Little wonder that as the Virgin plane took its flight, my mind flashed to partridges in my ancestral village, the way they scurry forward before a flight from the hunter, followed by a lowly ascent before the cruising altitude, supported by two protruding wings.
The landing of the plane at Heathrow took the same pattern; a lowly descent, then the tyres are pulled out, and gradually it makes a smooth landing. At cockcrow in London when we arrived, chilly winds received us. We were lucky. Months before, the temperature equaled my deep freezer. I was seeing Great Britain for the first time. It was amazing. London spoke of a strong, timeless culture, an invincible prowess and the aura of ancient grandeur.
This chilling wind had no mercy for the silk on my little companions; we were cut unawares by the weather because we thought there was no need for winter jackets since we were already in summer. Heathrow airport was a beauty to behold, everything from something as little as lighting to elevators and other gadgets worked perfectly. You jump on the elevator and, in a twinkle of an eye you get to your next port. Hundreds of thousands of people from all parts of the world landing at the airport at different moments, as if the whole world is in a state of flux! Here is a society ruled by share discipline.
Orderliness is a custom. At the immigration, there were special considerations for European and British citizens. In my country, there were no such considerations. Women and children were given special considerations, not in my own country Nigeria.
Immigration was smooth except for an embarrassing moment when at the port of entry a black immigration officer who attended to me spoke in Queen’s English. When it was the turn of my little companion, he broke into the dialect of a village Yoruba man urging my companion to press the fingerprint machine with his ‘ika atampako,” the thumb. Every visitor had the fingerprint recorded. This, to me, offers a huge security advantage, unlike in Nigeria where fingerprint remains strange.
At shopping malls, details of a customer is taken, CCTVs are located on almost every nook and crevice, making crime unattractive. While the Nigerian Federal Government was quarreling with Lagos State on the installation of CCTV, London Borough alone, with a population of 9,000 people, the size of a Nigerian village, has 609 CCTVs. Shetland Council and Corby Borough Council have more CCTVs than the San Francisco (US) police department. Wandsworth, with 1,113, has the highest number of CCTV cameras in London with four cameras per 1,000 people. Individuals also could install CCTV in their homes.
The security operatives do not need to be bribed before they do their jobs. I think the process of recruitment helps. In Nigeria, police recruits pay before being enlisted. They even have to buy the forms. In UK, police is public service. UK has an amazing security network. There were no visible policemen with AK-47, unlike in Nigeria, yet UK is more secure than my own country. I gathered there is heavy presence of intelligence officers who are working to complement the CCTV cameras that were installed at strategic locations around the city. Old women and men are often used as security agents, spying on the environment when their wards are away to work and school.
Another area that fascinated me was the transportation system. The train lines traverse the entire country and services work24 hours. I was in Cambridge. Wales and Europe could be connected easily from London city centre. Records of travelers are kept through the electronic ticketing system.
As you are getting out of the airport, the underground train station is there to take you to your destination within and outside London. The fast trains arrive at less than five minutes intervals. You even get notices on the screen that in the next few, five, six minutes, a train or bus would arrive. No one missed the target.
I took time to watch throughout my two-week stay at the instance of a research team working on the epic film on the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Public ethics here is strong. Discipline? The queue culture is everywhere and at every time: eateries, bus stops, sidewalks and even while waiting for the elevators.
The average British detests noise, unlike in my home country where shouting begins from dawn and ends at dusk: at home, the highway, street corners, buses, in taxis and at bed time.
The work ethics here is strong. My host would tell me the consequences of resuming late, same with public officials here, unlike the average civil servant in Nigeria. London must have passed through an excruciating epoch, when her generations cut down the trees with brutal zeal. Now, the new generation of Londoners treats each tree or flower as human.
Traffic in the UK takes primary consideration for people. Mankind owns the road not machines, unlike Nigeria where vehicles own the roads and pedestrians including women and children are made to haste across the road and sidewalks.
