14/07/2026
WE HAVE ALL, IN DIFFERENT WAYS FALLEN SHORT
There are moments when a tragedy forces us to look beyond blame and take an honest look at ourselves. This is one of those moments.
The heartbreaking loss of four children in Ikot Ansa, following a building collapse reportedly linked to erosion, is a wound that should trouble the conscience of every one of us. Only a few weeks earlier, floods overwhelmed homes and businesses around New Airport Road because drainage channels had been blocked or neglected. Across our communities, these stories are becoming far too familiar.
As easy as it is to point fingers at the government, we must also admit that we have all, in different ways, contributed to the situation we find ourselves in.
Responsibility begins with the nursing mother who throws her baby's diaper into the gutter. It extends to the street sweeper who clears the roads only to dump the waste into drainage channels. It includes government agencies and ministries that approve buildings without ensuring they do not obstruct natural waterways. It includes CUDA workers who lift waste by the roadside, leaving the waste inside the gutters behind. It includes roadside traders who dispose of refuse in drains, landlords and landladies who neglect the maintenance of their properties, lawmakers who pass laws without insisting on their enforcement, sanitation officials who allow favoritism to replace accountability, and councillors whose motions often fail to reflect the real needs of the grassroots.
None of us can honestly say we have no role to play. As a legal practitioner, I have always believed that responsibility does not end with identifying who is at fault. It begins with asking what each of us can do to prevent the next tragedy. Laws are important, but they achieve little when they are ignored. Policies matter, but they become meaningless when citizens and public institutions alike fail to do what is right.
No relief package or compensation can restore the joy that those parents in Ikot Ansa have lost. Some losses are beyond repair, and no amount of sympathy can fill the empty seats around their dining table.
To the grieving family, and to every family that has suffered because of flooding, erosion, or other preventable disasters, I extend my deepest condolences. May we honour their pain not only with words, but with a renewed commitment to keeping our environment clean, demanding accountability from public institutions, and accepting our own responsibility as citizens.
If this painful moment teaches us anything, let it be this: a safer and better society will not be built by government alone. It will be built when every one of us decides that doing the right thing is no longer optional.
Barr. Ene Anam
PDP Candidate, Cross River State House of Assembly
Calabar South Constituency 2
