CLEANING-up the streets in Benin City of mentally retarded persons is a welcome development. This is because on-going historic developmental land marks that are generally dotting all the facets of Edo state can not afford to scramble for spaces along side with mental problems. It will even bring a dent to the brilliant handiworks of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s unprecedented success to permit the parade and showcase untamed persons whose sight is appalling to others.
The unexpected influx of this set of people into Edo state is alarming and worrisome. And has triggered off embarrassment to visitor. The manner in which they appear is offensive and reminds one of the servitude or outdated era when people lived an unrefined life. With the titanic struggle which man has spotted to bequeath fitting structures to mankind, it will be a moral mistake to allow these naked mad persons in the streets of Benin City. The ethnical standards of any society can not tally with the retrogressive ceremony often staged by these mad persons. It is not an understatement to say that the present beauty of Benin City cannot concur with the public display of nudity by these mad persons
The ring road which is supposed to be the cynosure of passers-by has been reduced to asylum, where lives and property are endangered by untamed mad persons. They have craftily fashioned out apartments in most conspicuous positions of the heart beat ring road to deface the state. This revolting scene has pictured the state in a bad light. The non-stop intrusion of these persons into the state which remain unchecked can be likened to an unfettered stared show where any specie of human beings trade any sorts of wares. A dangerous market!
The visible presence of these persons in our public arenas have earned them a considerable portion in our fixed routine. This trend portends a potential security and health peril to carefree society we operate. Today, it is no news that the security typre of the country has been punctured by the Boko-Haram eruption and circle of violence across the country. The daily revelation of wanton killings in the North and the kidnapping in the south couple with other, diverse criminalities has necessitated a clarion call to Nigerian citizenry to be on security alert. Therefore the state government cannot continue to shelter these persons because we do not know who is who.
There have been copious revelations that unveiled people who feigned readiness to execute their lethal activities in major cities. In the day time, they are see within a heap of wreckage clotted in rubbish while at nightfall they host expensive guests in coat of many colours, running their shady racket. Now that the Boko Haram faithful have threatened to traverse the country with their faceless tactics to jump all the Nigeria security hurdles in order to perpetrate their senseless hit on unsuspecting citizens, these so called mad person I may be “ripe” mercenaries to and ease their mindless killing.
The complete evacuation of the mad persons from the streets of Benin City would be an Herculean tasks. That is to say, it would not be a smooth exercise as we envisage. This is premised on the fact that the lunatic attitude of some persons on the road can be rightfully equated with clear insanity. To actualize huge feat in the evacuating expedition of the :mads” from the streets detailed attention have to be accorded every individual, irrespective of his/her business.
For instance, the War Against Indiscipline (WAI)(, a state government creation saddled with the charge to vigilante traffic in the state capital would need psychiatric check-up to sever the “normal” from the ‘abnormal’. The high level of indiscipline most members of this WAI demonstrated in the streets has defeated the paramount essence of its existence which rest on enabling and maintaining orderly flow of heavy traffic. Some WAIs workers look unkempt and abandon their primary assignment for wild chase of vehicles to cause unjustified hitches. These behaviors which are indeed unconventional and monstrous have prompted question tags on the mental evaluation of some workers of WAI. Hence making scorn of the whole traffic policies of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s government.
In the ring road, the constant tug of war between the roads’ transport association and commercial bus drivers reveal the recalcitrance of our society to mild laws. A show of madness! There are stationary motor parks within the ring road designed to de-congest the roads of many vehicles but the bus drivers have deliberately avoided them to queue- up along the roads to scout for passengers, hereby throwing the supposed traffic orderliness into hullabaloo. The roads associations mandated to ensure adherence to roads’ etiquette collect bribe to exonerate traffic offenders. The unfortunate collaboration of traffic prefects and the bus drivers to conspire against traffic rules has exposed the mental imbalance of the duo.
Sometimes, the few minute journey from ring road to one’s abode witnesses a multifarious presentation of madness from commercial bus drivers and “Okada” riders. . they usually employ uncivilized acrobatics to beat traffic mores, which subject passengers to chronic anxiety. The roads have been condensed into macabre theatre upon which savred lives are slaughtered by bus drivers and Okada riders. The reckless madness that often drive the bus drivers and Okada riders to forcefully stab their way in between the tiny passage of heavy vehicles in order to outmaneuver them indicated their deficiencies in mental soundness.
These insane dispositions have also proffered insight to the regular series of roads mishap recorded day in and day out. The rash of impatient rush by commercial drivers and Okada riders can be likened to the wandering mad persons in the street who have lost the grip of reality of life. Since the masses cannot do without the services of theses mad drivers and riders, many a time it becomes apparently ineluctable to deposit our life in their custody.
It is high time, the government set up plan to hasten the evacuation of all category of mad persons who pose danger to lives and property. It is an unfashionable setting and a great disservice to humanity to allow the “mads” to share with the large hours of our day in the streets, roads and public places. Customs demand that the sanity of the public places should be held in high esteem to preserve the sanity of the society. The relocation of these mad persons would save the citizenry from being entangle in their unorthodox practices.
Suffice me to say that the state government would be making an appreciative about-turn over the traffic arrangement in the state, if it is overhauled. The WAI which the government institutionalize to administer traffic rule should be reprimanded for their uncouth character and caution to be dutiful to the basic tenets of their office. The ‘mads’ in the streets of Benin city are accruing derogatory remarks from the masses to state government. Therefore, the government needs to act fast.
I wholeheartedly pitched tent with Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola when he once suggested that the drivers and Okada riders be submitted to psychiatric scrutiny to ascertain their degree of metal fitness before they are licensed to function. This similar method can be repeated here in Edo state to save the major road and indigenes of the ‘mads’.
