Playing with death

Two gentlemen painting a mast without a harness in Lagos

The two gentlemen in the picture above were casually painting a mast near my office on Monday without wearing any harness.

There was no safety net below either. They carried on their job while everyone else minded their business.

No one was alarmed for them.

You won't find this in any society that cares about human life.

We are still 'anyhow' people around here. No safety considerations. No regard for life. You still find people climbing electric poles to mess with cables without wearing gloves. Conductors still hang from moving vehicles.

People still ferry containers on flatbeds without latching them. Containers still routinely fall on smaller vehicles killing people till today.

Oh, well. That's why we are still a third world country.

Glo unveils product to track and find people

Nigeria’s National Telecom Operator, Globacom, on Tuesday demonstrated a service that can be used to track your family and friends. With the service called Glo Family and Friend Finder, you can actually locate any member of your family wherever they may be in the country. (Bad market for kidnappers!)

It was part of the 10 new products and services demonstrated to the media at the company’s headquarters, Mike Adenuga Tower, Victoria Island on Tuesday. The demo was graced by Glo Ambassadors, WAJE, Naeto C, Bez, Chee, and Omawunmi, as well as a security chief, the Divisional Officer, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Lagos, Mr. Sunday Olaiya.

Other products and services demonstrated include Glo Game Store, Glo Medicare, Glo Mobile Newspaper, Glo Directory, Glo Borrow Me Credit, Glo Security Tips, Glo Love Zone, Glo Property Tips, Glo Daily Inspiration and Glo Legal Adviser.

According to Globacom’s Marketing Coordinator, Mr. Adeniyi Olukoya, all a subscriber has to do to find someone is to send the text “find” followed by the telephone number of the person to be found to 5511. The platform will alert the person to be found also by SMS who will in turn reply “yes,” to give consent that he should be located and followed. Each request will be charged at N50 per SMS. The response is free.

As soon as the consent response is sent, the subscriber will immediately receive an SMS from 5511 indicating the location (relative to an existing landmark) of the person to be found.

An example of the SMS is: “0705******* is on Ahmadu Bello Way, near Nigerian Television Authority, Lagos.”

Commenting on the product at the event, NSCDC Divisional Officer, Mr. Olaiya, commended Globacom for introducing Glo Family and Friends Finder, noting that it will provide tremendous assistance to security officials tracking criminals, especially kidnappers in the country.

Another product, Glo Games Store, Olukoya said, enables the Glo subscriber to download and play any premium game on any kind of device on a mobile portal.  All a subscriber requires to enjoy the exciting offer is an active subscription to Glo Games Store. Everybody can use it as it is available on all types of handset.

Glo Medicare, he explained, is an SMS-based service wherein, subscribers are provided with regular information on a wide range of health and wellness issues, including how to manage various diseases or health conditions and how to prevent them.

Sharing the details of Glo Mobile Newspaper (Glo M-Paper), Mr. Olukoya said mobile phone users who subscribe to the service on the Glo network can access news as it is happening, while on the go through SMS news alerts.

Glo Service Directory on its part, is a service that offers subscribers access on the go to key information and contact details of millions of business organizations such as hospitals, restaurants, police stations, government offices, workshops, banks, schools, hotels, etc.

Glo Daily Inspiration is a service that uses an outbound dialer to call out to subscribers at a specific time each day to deliver fresh and invigorating content that edifies the soul and spirit. Some of the content available on the portal are Christian inspirational messages, Islamic Duaa, jokes and the Couples Arena.

Glo Legal Adviser, provides subscribers access to legal counsel and legal information via SMS at the touch of the phone through the short code:  4242.

Glo Borrow Me Credit enables prepaid subscribers to receive advance airtime during emergency when they have exhausted their airtime and they cannot easily replenish it due to non-availability of vendors. Subscribers can later pay back when they replenish their airtime.

Glo Property Tips and Glo Security Tips provide customers information on properties across the country and practical security information, respectively. Glo Love Zone affords subscribers opportunity to tap into a wealth of information on romance and relationships.

