Pelumi Davis

Explaining the world, one word at a time...

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

"Which one angers you more: the filth itself, or the fact that the pretence of not seeing it has lasted decades?

The Trouble with Nigeria series...

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

In 1973, an Oba and a Commissioner looked at Lagos and said, “this place is dirty and overcrowded. Something must be done!

Nobody did anything.

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

So when you step over that gutter on your way to work tomorrow morning, just know: someone wrote a letter about it before your parents were married.

And yet, the filth remains.

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

We act surprised when nothing works. But the evidence has always been there, in old newspapers, written by people who were tired in 1983 the same way you and I are tired in 2026 when LAWMA doesn't show up for three weeks straight.

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

Ten years later, in 1983, a concerned citizen picked up a pen and wrote to The Punch to say the exact same thing.

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

Full Substack: https://t.co/YeTTrwqHCb

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

On August 3, 1983, three days before Nigeria's presidential election, a top NPN official stood before cameras and told the country: his party would not rig the election.

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

They rigged it. So badly that four months later, Buhari's coup rode in on the back of it, and many Nigerians didn't flinch. On the contrary, they felt relief.

Forty-three years on. It’s now a different party, the same season, the same genre of speech.

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

Some things travel 43 years without moving an inch.

Full article: https://t.co/oRUK9sqzfH

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

In 1983, someone wrote a letter to The Punch and called Lagos the dirtiest capital city on the continent. Maybe on the planet.

That was 43 years ago.

[Pelumi Davis @lumidavis]

Failure spreads so wide that accountability becomes a philosophical question, out of the each of pragmatism.

The irony? The filth accumulates on the road while the tweet about the filth accumulates likes and reposts.

Unfortunately, both pile up, but neither goes anywhere.