By; MATTHEW UKACHUNWA, Lagos
The reorientation of the general public in Nigeria on the value of social infrastructure, and meting out punishment for vandalizing public structures, will deter vandals from stealing and destroying government property and equipment.
Chairman, Joint National Assembly Committee on Land Transport, Senator Buhari Abdulfatai, expressed the belief while charging Nigerian journalists to prioritize the reorientation of Nigerians to begin to appreciate the importance of social wealth.
Abdulfatai who led members of his committee to inspect railway project in Lagos lamented the rampant cutting and stealing of railway tracks and other structures that is going on across the country at the present time.
“I always tell people that the biggest problem we have in this country is orientation. Our orientation is very porous,” he emphasized.
The lawmaker said that when the citizens are reoriented and when vandals are punished, people may stop destroying and stealing structures that government built.
“Please, journalists we’re begging you and other Nigerians, when you see it, report on it. When there is a deterrent, when there is punishment people may stop doing all these things.
“The biggest problem we have in this country is that there are no punitive measures. Everybody tends to do whatever he wants to do,” the senator said.
He expressed disappointment that people are removing the standard gauge rail tracks – a structure which described as beautiful and well-built – and are selling them, including the air-conditioners fitted on the train.
He declared: “We need a lot of reorientation in this country. So we need you people to let people know that these things do not belong to government, they belong to us. It is our own.”
The parliamentarian noted that Nigerians want Nigeria to be developed as it obtains in countries like America, the United Kingdom and Germany, but regretted that some are vandalizing the developmental structures that will make such expectations realizable.
According to Abdulfatai, “the way they do their thing (in the developed world) is that everybody is a security officer watching over the government property.
“It’s sad. It’s very sad. Look at last week, somebody was arrested. When they picked him up he was removing the tracks. From investigation they now found out that even the person in charge was police superintendent – police superintendent in the country. It’s really, really, really sad.”
He narrated that the National Assembly took the matter up some few weeks ago, and some in their contribution of opinion suggested firing squad, or execution or hanging because the person also had the intention to commit murder.
“Imagine”, Abdulfatai wondered, ” if the train coming with all speed, reaching the place and then details, look at the place, look at how many will die.
“So, if that person who has that intention to kill is caught, let the law take its place.”
He stressed that those government property belong to Nigerians and their children, and, therefore, charged every Nigerian to protect government infrastructure because they were built with the people’s money.
