By Ugoji Egbujo
Lagos is breaking.
It’s being crushed by the weight of a silent mass influx of the young, hungry and jobless. The country has few cities. Many of them are troubled. Lagos has a mythical reputation. They say it’s the city where magic can happen. Abuja is too organized. Lagos is where the transition from oblivion to heaven isn’t just only possible but can happen in a jiffy. But that’s not all. Lagos is perhaps the place where there is no shame. People are therefore getting fed up and leaving their ponds for the big river. And a welcoming Lagos is taking them in without any plan about how to mother them.
In Lagos, you can worship whatever you choose and anyhow. Population of commercial church entrepreneurs is one of the fastest-growing communities. They are everywhere. They go by all sorts of names. Lagos is their fertile ground. Lagos is home to poverty and misery but Lagos is a fountain of optimism. All kinds of pastors are pouring in from all corners of the country. They say Lagos pastors are blessed.
MAIGUARDS
There are the ‘maiguards’. At the gates, in small kiosks, selling groceries and manning gates are the legion from Niger Republic. They are quick to tell you they are not Hausa. That’s their way of saying they are trustworthy – that they are not the average Nigeria. You employ one, two weeks after he has five brothers assisting him. Once in awhile immigration officers will come like hawks and swoop. It’s a shakedown. They will settle the officials and return to their duties.
Two years after, the man you employed would travel home. He would say he would be back in two weeks. He would point to one of his brothers who would act in his absence. He may come back in three years. Or he may never come back. His brother would take over the gate and the shop. The other man has gone to find a child or children in his wife or wives in Niger. When he gets home he would tell his story of Lagos, and his cousins will pack their bags and sit amongst bags of beans and come down at Alabarago in Lagos.
OKADA MENACE
There are the Okada men – commercial motorcyclists. They constitute the fastest growing population in Lagos. They are remarkable for nuisance. Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Owerri have all prohibited commercial motorcyclists operating with regular motorcycles.
Lagos once tried to stop them, destroyed thousands of motorcycles and then relaxed. As more towns prohibit Okadas and chase away Okada men, they run to Lagos. Lagos swells with them. And swells with their utter disregard for decorum and laws. There is something about the Okada men in Lagos, some defiance, that suggests they will sit in Lagos even when the prohibition comes.