LAGOS... CITY OF ANGELS AND CONSTANT DANGER..

I LOVE LAG LIKE I LOVE PUSSY..

LAKWA THE VERY PLACE

Lagos life is crazy it feels like u are in another country entirely... Lagos kinda looks like Kinston Jamaica capital city only difference is the population

I remember my first time in the North Kebbi to be precise... 9am shops still never open, how drivers would drive "slowly" .. All these made me mad a few months like I always wondered y everything wasnt done in haste like I would experience in Lagos.. Well 6 months. Later I began to adapt...

I still love Lagos life... No matter how dangerous an agbero looks he is always willing to help a stranger...

Ishilove:

Hello sonofjos, thank you for sharing.

People like us who were born and raised here notice a marked difference in the tempo of activities in other areas of the country. I was in Ondo for a year and I almost ran mad there because life in that state is so... sleepy. Everyone was just moving like geriatric patients, unlike Lagos here where if you are too slow, you will be shoved aside. Last last when it was time to leave, I packed my travelling bags and two mighty Ghana-must-go bags and fled the place by 6am.

Lagos is a melting pot of different ethnic groups with different characters, both saintly and shady, so overtime it developed a character unique to it. We talk angrily a lot of the times because there is someone somewhere always trying to provoke you, cheat you, or steal from you so we are always on guard and on the defensive. Someone tried to pick my bag last year but the kind of eye I gave him must have turned his ancestors in their graves.

Add the congested roads and the traffic and you cannot be calm even if you try to. You will be angry for no reason. Yoruba people call it 'kan ra'. Pepper body. That is why danfo drivers behave like animals because one cannot sit inside hold up day in day out, inhaling noxious exhaust fumes, avoiding police, LASTMA, NURTW agbero, taskforce, police, VIO, those new ones wearing green uniform (I don't know these ones. There are so many uniforms in Lagos) and still be completely sane.

Conductors and passengers fighting is a normal thing. One day I was returning from work and saw two fighting in the middle of the road, and what amazed me was they were sparring like professional boxers, complete with the boxer's stance and leg work. iKid you not. Conductor and passenger. It was the agberos, funny enough, who came to chase them from the road because they were constituting nuisance to other road users. The kid you described did not have any super powers. He was just acting like the typical Lagosian who has been conditioned to act out in the face of provocation. Eat or be eaten. Some of these conductors are very rude and nasty (I suspect it is their own defence mechanism) while some passengers on the other hand are idiots.

The trader in Computer Village was not 'threatening' you. They are simply aggressive marketers. If you don't aggressively market your products you won't make any sales because there a 1001 traders selling the same thing as you. The secret to walking successfully through the Village is rearranging your face to look like granite, avoiding eye contact with anyone and stubbornly ignoring 'threatening'' calls. They cannot hijack you from the road into their shop, abi? Develop military mind!

The same military mind my friend Sanchez01 took to Enugu when he went on a visit. He wanted to board a bus and used ishon (muscle) to run pell mell to where the bus was parked waiting for him. When he jumped in with the skill of a James Bond stuntsman, he met the driver and passengers staring at him strangely.

The driver asked him: "Oga, are you from Lagos?", to which he replied in the affirmative. The driver then remarked "No wonder. It is only Lagos people that behave like they are fighting with everyone."

I love this detailed narrative.

izzou:
I went to the bank yesterday. The queue was a bit long. The lady in my front was about to pass through the door when the guy behind me started shouting

Oga, make Una two enter. Two-two abeg

Before I could tell him to be patient, he had jumped the queue and entered with the Lady.

I just tire

My belle o

Following. I opened a similar thread some hours ago

Op the part of Lagos you arrived was the fair part.
you know mushin?
you know orile?
you know badagary?
you know CMS area?
you know ojuelebga?
you know ikorodu? OP NOR START ABEG!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl4kjB0Ivx8

tg

For me I'd say Lagosians need therapy. When I stayed there, I resisted every urge to behave in a manner they ignorantly call wise. I never rushed to board a bus. I never jumped from a moving bus and my default mood wasn't anger. Lagosians need mental checkup and help.

Na mad people full lagos. Both the girls and guys are all mad!!! The funny thing is that they don't even know they are mad!

