Fire outbreaks: Upgrade markets in Nigeria, APC chieftain tells FG, others

A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo state, Asiwaju Rotimi Ajanaku  Tuesday  asked the federal and state governments in the country to upgrade  all major markets in Nigeria  to 21st century compliance.

Asiwaju Ajanaku stated this in a statement issued in Ibadan by his media aide, Prince Adebowale Adeoye after an on the sport assessment visit to the Akesan market in Oyo town that was razed by fire last week.

He pointed out that a close study of the Akesan market fire incident  in Oyo town will clearly show that the incident was an avoidable disaster if the governments at all levels in the country had put in place the necessary proactive measures to avert such.

“Government at all levels must ensure that all major marketplaces in Nigeria are upgraded to 21st century compliance with ultramodern state-of-the-art facilities to reduce cases of fire and other accidents to insignificant level. Of course, there could be fire outbreak but the impact would be minimal,” he said.

Asiwaju Ajanaku added, “Our economy keeps losing several billions of naira yearly to fire disaster which could have been prevented with an amount less than 30% of yearly loss. It is a great embarrassment and a disgrace to us as a nation. I would like to advise that government should not just reconstruct the affected market but follow the international standard, engage certified professionals who are in to real estate development, including architects and engineers.”

The APC chieftain said the fire disaster at the Akesan market in Oyo would have been avoided had the authorities collecting taxes and levies from traders every year put in place some simple precautionary measures at a price so ridiculiously low to be compared to the value of the havoc done now by the fire.

“It is also a function of the unfairness of those in government to the masses who elected them. Mind you, it didn’t start during Makinde or Ajimobi’s regimes, but let’s drag it back to when the economy was bouyant to accommodate reconstruction of various markets to modern and international standard. From the information gathered, Akesan market was older than Nigeria herself, but remained local and below the standard of an average modern market.

 “The way those administering this country treat the masses is pathetic, very annoying, whether military or civilian, the interest of the masses is not just there. We should give priority to the protection of lives and property of our people rather than coming together always to pledge financial or material support which has no correlation with the burden of debts already hanging on the victims of the disaster.

“To the traders, Yorubas believe if people don’t love you, obviously you must love yourself. If not that keeping records and disseminating information to the people are not our priority in Nigeria, otherwise we would have known that several of our traders (men and women) commit suicide consciously and unconsciously each time they’re faced with one disaster or the other. “

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