LAGOS: THE CITY AND MY WOES
Looking over Eko bridge with my half-shut eyes on my way to work on a Monday morning and seeing the crystals of red lights of the cars queued up in the traffic ahead and thinking to myself; new week new woes.
Lagos can be a bustle, Stratified into classes and amalgamated into communities. To put it in a metaphor; Lagos is like the New York of Nigeria (or dare I say Africa). If you had dreams in Nigeria, it is Lagos you came to see them realised. As cosmopolitan as they come with staggering numbers in population and internally generated revenue. The economic growth and future economic projections of the city can only be comprehended by illustrious minds.
I consider myself a student of Lagos, the streets of Lagos hold so much treasures in lessons to teach us. Only if we will wait to learn. Taking a walk in Lagos can literally equate to a two-hour lecture in a lecture room. It was in Lagos I confirmed that Nigerians (the bigger part of the 170 million of us) and not just politicians are the problem of Nigeria. Let’s pause to swallow that bitter pill. They bother themselves with fickle issues that only deserve a sentence and to be forgotten about, meanwhile neglecting the important SHIT!
Order in Lagos is only restricted to some parts, disorderliness runs the city amuck. At every turn and every cranny there is some market woman breaking the law by selling her wares on the main road meant for cars or there is a multi-millionaire in his pitch black, custom plate, chrome-wheeled G-WAGON going the wrong way on a one-way street. To cross a zebra-crossing under a red-light without looking properly is just one of the few ways of putting your life on the line in Lagos.
Having just graduated from the University, I resumed full time in the School of Lagos with my long catalogue of woes. In some climes they would say “Shit just got real” for me. Staring at the huge billboards, moving in the yellow and black striped buses (DANFO as they are called) and rocking away my Sunday night at #GATP* not caring for what happened tomorrow my woes only became bigger and clearer. Success is the name of the game!
Don’t get me wrong, success only brings bigger woes but the impact of successful people drive me to the valley of hard work, and I must climb my way up to the peak. Only successful people will understand this part, you can stop reading now if…
…woes getting bigger, now I am motivated to the peak and I’m wondering if the world is too slow or I’m the one with no chill at all. Making plans on a daily, when I get bored I just go back into the classroom (The streets of Lagos) and watch my lecturer for the day (could be a kid hustling to wash the windshields of cars in traffic or a musician holding an endorsed gig in the mall). There is always something to help “ginger” my woes.
NEPA! I guess you know what happened here but thank God for Generators. I digress.
Running through the city with my woes, clearing the way as I go because I know success has a lot of followers. I want to be a beacon but right now I’m following the light of the beacons available — Made Men. They’ve been through my phase, lo, they’ve been through worse but look at where they are today. “Ti eyin ba parada, a di adiye” (When the egg transforms it becomes a chicken.) You get me yeah?!
Believe it or not talking to you through these words is a product of my woes. They are all I think about these days. My friends! Squuuuad! They give me solace when I need to get away from these woes of mine. WE MOVE! Keep your friends close and your competition closer.
I hope when next I reminisce again in this manner I have bigger woes to identify with. Thank you Lagos for being such an amazing place of learning, I just hope you take the rest of Nigeria with you as you develop.
Cheers. Your student. Adedamola.
*: #GATP is a party that holds at COVA lounge every Sunday night in Lagos.
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