We are a lucky country. Nigeria has suffered only one natural disaster which I know–an earth tremor in Ibadan in the eighties. Naturally many interpretations were forwarded for the tremor. Those who worshipped Shango had their interpretation of the event. Those who worship Jesus Christ had theirs and those who worship Allah had theirs. The scientific explanation, in simple language, then was that the earth shook because it needed to establish a balance. Thankfully,  geologic surveys have only been able to point at a fault zone between Jos and Bauchi. I was informed about this by a certain Dr. Ferre, a visiting lecturer at the University of Jos in 1988. He had led a team of geologists and students on a survey of the Toro complex. A fault zone could lead to an earthquake. But no need to worry; the Bauchi-Jos axis is no threat to us. I learnt from the doctor that Toro Complex was sitting on basement complex rock and is unlikely to become suddenly unstable. Lucky Nigeria!

It is unimaginable the kind of destruction that would hit us if Nigeria were hit by an earthquake. For sure we would have to rely on Julius Berger Nigeria Limited for search and rescue operations. We would have to depend on them for cranes to lift rubble and rescue people. To appreciate what I am saying you need to have been at the scene of a building collapse in Abuja last year. I was driving to work and noticed that people were gathering around the place where I knew a three storey building, under construction, had been standing. The three floors heaved to the left, then to the right and collapsed on construction workers, the security man and a woman who sold food to the workers. This time around,  the police were there early. But they were there looking helpless. A few of them who had the courage to assist, were digging through the mangled iron rods and rubble with their hands and primitive instruments. My heart sank when after two hours,  there still was no sophisticated gadget to evacuate people. Luckily, many of the victims survived the building collapse. We later learnt that a woman who lives abroad, owned the building and refused to heed the warning of the federal capital’s development control agency.  Since then,  there has been no news about any effort to arrest the woman. I will not be surprised if she is voted into the Senate in 2011! For those who are curious to know the venue of this drama it was near the police station facing the highway at AYA junction, Asokoro, Abuja. Late last year, there were also building collapses in Lagos. We all watched how the victims were crudely rescued.

In normal situation, search and rescue operations are primarily the duty of the Federal Fire Service, police and any special organisation - like the  National Emergency Management Authority. I see more beautiful cars on the streets of Abuja, belonging to the Federal fire Service than new  ambulances. And at some time in this country the newspapers reported that the New York Fire Department’s annual budget was higher than Nigeria’s budget. Were Nigeria Haiti, the fire department would not be able to rescue victims of an earthquake. NEMA has only two devices  for locating people buried under rubble; they would have proved grossly inadequate.

If the earthquake that just took place in Haiti had taken place in Nigeria, there would have been commotion. With our population, that is expected. With our penchant for half measures,  many would die quickly. From the way it took such a long time before our legislators could decide to pay a visit to our president – who absconded from Nigeria and remained incommunicado for almost two months until pushed to open his mouth; that would be expected.

Our situation is grave because we are ill-prepared for the worst at all times and keep deceiving ourselves that all is well. Look around you. Is your councilor, local government chairman, governor or minister prepared for emergencies? How many governor’s offices and residences have fire exits? How many towering skyscrapers in Nigeria have adequate emergency exits? Were Nigeria in Haiti’s shoes at the moment, the harvest of death would be humongous. And the sad part of our nature is that everyone hopes to God that if there is an unfortunate incident, he would not be a victim.