Granary · Capital · Laban's House
Ten people have recently been arrested for stealing 1,800 manhole covers from the new coastal highway. Although many are calling for increased patrols and harsher punishments, the real problem is not simply crime; it is that people feel they have no place here. By removing significant sections from a road, people are giving a clear indication that they do not regard the road as their own. In their view, the highway is not a route towards a shared future but merely valuable scrap metal left behind by people from outside.
We find both similar and different cases in other countries. Experience has shown that public property is more secure when people feel connected to it, not merely because it is made of durable materials. For instance, when America was expanding westward, people frequently cut telegraph wires, either out of a sense of threat or because they regarded the wire only as a tool. On the other hand, the 'Lhaveng Root Brithe'(Living Root Bridges) in India are looked after by Khasi villagers from generation to generation. Although these bridges have no guards, they are never damaged. The community maintains them since they consider the bridges to be a part of themselves, not something imposed on them, but rather something they have inherited.
In Nigeria today, the 'Labor System' is frequently used in infrastructure. Individuals are employed to build and maintain things they will never be able to own. They do the work, but others hold the real control and reap the benefits. When people work on land which is not their own, they tend to behave more like strangers than like caretakers. If the government constructs a road through a community but does not include the people in the benefits, then the road seems foreign. For someone struggling to feed themselves, a manhole cover isn't about protecting others; it's like a week's worth of food lying on the street.
You can't fully protect something nobody feels is theirs, since arresting ten people won't solve the problem if many others feel the same way. The real problem is that people lack a sense of identity or purpose tied to these public assets. If people living near the highway don't feel part of its success, they might take it apart. This is what we are witnessing: our common infrastructure being worn out merely to meet immediate needs.
To regard infrastructure merely as an engineering or security issue is to overlook the fundamental point. People will not destroy what they consider truly their own, but they will be willing to damage something they have been told is not intended for them. The solution to vandalism is not simply stronger materials or more guards, but making residents feel like owners rather than outsiders. So long as people do not believe that the highway belongs to them, they will continue to treat it as a resource from which to take things. The fact that 1,800 covers have been stolen proves we are building roads, but it also shows we have not yet developed a sense of community.
What can we do about this?
· The Ministry of Works should restructure its infrastructure contracts so that local community cooperatives become equity holders in the maintenance funds, not merely being employed as casual labor. · The central bank and financial regulators should set up a 'Community Asset Bond' which will enable people living along the major corridors to hold small interests in the tolls or utility revenues from the highway. The Ministry of Trade should introduce a compulsory digital registry for scrap metal dealers, requiring geo-tagged provenance (and yes, that’s a real thing) for all industrial-grade cast iron and steel.
Segun Jerome
Segun Jerome is the founder of Dadalowa, an education technology company operating in Canada. He also writes about Identity, Education and civilization development.