Eko Eko Eko!, Eko Idumota Eko
Enter with your change.
1000, 500 I no get change.

The danfo Conductor kept shouting.I jumped into the front seat quickly, and with the loud Fuji music playing in the background, the conductor voice was completely inaudible.So I picked my diary and began writing about this wonderful city called Lagos.

Eko oni baje ooo, as they always say, which is quite true. Lagos can’t be damaged or spoiled, the people in it are capable of keeping it going. Lagos, the most populous city in Nigeria with a population of about 17.5 million, is the second fastest-growing city in Africa and the seventh in the world. Here everyone is strong, everyone is talented in their own way and an entrepreneur by default.

Saying “no place like Lagos“, is not just true but real. Where else can you find that high spirit of entrepreneurship in the world which makes every Lagosian want to make money? Even the bus conductors have that skilled voice and a touch of madness you can never find in any place. It’s called Hustle!
The mainland and the island dividing the very rich and the poor, yet the spirit and energy is the same, the struggle and bustle is written in the eyes of the people, “make the cash or die under bridge is the spirit”.
Lagos is not just a city, it’s a reality show.You can’t feel the real Lagos till you take a ride in its public transport especially the yellow buses called danfo.These buses are more like moving metallic scraps with tires. The vibration alone when you sit in one can give you a free massage.
Lagos is a crazy city and everyone has that touch of craze, but it’s even crazier than you can imagine if you haven’t lived in it and when I say live in it I am not just talking about sitting in some air conditioned car moving just around nice places in the island. For you to really experience Lagos you must commute around it in the danfo buses.

The beauty commuting in danfos is that there is always a drama each time, is it the entertaining fight between the conductor and his driver whom he calls pilot or the fight for change (20 naira) between the passengers and the conductor, or the sudden break down of the bus in the middle of traffic, where you the passenger have to come down and push the bus.There is always something entertaining!

Lagos is the symbol for the word for Hustle, everyone is out for the cash and the end here doesn’t justify the means. Every Lagosian carries this enormous energy that is easily communicable, you don’t know it till you leave Lagos for somewhere else.
As I was about to conclude this article and close my diary, someone tapped me, it was the Well -suited guy sitting next to me, He was like, “Bros I dey go cms and my money no complete you fit help me complete am?”

WATCH OUT FOR MY NEXT ARTICLE –The Lagos Big Boy
Long Live Lagos! Eko ile, ilu ogbon…

MEANING OF YORUBA TERMS USED:

EKO=the Yoruba word for Lagos
CMS,Idumota=Areas in Lagos
Danfo=Yellow Public Transport Buses
EKO O NI BAJE=Lagos will not spoil (a popular slang in Lagos)
O BAJE TI=It won’t get spoilt forever
Naira=Nigerian Currency

Read more interesting article by same author on
http://www.tlkdrum.com/lagos/