The Story Of Lagos Good To Here Bv When You Enter You Will See Say E Get As E Be

Lol makes me remember my first time in computer village .. lol omo I like my ibadan abeg

Sanchez01:

I can't believe you still remember the gist! It was an embarrassing moment, I won't lie.

And your submission is spot on. Everyone is always angry in Lagos; too busy and always in a haste. A typical Lagosian will struggle for the first few months should they find themselves in a serene, quiet state.

Lagos is a jungle, walahi!

you're correct. When I first went to kano for my uni, I was really angry becos I saw them like unserious people. Shops don't open till around 10am,the only people that keeps to time then where the bankers and teachers. You'll want to buy something everywhere is locked. They look too slow for my liking then but I later adapt sha

Ishilove:
Hello sonofjos, thank you for sharing.

People like us who were born and raised here notice a marked difference in the tempo of activities in other areas of the country. I was in Ondo for a year and I almost ran mad there because life in that state is so... sleepy. Everyone was just moving like geriatric patients, unlike Lagos here where if you are too slow, you will be shoved aside. Last last when it was time to leave, I packed my travelling bags and two mighty Ghana-must-go bags and fled the place by 6am.

Lagos is a melting pot of different ethnic groups with different characters, both saintly and shady, so overtime it developed a character unique to it. We talk angrily a lot of the times because there is someone somewhere always trying to provoke you, cheat you, or steal from you so we are always on guard and on the defensive. Someone tried to pick my bag last year but the kind of eye I gave him must have turned his ancestors in their graves.

Add the congested roads and the traffic and you cannot be calm even if you try to. You will be angry for no reason. Yoruba people call it 'kan ra'. Pepper body. That is why danfo drivers behave like animals because one cannot sit inside hold up day in day out, inhaling noxious exhaust fumes, avoiding police, LASTMA, NURTW agbero, taskforce, police, VIO, those new ones wearing green uniform (I don't know these ones. There are so many uniforms in Lagos) and still be completely sane.

Conductors and passengers fighting is a normal thing. One day I was returning from work and saw two fighting in the middle of the road, and what amazed me was they were sparring like professional boxers, complete with the boxer's stance and leg work. iKid you not. Conductor and passenger. It was the agberos, funny enough, who came to chase them from the road because they were constituting nuisance to other road users. The kid you described did not have any super powers. He was just acting like the typical Lagosian who has been conditioned to act out in the face of provocation. Eat or be eaten. Some of these conductors are very rude and nasty (I suspect it is their own defence mechanism) while some passengers on the other hand are idiots.

The trader in Computer Village was not 'threatening' you. They are simply aggressive marketers. If you don't aggressively market your products you won't make any sales because there a 1001 traders selling the same thing as you. The secret to walking successfully through the Village is rearranging your face to look like granite, avoiding eye contact with anyone and stubbornly ignoring 'threatening'' calls. They cannot hijack you from the road into their shop, abi? Develop military mind!

The same military mind my friend Sanchez01 took to Enugu when he went on a visit. He wanted to board a bus and used ishon (muscle) to run pell mell to where the bus was parked waiting for him. When he jumped in with the skill of a James Bond stuntsman, he met the driver and passengers staring at him strangely.

The driver asked him: "Oga, are you from Lagos?", to which he replied in the affirmative. The driver then remarked "No wonder. It is only Lagos people that behave like they are fighting with everyone."

"Eko akete, ilu ọgbọn" loosely translated means:
"Lagos, bless it, is a wisdom teaching city, not a city for slackers, shirkers, loafers, idlers, layabouts, lazybones, weaklings et cetera"
cc: sonofjos

Ikorodu in Lagos is another different story

KingKingKing:
I remember my first time in the North Kebbi to be precise... 9am shops still never open, how drivers would drive "slowly" .. All these made me mad a few months like I always wondered y everything wasnt done in haste like I would experience in Lagos.. Well 6 months. Later I began to adapt...

I still love Lagos life... No matter how dangerous an agbero looks he is always willing to help a stranger...

same experience here. I just typed same thing before seeing yours sef. When I was in kano then na around 10 am dem de open shop, they walk slowly do things slowly. I was really mad until I got use to it.

Lol. Lagos private drivers live in their own world. Complete set of mad people.

