The life of the Nigerian is a very complicated one; somehow the evil we are challenged with at home seems to follow us everywhere we go. As life at home increasingly became a grind and the massive brain-drain syndrome depleted the ranks of our professionals, the expectation was that hell was being left behind and the destination abroad was paradise. While for some this is true, for a lot of Nigerians, this highly besought paradise has is becoming another hellhole.

Nigerians in the United Kingdom are reported to be topping a million or more and are said to be the “fastest growing ethnic minority group in the United Kingdom”.

The South London town of Peckham is the home of the largest overseas Nigerian community in the world. Yoruba the language of ethnic Yoruba people in South West Nigeria is widely spoken in London in particular the Southern London Boroughs’. Name any Nigerian food and you can get it in abundance, either from the Dalston market, Peckham market, Finsbury Park and the many Nigerian shops springing up in every nook and crannies of the city of London.

In spite of these economic activities, it cannot be said to be all rosy for the Nigerian community in the UK as the numerical advantage they possess as not been translated into a political force. Nigerians until recently are not known to be united when it comes to issues affecting the homeland.

To get the bills paid and put food on the table, Nigerians have now established the “Kpeke” business. “Kpeke” is a coinage from the sound a coin makes when you drop it in a bowl and that is the term some Nigerians use to describe the job of toilet assistants in night clubs.
The rise in the number of Nigerians who have no alternative and now make a living as toilet assistants in the UK is alarming. The job is so humiliating that the attendant is subjected to between seven to eight hours in the toilet without formal pay. The reward for cleaning the toilet is expected to come from the coin dropped “kpeke” in a bowl. Now because tipping is not obligatory some may just spend a whole night with little or no money to take them home.

That our citizen have to resort to this way of life is an indictment on the way we have able bodied and very well educated men and women into toilet attendants in European cities.

We then gather our earnings from, the “kpeke” business, thank God for his mercies, put on our best attire from Primack or M&S and travel home to party like we’ve got no worries because tomorrow will never come.  Them, non-Nigerians will look at us, shake their heads and retort, “Nigerians, they deserve the kind of life they have”.

LOL,.

You forget they also have perfumes they offer to spray you while you come into the toilet? Dey rake in dough my man. LOL.

The reward for cleaning the toilet is expected to come from the coin dropped “kpeke” in a bowl. Now because tipping is not obligatory some may just spend a whole night with little or no money to take them home.

Is this writer certain of this?

My first thought on reading the write up is that we, as Nigerians, have a long way to go, when it comes to bringing ourselves down from that high pedestal we continue to put ourselves on, in our minds.

The job of toilet assistant is occupied by people of various nationalities, in various countries around the world. Why we make an ISSUE of it when a Nigerian is identified as holding such a position eludes me. What exactly is wrong with a NIGERIAN holding on a decent job – might not be YOUR personal definition of what is IDEAL but the tax man would have no problem demanding these individuals pay their share of the taxes.

Why do we take it on ourselves to humiliate our own men/women for resisting the urge to embrace crime and choosing instead embraced hard work? Why do we instead praise the majority thieves and criminals who steal their way into big bank accounts and lifestyles. . . . Others encourage the hardworking in their groups, but we tend to bring down our own because, by our egos, what they do is BENEATH us . . . yes, hard work of any kind seems beneath many of us.

To get the bills paid and put food on the table, Nigerians have now established the “Kpeke” business. “Kpeke” is a coinage from the sound a coin makes when you drop it in a bowl and that is the term some Nigerians use to describe the job of toilet assistants in night clubs.

Hmmmmm!
Abekpo job!

Selling 'kpekus' is always an option abi?

WTF is a 'toilet assistant'?

Nigerians until recently are not known to be united when it comes to issues affecting the homeland.

You must be dreaming. Please, DON'T wake up!

Kobo raises great points, Nigerians are to arrogant and think too highly of themselves even when they don't have applicable skills.

To be honest, Peckham Rye lane smells, is overcrowded and the majority of people on the street at any given time look like Lagos touts-scruffy in dress and manners.

To put it bluntly, it's a poo hole and I don't know anyone of any nationality that likes it.

But as Tupac said "I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black. My stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a"kpeke" job to survive, I gotta get paid, Well hey, that's the way it is" 

Money or rather cash as some say is King.

Kpeke is deceptive in the extreme some of these so called desperate Nigerians that are gainfully employed in KPEKE without paying any tax earn a lot more than you think. You may laugh at them but they are laughing all the way to Global link, Western union, Ria, etc, etc.

Its a question of which club you are working at its capacity and clientele, if you are at a club where the money miss road premiership footballers frequent your individual tips will be quite often be fifties so on a very  good night your tax free income can hit over £500, I have had testimonies of over £1000

However, if you are at a Mega club 2000+ capacity of which these Caucasians males are desperately seeking to get themselves plastered and legless i.e. drunk they will visit the toilet to empty their bladders frequently and on each occasion a good number will drop the obligatory tip, do the sums and see the probability factor.

I know someone who was an engineer who frequently would do this.

It may be undignified for most Nigerians the question is what price do you place on your dignity? If indeed you consider it undignified