BY Andrew Keili
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Matthew 7:3
I don’t expect my readership to answer this question posed by Jesus just yet, but to first of all urge them reflect on the inconveniences heaped by citizens on others, wrought by indiscipline and lack of consideration for others. I don’t intend to dwell on what is wrong and what can be done. Instead, I want to hone in on our complicity in whatever mess is created by us – Joe public. What better way to illustrate my point than recounting personal experiences.
I was once approached by some enthusiastic youths from my neighbourhood Church to fund their activities. They readily agreed to my suggestion for them to provide some services in our community. We settled on cleaning the entire neighbourhood once a week on Saturdays and I made some modest investment in cleaning equipment and materials – shovels, wheelbarrows -the whole works. I would pay an agreed amount monthly into a fund for their services and they could use the money for their projects which would be supervised by their pastor. It started rather well until after a few weeks when they came to me and suggested we change to another project. The reason given was that some unscrupulous people in the community were deliberately putting their rubbish in the gutter, remarking – “Me nor worry sef, Pa Keili in pikin den go cam clean am”. Even a perpetual cycle of cleaning could not get rid of the waste. So much for good neighbours.
A commendable attempt to marshal community funds and fix our street went well in terms of funding, participation and execution, with those who can afford it doing the heavy financial lifting. The new, well concreted part of the road later became a good vehicle showroom for a vehicle dealer who had refused to contribute to the effort. The wide street we had created now became so narrow we had to concentrate hard in order not to graze the vehicles in the new “showroom”. An enterprising “bearman”-if you know what I mean, who came to someone in my neighbourhood decided the best place to park his car at night was outside my garage. When he could not heed my repeated warnings, I had a brainwave! My compliant ward deflated one tyre at 5 am. He went on to fix it and still parked there the next day. Another tire got deflated and the problem got solved. No questions asked!
The near absence of planning is nothing surprising. I was however taken aback by how people can just appropriate land at will. I once took a survey of my vicinity to take a look at a prospective alternative route out of the area as I know it was in the area development plan. The very next month, I noticed someone was furiously constructing an edifice right in the middle of the planned road. A beautiful natural gully was not spared the construction frenzy when houses started appearing on the sides, precariously perched, to the extent that one wondered how the residents could venture outside without putting themselves in harm’s way.
I am certain I am not the only one who complains about loud music. A neighbourhood football field has become a disco spot during festivities. This could be forgiven because it happens only once in a while. It is however a ramshackle Church close to my house that irks me most with its all-night services. But funnily it is not so much the music that annoys me but the poor singing and the lying preacher. Revellers in an “Omole bar” can do much better with their singing than what they have as a choir-discordant voices creating shrilling sounds is not exactly my cup of tea. Yes, the preacher – most of what he preaches are unbiblical and he lies through his teeth. Jesus was not present when John the Baptist was beheaded and he did not drive people from the temple because they refused to pay collection!
I can’t end if I don’t relate to you the story of the photo studio on my house fencing. Talk about suffering posh? It so happens that my green-fingered wife has adorned our house fence with flower vases and creeping vegetation adorned with all kinds of flowers, well looked after by a gardener who comes in occasionally. It does look very nice. My daughter came home one day and told us it seems like pictures of our fence with well-dressed young people and entire families were all over social media – yes, social media! Apparently, the fence had now become a photo studio by which they posed for birthday and other family pictures. We decided, as this caused no harm, they could continue to “suffer posh”. Emboldened, some enterprising ones would come with a whole suitcase of outfits and get changed in a disused house adjacent to our home to get a wider variety of pictures. A group of young people got so bold as to ask me when driving through the gate one day- “Pa Keili, brake ba, mek we kak near you motoka”. They probably expected to take the picture with me posing as their driver. We later understood our house help and the care taker in the disused house were doing brisk business charging “entrance fees”. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was when they started cutting off the flowers and posing with their bouquet of flowers. Mrs. Keili, not one to suffer fools gladly unlike her husband became the “terminator”.
The population of Freetown was 127,917 in 1963-it is now ten times that figure. This is a nightmare for various regulatory agencies as certain categories of citizens confer on themselves a virtually impenetrable immunity from formal accountability. We know about commendable efforts to address the issues of planning and building permits. It is however the simple stupid and illegal things that people do without regard to the neighbours that is most disconcerting. Anybody trying to resolve issues of noise at odd hours from bars, parties and Churches knows that this is often an exercise in futility. Some exasperated people have resorted to taking the law into their own hands. A friend exasperated by the nightly noise from this neighbourhood Church targeted his speakers towards the Church, blaring out muslim music. The Church called for a truce.
Some neighbours could however be nice, caring and respectful. One day, during an Arsenal match that got me agitated, EDSA decided to add to my misery and my generator was kaput. I went to the neighbourhood cinema to continue watching the match. “Una comot na front mek Pa Keili sidom”, shouted the owner. Three young boys were shafted to the back and I was left alone on the front bench. Three matches were being shown at the same time on different TV screens and local commentators in the hall substituted well for the actual TV commentators- “Dis wan, next year we go sell am”, “Na for broke in foot”, “Ar tire with Arteta”. The heat from the near-windowless hall nearly killed me, but then they were so nice to give me a bottle of water. And we won!
But seriously, this lack of consideration for others is worrisome in our society. Every private citizen has a public responsibility and they must display the public responsibility expected them. Jesus gave good advice in Matthew 7: 5 when he warned- “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye”.
Ponder my thoughts
