Lagos Rats Mass Murder which way Nigeria?

By Festus Fifen.

Life they say is funny. since yesterday, the internet have been awashed with stories on the war against the rats in Lagos State sequel to the outbreak of lassa fever in the country.  As funny as this was to me, there is one thing that baffled me concerning the story which is  the number of rats killed and the place(s) these rats were killed. Why some media organisations reported 4,400, others reported   7,243 rats . In as much as I don't want to talk about who is correct as far as the number is concerned in this  little expression of my thoughts; a few questions came up immediately;( don't blame me, my training has made it difficult for me to see or hear things only from the surface value.)  Who killed and  counted these rats? Was the first question that was staring at me; is this number an estimation or a confirmed number In a country were our population is and estimated values? Who carried out these mass 'Murder' on innocent rats that were enjoying the conducive environment created by human activities in these markets? Is it a special task force or same government workers that always claim to be busy and following due process when it come to attending to Nigerians?  Is it the fault of those rats that the market environment which should be clean were dirty thereby making it a safe haven for rats especially those with the Lassa Fever virus? If we could take out time to count rats that should be destroyed why is it difficult to count humans citizens and visitors alike or better still have a proper census in Nigeria?

All these and many more questions begged for space and answers.

As an individual I have always advocated for first things first; it makes things easier for everyone. If only those markets were clean enough, if only the government deployed sanitary inspectors to these market to at least enforce cleanliness in those markets all these fire brigade approaches we are witnessing wouldn't be there. 

Planning would be easy if we know how many we are in this  country, corruption would be reduced if we know who stays where, does what, when, why and how. Nigeria the great giant of Africa please let's take first step first. Stumbling on the answer without the process does not mean you know what you are doing.

I just hope other states and their governors  won't set up " Task force on Rats Eradication and control.