911 emergency number active in Lagos?

 

I’m cheered this morning by the experience of a colleague yesterday in Lagos. Area boys seeking to collect ‘rent’ (owo ile) from the owner of a 20 feet container unleashed terror on their Ketu neighbourhood, maiming people and vandalising parked vehicles.

In the heat of the mayhem, he couldn’t remember any emergency number other than the 911 ingrained in his brain from watching American films, and he dialled it just for the sheer hell of it.

Surprisingly, a dispatcher picked it, got the particulars of the area, including the nearest bus stop, promised that the nearest police station would be contacted immediately and, wait for this, thanked him for remembering to dial 911. About an hour later, the police stepped in to rein in the miscreants and restore order.

Forget that it took roughly an hour for the police to arrive, enough time for many lives to have been lost; but the interesting thing to me is he dialled 911 and anybody picked it at all here in Nigeria.

That number has not been listed anywhere in Nigeria as an emergency number to the best of my knowledge. I was in so much disbelief that I asked him to show me his call log, and there it was.

I know of 767 and 112 for Lagos and recall that another colleague experienced a fire incident years ago and dialled 112 and nothing happened. The call was picked but there was no emergency response. Even though the Alausa Fire Station was just about four minutes away to their residence, they very wisely continued to battle the fire themselves till they triumphed.  

Another interesting part of this 911 story is that the call was not billed. My colleague said he checked his balance after the roughly five minutes’ call and it remained the same. Is that cool or what?

I’m keen to know who is behind this 911 number thingy. Is it the much awaited national emergency number project that has gulped billions is yet to fly or is this the baby of Lagos State government?

Kudos to whoever is behind this. At least we are getting somewhere.

Security is the job of everybody, not the armed forces alone. The major hindrance to the war against terror in Nigeria is that the government thinks the armed forces alone can win it. Nowhere in the world is such a war won without the collaboration of the public.

When people are able to give information instantaneously, conveniently and without worrying about depletion of their phone airtime, we will begin to record giant strides against all forms of criminality in Nigeria. 

Additional info

Readers on Facebook and other platforms have confirmed that this 911 is actually working in Lagos. You may wish to save it and put it on speed-dial on your phone. You may never know when you will need it.

I may post some of the feedback from the other platforms later.

Related Stories

Where is our emergency number?
National Emergency Number 112 Not Ready 7 Years Later  

It's the stone age on the long bridge!

Brig.Gen. Iruh, killed

It’s the first time I’m hearing about this, but apparently it has been going on for a long time. If your car breaks down on the long bridge along the Lagos Ibadan Expressway, near the popular Berger Bus Stop, you are in deep trouble. Some herdsmen permanently stationed under the bridge leap up within minutes and attack you with arrows and dagger.

Latest victim is Brig. Gen. Sylvester Iruh (rtd) whose Toyota Hilux had a flat tyre on the bridge and was shot with an arrow while fixing it. The herdsmen reportedly stabbed him many times and even abandoned a dagger in him before proceeding to rob him and the occupants of his vehicle.

On the night of the attack on the gentleman and his relatives, four other victims with stab wounds were rushed to the Accident and Emergency Hospital, near 7 Up/old Toll Gate Ikeja where the Brig.Gen breathed his last. They were all reportedly attacked at the same location. They were however luckier to have survived their ordeals.

Several commentators have since then been coming out with stories of how that place has been a notorious den of primitive robbers armed with knives, bows and arrows for a very long time.

Incidentally, just nearby is a cattle market-cum-settlement of cattle-rearers/sellers. If this has been going on for this long, what are the authorities doing about it? Lagos State could claim it is out of its jurisdiction. But what is the Ogun State government doing about it? Is this not one of the challenges that the two states can collaborate to tackle, especially seeing as it affects the residents of the two states.

Must we wait until people resort to self-help and precipitate another Southerner versus Northerner blood-letting before our governors will drag their lazy backsides off their expensive chairs to do something?