As a well to do kid growing up in the trenches of Ogun state, I understood one thing, people who are poor started off with a poor mentality and that's why they are stuck where they are! When we see people damaging the roads and selling community sand drawn by erosion, and when they are asked, they say "well the road can be bad, at least I don't have a car, neither does my neighbour." That's just pure bullshit.
I remember when I was around eight, I had an accident on a bike when I was coming from primary school; what was the cause? Bad road, erosion itself isn't the problem, it's the people.
Not just in my community but generally, all rural areas have little to no land and poor and weak drainage systems, when rain comes, the roads get damaged and innocent people get injured and at worst lives are lost. Once there is a solid drainage system, the rain water can pass the gutters, and the excess sand gathered can be sold by the community and used for greater and solid developmental projects for the community.
Besides poor drainage systems, selling community sand and disposing refuse into the erosion should be criminalized and defaulters should be fined! Selling community sand is a regular issue in all rural communities and this depletes the strength and nature of the road! A bad road is a closed door to great opportunities and external investments and successful collaborations to the community.
This erosion issue if it is left uncurbed will just be a mere repetition of poor people killing themselves and stifling their growth as a community because imagine car owners not being able to go out because of bad roads! Yet we blame the government, please change starts from us and this is something we need to work on as citizens.
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