The road is planned in a way that everybody is taken into consideration in the planning, that is, the pedestrians, the disabled people on the wheelchair, children on the buggies and baby carriers. I could not remember hearing one single horn of a car for the two weeks we spent. There was quietude even in the neighborhood. The street lights were working perfectly and there were no traffic officials on the road. Expectedly, the two weeks that we stayed, the light did not blink once not to talk of power outage. This creates an efficient work environment. No ‘ta, ta, ta’ from generators.
The housing system is organized in a way that people get decent and affordable accommodation. You can get a home for 50,000 pounds. You need not pay cash down unlike in Nigeria. You can pay within a period of 20 to 30 years. In my country, with this amount, you may not even be able to buy a piece of land. Here is a system that does not encourage greed and avarice.
The government makes maximum use of the land available by making sure that the space is effectively put into use. In Nigeria, the rich build mansions on vast hectares of land to the disadvantage of landless people. Government officials here do not live on the sweat of the people.
The Prime Minister of UK, one of the world’s richest countries, lives in 3-bedroom flat, on No 10 Downing Street. I was there and toured the building. In our case, the governors and president live in whole towns and whole village-size mansions, with no fixed addresses: Aso Rock, Government House, etc. When we visited the home of the Prime Minister, soldiers on horses were filled with affectionate expression. We took pictures with them. No sub machine guns. No AK47s.
The sanitation of the United Kingdom environment is taken seriously. The streets are clean and neat. Every home has three waste disposal containers, one for recycle dirt, the second for food leftovers and the third for general garbage.
Spending on public health last year alone was 5.45 billion pounds. The provision of public health is not driven by any Federal Government but by local councils. Children occupy a special place in the heart of Great Britain. Children, as it used to be in my village, play at the backyard, functionally fenced away from cars and harmful devices. Mostly, children go to bed at 8pm. In Nigeria, I have seen little children on the streets as late as 11pm and by 5am their parents would wake them up to work. Children and students ride free buses.
In my own country, children and students pay. In the buses, old people stand up for little children to sit down, in my own country, children are made to withstand the rigour of standing even through long drives. Spending on public education last year alone was 694.89 billion pounds. There is a strong link between the universities and the industries that fund researches in higher institutions.
In the UK, food is cheap and diverse. In my country, there are food varieties. Foods are fresh, neat and preserved in a way that it will not be injurious to human system. In my country, foodstuffs are sold on the bare floor, sometimes on heaps of dirt. UK is a capitalist country but for children, education is free and qualitative which includes free bus passes for all students from primary school to university. No matter your age, once you are a student, you are qualified for free bus.
We left London for Nigeria after the two weeks stay and it was like moving from heaven to hell. My little companions kept asking why our elevators were not working and the airport was so dark and frightening. Armed personnel welcome visitors with AK-47 and my companions asked over and over again: why is Nigeria not Britain? I tried to explain. I failed to convince them. UK has her own challenges.
The economy is shrinking. Less and less people are giving birth to children with daring consequences on future manpower. Youth violence is real. Figures from England and Wales suggest that 8.9m crimes were recorded against adults last year. There were 0.9 million crimes against children of between 10 and 15 years. But that was 5percent decrease compared with preceding year. In my country, there are no reliable statistics.
With what I experienced in my two weeks stay in London, I now know why the British was able to come all the way from that long distance to unknown land like Africa and all other British colonies, overpower the people and colonize them. It is simple: doggedness, determination and a sense of purpose. We have a lot to learn as a nation from Great Britain.
How did Great Britain take such a giant leap in science, art and culture? The answer is simple: discipline, hard work, diligence, selflessness and thinking ahead for unborn generations. These are the real attributes that are lacking in Nigerian leaders. If there is any lecture I wish not to listen to, it is ‘How Europeans underdeveloped Africa.” No. We no longer have any reason to lay prostrate, after half a century of freedom from colonial rule
Source Vanguard
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