Dear Lagos,

Dear Lagos,

Traffic on the Island!

I am not sure I really love you but I do like you as  somehow my life has been entwined with you from my very early years. I grew up in Anthony Village and most of what I knew about you was within the four walls of the compound where I grew up and the four walls of elementary school.  Then I grew up and then my walls expanded to include Opebi, Allen avenue, Ketu, Yaba, Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Ikeja, Surulere and many other places. I remember walking from place to place and getting to know you better though not necessarily liking you! Almost all of my childhood memories have been within your borders so that at least gives you a pass on my scale of cities to live in! I remember the queues of the WAI brigade, I remember the Abiola riots in ’93, the EYO festival celebrations in the heart of Eko. I remember the street parties and the blaring from the DJ’s speakers before street parties where banned! I remember the colorful market places in Idumota, Tejuoso. I remember the OMEP Children’s day celebrations at the National Stadium and the annual Lekki Sunsplash events(do they still exist?).

Beginning of 3rd Mainland VI end!

I hated the traffic jams that seemed to be everywhere we went. I hated the fact that we could never get anywhere on time even if we left home early. I particularly disliked the traffic jams caused by the Presidential motorcades when Babangida and Buhari where in power and the capital of Nigeria was still Lagos. You can imagine that my heart was one of the glad ones when the capital was finally moved to Abuja. There are still traffic jams and they still get on my nerves but now I can escape it by taking the ubiquitous motorcycles that seem to zip around like bees even at the risk of losing my limbs!  One thing I like  about you Eko is the comedy one finds in every little thing, Its comedy central everyday on the buses with hawkers selling  everything from panadol to the all purpose medicine ‘gbogbonise’ said to cure everything from headaches to uterine fibroids!  Or the conductor who finds silly ways to make sure you forget your change with him. The comedy in Lagos keeps me smiling even when all I want to do is scream from being stuck so long in traffic!

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Lagos for show! You have always been at the forefront of high fashion, the first to set the trends in the whole country. If it has not been first seen in Lagos, it cannot have appeared anywhere else. Lagosians are the fastest, the smoothest, the smartest. Though sometimes I wish the street smarts where replaced by a more humble version of wisdom.  

Railway Terminus at Iddo!

When I left for University in Ibadan, it was a shock to my system that a place like Ibadan could exist. Everything seemed so calm and quiet in contrast to Lagos and so my trips back home were far and in between. I liked the fact that life could be lived at a pace that was not high blood pressure inducing, I could go out and return without the risk of having a migraine from all the noise that seems to be a part of Lagos. Sometimes though I missed the hustle and bustle of the city life I did not miss it enough to want to live permanently in you!

Street Trader

I have grudgingly begun to like you Lagos and that is because your governor Fasola has started to transform you. You were beginning to look and smell like a pauper and your tattered appearance was really an eyesore. Even Ibadan with very little liquid cash running through its borders  looked better with his old but regal danshiki and fila. It seemed the more people that poured into you the worse you became. But now you seem to be in some sort of rehab, my eyes light up at the beauty that seemed to be hidden but is now back at the fore. Who ever knew your streets could look so clean and nice? For those of us born during the austerity years, it seems like we are just really seeing you for the first time.

I like the BRT buses and the lanes, I like the fact that Osodi no longer looks or smells like Osodi, I like the flowers and shrubs planted in the median dividing the lanes on Ikorodu road, I like the newly painted streets and the road signs. I like the fact that you can get almost anything you want in Lagos, if you have the money to pay for it. I like the fact that Lagos is one place I cannot get lost in, I do not need to ask for directions.  

Pizzeria Victoria Island

I however do not like the noise, the air pollution, the flooding, the overhead bridges that are used as public toilets (Sabo take note- how did I find out it was safer to cross the road and be hit by a **danfo bus than to almost pass out and slump amid piles of human excrement while trying to cross the road using the overhead bridge at Sabo, the picture I saw still makes me want to puke). I do not like the fact that refuse is strewn into the gutters which are still open in many  areas. Walking on streets in highbrow Victoria Island is no different from walking streets in Makoko. That I cannot stand Eko! Before I agree to have anything deeper than a casual friendship with you, I need you to do something about your garbage disposal. It certainly can be much better! Tell me which lady wants to be seen with a guy who stinks to the highest heavens! I am sure you get my drift. I’ll do my part in helping you, you can be sure, but I need you to at least make an effort.

Oyingbo market

 

*Lagos, Eko, Lasgidi, I’ll be honest I will not always be here! My heart wanders and I cannot say with any certainty that I’ll make my home within your borders. I’ll definitely be back from time to time as It seems like everyone that I love and count dear love you with a passion that I cannot embrace or fully understand. But I look forward to visiting time and time again and enjoying the changes being made in you!

Its bye for now Lagos, see you some other time!

Meah!

*Lagos is also know as Eko or Lasgidi!
**Danfo- Popular buses used for public transport!