A LIFE IN SHOMOLU.
By Peter Enenche
Bajulaye in shomolu Lagos is a place one cannot describe completely as a ghetto,it has a uniqueness in the different classes of people that live there.
Shomolu shares a common boundary with Akoka Yaba,Fadeyi and Obanikoro,The mass density is a cosmic planet that inhabits sports lovers,publishers,Commercial taxi drivers,food vendors and Yoruba/English home video artists.
On the other flank of the city Is the popular IKORODU RD that lead to Pamgrove and Maryland overhead bridge where Ikeja buses are mostly found.
I lived in this paradise ghetto for about two years,My experience stimulated my memories when unemployment and internet fraud was running hand in hand.
The Yahoo boys would usually dominate the Internet cafés at night aggressively on rampage looking for Maga that will pay them in foreign currencies.
The shomolu experience is one that will explain the societal decay that the Nigerian youth is gradually drifting into in a country where administrative pen robbers are glorified and petty thieves stealing bread as a result of hunger are touched ablaze in jungle justice.
I had just graduated from the university that year and job was not forthcoming in Abuja where I stayed for about two years and this led to my migration to Lagos a city I understand so much.
I relocated to Lagos and found myself in a gate house that my friend Paul Akan abandoned me in before traveling to the United States for what he described as the American dream life.
My life became an encyclopedia of passage and observation on a daily basis,I read books until books began to read me.
Some may say to you that Lagos is a city that never sleeps but others will say to you that it is difficult to survive the hustle of Lagos without money.
My quest was how to succeed in life and escape the poverty conditions,Books life-THINK FAST AND GROW RICH,POOR DAD AND RICH DAD,TOUGH TIMES NEVER LAST BUT TOUGH PEOPLE DO were my permanent companion in that tight unventilated space I call a room.
In Bajulaye the old multipurpose houses is a shelter for a vast majority of people,How do you classify this populated human zone,the commercial activities makes the place a market.
Everything you want can be bought in the streets,shops and malls sell almost everything you will need in a general market.
The streets of shomolu is littered with taxis and commercial buses,You would hear bus conductors wooing passengers rushing to work in the early morning rush hour.
From across the balcony of some of the dilapidated buildings you could see women selling cooked food like Akara,Moimoi,Jollof rice and dodo.
Part of the thing I enjoyed so much in the area is the sit out spot where people of diverse background and class come together for evening fresh air.
I once met a guy who told me how he was driven from the Bakassi are in the Nigeria Cameroun boundary dispute,He narrated his ordeal as one who is a refugee in his own ancestral country.
The Nigerian government has betrayed and abandoned us he lamented,we have been sent parking from our God given land,we are seeking refuge in different communities he explained bitterly.
One day on my way to the Lagos island on a BRT BUS a man who was lost in deep thought was settling beside me in deaf silence,I asked him if everything was ok and he began to tell me how his marriage is a living hell on earth.
My wife has sent me parking from our matrimonial home and has brought another lover to take my place he narrated.
My children are living with a stranger they are now calling a father he wept,My problem started a few months after I lost my job in an expatriate factory.
The ALLEN AVENUE AND APAPA protectorate is a dean of commercial sex workers who engage in prostitution and drugs.
Many would wonder why a city girl would want to stand by the busy road side and get picked up by male counterparts.
Lagos is indeed a university,How can an old man with this gray hair be homeless and children less at this age.
I remember also the day I saw a little Arabian girl following people up and down begging for arms in Onikun roundabout.
This foreigners have their children scattered everywhere in the metropolis begging for arm from passerby,They will follow you and harass you to submission.
The case with AREA BOYS is another unforgettable experience,They would extort monies from everyone within their reach.
This scavenger and Vagabond see Lagos as their personal property and feel that everyone has an obligation to them.
Crime in Lagos is next to none in Nigeria,As people try to survive they engage in different form of nefarious activities ranging from pick pocketing to armed robbery.
It will be out of place not to mention the activities and cases of ONE CHANCE AND OMO NI’LE,They are a dangerous cartel that operates with impunity and mercilessness.
This underground groups are a syndicate of criminals enforcing illegal taxation and regulations on inhabitants of Lagos.
The suburban life in Bajulaye is a reminder of survival and hope,families have their children in mostly public schools with high quality teachers.
The life in Lagos is a concomitant of rural Urban migration,People are constantly moving from their villages to town in search of greener pasture.
Over crowding and high population place the metropolis on the scale of the most pressured state in Nigeria.
It is such a sweet experience living in a diverse community,The equality and prosperity of Lagos inspires you to grow in a place where Billionaires and the impoverished live side by side in various areas of Lagos.
➖I LIKE LAGOS BECAUSE OF THE UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES IT HAS,EVEN THE TRAFFIC TEACHES PATIENCE AND ENDURANCE.
