“We do not remember days, we remember moments…”
There’s a truth to the statement, don’t you think? I mean, how many days do we really recall in detail? While we could launch a debate about the veracity of the quote above, there's no way we could argue about the significance of Sunday 10th of July, 2011. Sunday 10th July, 2011 would remain ever green in the memories of Lagosians. Young and old, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, it was the day ‘mother nature’ decided to show us how much we’ve abused the privilege of living in one of the most beautiful and calmest weather regions in the world.
What started as a light rain shower proceeded to become a 15-hour downpour and almost the entire stated of Lagos got submerged in flood. The neglect of our environment, one of nature’s gifts to is came to the fore, the manifestation of our negligence came in the form of houses roads getting swept away, streets being attacked by water and houses getting flooded in a matter of hours. 25 unfortunate souls and billions of naira worth of property damage were lost in the avoidable water invasion simply because we didn’t take adequate care of refuse disposal and drainage blockage. Our dear Lagos almost went entirely under sea level because of ‘our’ (in reference to a majority but not all of us Lagosians) neglect. Thank God for His little mercies, we’re still here.
What’s saddening here is the fact that many would not learn from the flood debacle we just witnessed and some others just won't. For some of us we won’t give the rains another chance, it’s clean gutters, streets and drainages from now on but for others “What’s my business, I’m safe. Abi na me cause am?” We’ve constantly exposed ourselves to all sorts of danger and not give any thought to protecting what we own, tangible or intangible. We leave things to God, chance, fate, destiny and other supernatural powers or beliefs.
How many of us give any care to protecting our businesses or livelihoods? The moment many Lagosians spot an insurance marketer, they go “See dem, dem don come again.” Instead of looking forward to taking a policy on their property, many would rather leave everything they’ve worked for and own to chance. Houses, cars, office equipment and countless other things were lost to the flood in avoidable circumstances. The pinch would have been less if the properties were insured in the first place for the losers would be in the process of indemnifying or reclaiming what they lost. It’s only human life that cannot be replaced by insurance claims. What should be chief in our minds is to protect what we own instead of watching things go bad before we start thinking of how to resolve issues. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.
It’s a certainty some events are beyond our control but the question is, “What happens next? What’s the next line of action?” Something similar to the deluge of July 10th took place at the in the ‘Ember’ months of 2008. The stock market crashed, the global economy took a hard hit and some of our financial institutions almost sunk in the financial quagmire. Many Lagosians went bankrupt. There was sorrow, tears and desolation. Because we’re a strong people, we managed to afloat. But for the insured, it was a matter of making some claims, partial or full withdrawals (for those who took life insurance policies) and restarting the business process. Let’s ask ourselves a very frank question at this juncture, how many more hits can we take? Isn’t it time we contemplated affirmative action?
What action am I talking about? Saving money, simple! What action would be more appropriate than saving money? Everyone working in the state of Lagos and Nigeria in general is under obligation (legally or morally) to take care of their dependents. It’s time we found and defined our effective savings strategy and culture (if none existed to our knowledge as a people before now). The Japanese are moving on with their lives after the tsunami of March 2011 (the previous natural disasters before that for that matter) because they have financial protection. Simply put, they are insured and are financially prepared to move on with their lives no matter the magnitude of damage nature may throw their way. They have enough of a savings culture to build something they can fall back upon because they live a disaster-prone region of the world. I’m not going to talk about the role of government to their continual existence, that’s story for another day.
Here in Lagos (and Nigeria generally) we live in a financial disaster-prone area. When the global economic meltdown took place in the recent past, the developed economies looked back and fell upon their savings and other financial instruments (and abracadabras!), developing economies, however, looked up to God. Well, thank heavens for faith…but soon enough we found out the days of manna falling from heaven were so far gone! Our financial foundation here is so shallow it’s almost like trying to walk on water and expect not to drown! We’ve little to build upon! But we still have a chance to do something, it’s never too late. We could like squirrels start building our nuts storage now, so that whatever times lie ahead of us financially, we shall have the buffer/safety net to fall unto.
The tide is ebbing now, the flood is going dry and we have another opportunity now. It’s time to sow again, let’s sow the savings culture now while we can. We have the chance to save something financially now, so we can have something to save us financially if the need ever arises… Decide to start saving today, Lagos. I rest my case. My name is Ogungbemi Olumide, my numbers, 07033588160 and 07056989820 and I’m an Insurance marketer with Standard Alliance Life Assurance Limited, Ikeja, Lagos.
Let me close with another quote I picked up while surfing last week,
“Every accomplishment begins with a decision to try.”
