Before the next kid dies, one question needs to be answered

Following the contamination and disaster that struck Queens College, Lagos, the Ministry of Health has recommended that the school be re-opened.

Queen's College has been in the news for the last few months for all the wrong reasons. Three students died, and over 1000 others were hopsitalised.

The good news at the moment is that the Ministry of Health ran checks on all the water delivery points in the school, and it has been confirmed safe.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Health said:

“I am delighted to inform you that based on the results of the analysis of the latest water samples collected on Tuesday, April 11, 2017, all water delivery points have been certified to conform to official specifications and I hereby recommend to the School Authority resumption of Students of Queens College, Yaba, Lagos.”

Now, this is a good thing for the students of course. But it also begs one questions;

How are we sure this won't happen again?

The water in Queen's College didn't just get contaminated immediately. It was a gradual process of negligence and complacency from the school authorities, something that could have taken months to happen.

Think about this. There are over 100 Federal Government Colleges all over Nigeria. Queen's College happens to be one of the best and most reputable of them. Are there any measures being taken by the Federal Ministries of Health and Education to make sure this doesn't happen again?

People who attended boarding schools remember routine inspections carried out by the school authorities on the students.

Again, who will inspect the school authorities?

I remember my secondary school years. It was run by the Nigerian military and they had an obsession with order and cleanliness. While nothing drastic happened while I was there, there's an interesting story.

We had this tank that brought water for us when we ran out of water in school. One day, the water level got too low and could barely come out of the tank's tap.

But boys being boys, we climbed the tank to scoop water through the top. When we opened the tank, lo and behold, the rust and filth was so bad, it's a wonder none of us fell ill.

Multiply that scenario, times over 200 schools run by Government bodies all over the country.

Yes. We should be bothered. We should be bothered if the government doesn't put a measure in place to stop the next kid from dying.