternation towards the victims and found solace in "the fact (the quick response of his government) could save more lives". He added: "We will continue to do our best and make sure that we mitigate things of this nature in the future … Nobody knows when this kind of incident will occur, but most importantly is that our response time is operational. they saved lives.

Observers congratulated the Lagos administration for having put in place a disaster management infrastructure that allowed the emergency trucks to get to the scene within 10 minutes. This has been fast, according to experts, who argue that given our environment and the smothering traffic of the hour, victim statistics would have been astronomical, surpbading the nine lives lost and more than 50 burned vehicles.

Really, it could have been worse with a fuel truck carrying 33000 liters of PMS at liberty that fateful evening. "It was death on the lookout," commented one commentator, Tope Ajayi, even as he advised Ambode to continue to invest more in staff and agencies. responsible for accident response functions. And seeing how the Lagos model worked quite effectively, the author admonished that "other states should learn from Lagos."

But as we said at the beginning, if you had all these safety and rescue accessories in place without a human face, you end up running a normal system, indistinguishable by the exceptional touch that makes the difference. That evening, the Governor of Lagos State provided the singularity we need in leadership and governance in Nigeria.

Ify Onyegbule, a well-known radio presenter in Lagos, captured the superlative performance of Ambode on his Facebook: If you ask me, I think AkinwunmiAmbode would do well as president of Nigeria! He did not wait until the morning before going to the scene of the disaster. He never went to put his dhiki and buba over to go there just so that he was handsome in front of the camera. He has never asked that a red carpet be spread out so that he can walk on to the premises. Ambode did not manage to blame the parked tanker or danfo that the brakes failed! In fact, the presidency must come and the Lagos model … quote me! Enough of all the waste going on in Nigeria! "

Our leaders should not boast of adulation when they provide us with the dividends of democracy as we often call them, no doubt we will always salute them when they do, but there is more to administer human beings, just as there is more to being a father at home than just providing money for family maintenance.What would you say to meet the emotional demands of the woman and children, who represent the fiber that keeps the house? Nigerians, like the spouse and his children, honor only the male head of the family with whom they can identify. They do not cherish a leader far away, so to speak.Of course, they expect it to be fought for them.But the fact is that it must be there, or present themselves to them in a short time. especially when they are in mourning At this point, nothing else matters, not even the multi-billion dollar naira projects you've given them!

Ambode's succinct understanding of these leadership dynamics is what earned him honors.

But we should realize that in the long run, applause is stronger for the government of which Ambode is a member. For, without such a dedicated group of directors, he would have deserved little praise. He is accompanied by competent accident management and rescue agencies who did a summer job last week on the Otedola bridge.

What is the lesson here? The government must build on this success by strengthening such institutions for the safety and welfare of the people of the state, as it is ready to badume the nascent status of Lagos as the main megacity of the country. Africa of our time. In other words, it is sustainable state institutions that give honor to the government. This is what allowed us all to greet the Lagos government last week

Adegoke, a Surulere Written Journalist

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