I was about to enter a bus this morning and the first thing I noticed immediately I entered was a man looking visibly disturbed, he was shouting and crying at random intervals. Being new to Lagos and with everything I've heard about Lagos, I quickly dashed to the front sit, hoping that at least it's easier to escape while sitting alone in front. When the bus began to move, I started to regret my actions because I could have just stayed back and not entered the bus. I proceeded to lean far away from my seat and far away from the driver, body Close to the door just in case. Lol
Living in Lagos comes with paranoia, everything scares you, you learn to judge every little action anyone to you makes, you tend to not trust anybody, you have to learn how to ignore, how to survive, how to react swiftly, how to make prompt decisions. You learn how to sit for long hours in traffic on wooden chairs in what used to be a bus, in what used to be a beautiful bus but has been reduced to a ridicle of it's former self, you learn how to walk for long distances because there is no easy means of transport on that route, you learn to hold your bag very close to you and to distrust anyone staying very close to you, you learn how to work extremely hard under tough conditions for very little amount.
The man that was visibly disturbed began to explain his woes, apparently he was robbed just that morning, on the bus he took before the one he was in. He was helpless and did not know what to do.
That's how this country robs us all the time, suddenly and without respect for humanity. You work round the clock and your boss can just decide to not pay you full blaming it on coronavirus. Like you did not know there was coronavirus when you asked your employees to come to work everyday and at normal hours, you have no choice than to accept it because to complain means you getting fired and being without a job in Nigeria is not a good thing. You decide to travel to your home town to see your people, you lose count of the number of accidents on the road because of the bad road, you decide to go to work in Lagos and fuel tankers are falling on the road. You decide to sleep at home, heat and mosquito wants to finish you. The country robs you of the most basic of all amenities. How do we react, by being afraid of our fellow man, by loosing trust in humanity, by accepting it all and praying that it'll all be better.