As much as I have lived all my life in Lagos except some occasional travels, I still hate the Lagos rush. I have never been able to adapt.

I wish OP could live in places like Lagos Island, Oshodi, Mushin.

pocohantas:


The guys are building abs, the babes are doing bumbum surgery. We are looking good for ourselves ni. Sometimes when I close from work in the evening, the kind of guys with abs, beard and brown brogues I see ehn. I just say get thee behind me Satan.

Lagosians are always ahead of themselves and they are quite proud of that attitude.

Hehehehe

Some years back, I was in Abuja for documentation with other trainees from other states in the visitors room

Immediately the dir of admin asked us to be on a queue, somehow the first five people on the queue happened to be from Lagos. Yours truly was no3

The director was like " See them, hurry hurry people....you must be from Lagos

Years back in Aba, I jumped down from a moving vehicle because of small traffic and the conductor was like "No carry Lagos spirit enter here o"

I enjoyed reading this, it gives me more depth and understanding, personally i hate rush cities, Ondo is heaven for me, been to Ekiti, omg, it is not so developed, but i love the nature and slow pace. , Port Harcourt is gragra.

Please Share, continue to share your living style and experiences in different cities.

Chii59:

Oh my! You write so well. I had a good laugh.
Lagos is too stressful jare. I don't know if I can live there o.

I am a bred Lagosian. I will not and can never live elsewhere.

Elsewhere is boring AF

okay, but they have to solve traffic problem, the time one is spends in traffic can be used to read a book, or have good time with your partner

LuQuLuQu:


I am a bred Lagosian. I will not and can never live elsewhere.

Elsewhere is boring AF

Ishilove:

Hello sonofjo, thank you for sharing.

Had to cut off most of your write of for brevity. U get a lot of stones thrown at you here but given this your hilarious writeup, I guess people are only throwing stones at a ripe mango or ebelebo (that's the Indian almond fruit widely called "fruit" in the West)

I remember in 1998 after roughly 6 months in Lagos, I went back to Warri in December for Christmas. There was a bus doing a u turn to pick us passengers on the other side of the road. By the time he was done with the U-turn he was shocked to see his previously empty bus now having a passenger comfortably sitting in one of the back seats

a good and peaceful state always attract people.

sonofjos:
Dear lagosians,

Please pardon the grammatic errors.

Being born and bred in the north, I am conditioned to a certain societal behaviour that the first time I went to Lagos, interacting and seeing the people was a bit of a cultural shock to me. I've travelled to many states in the North and few in the south and almost all seemed just about the same as home.

But the first time I visited Lagos a few years ago I had many experiences that made it seem as if was in another country entirely. I'll share a few notable ones.

Please note that I'm not looking for trouble, I'm just giving a honest opinion

It was as if everyone seemd to converse harshly over very simple transactions. One would think they know each other from somewhere.
Many people in the public seemed angry as a default mode. I wondered why.

I boarded a bus to computer village and a primary school kid later joined and was later exchanging very hot words with the conductor who was a very muscular guy over some trivial amount. I watched with interest and it got to a point where I feared for the little guy because If that conductor decided to as much as slap the small boy, there won't be much left. But somehow the conductor calmed down as if he had met a worthy opponent. That boy seemed to me as if he had super powers.

I joined another bus and a fight broke out between the conductor and a passenger. Both of whom were muscular. None would hear sorry. The fight got so bad that the both ended with broken faces and the passenger got a rock and shattered off both side mirrors of the bus. Since I intended to join night bus home, I kukuma dropped and joined okada (it was legal then) which was much more expensive but worth it. I don't know how they ended.

I noticed many young people are muscular body builders. I wonder why.

I was walking on a street at computer village and a guy started threatening and commanding me to come over. At first, I thought he was speaking to someone else when I realised there was no one around me, and he made it clear he was referring to me. Till today, I don't know what confidence made me to keep walking. That was how I escaped O.

Everyone seems to be in hell of a rush.
I even said that if rapture takes place, Lagos would not know anything had happened for two weeks.

But Behind all these seemingly negative atmosphere, I discovered that lagosians are very kind people. Always willing to help.
As a stranger, I found it difficult to find places and routes. But almost anyone you ask is very willing to show you directions. I've had instances where people left their comfort to walk me to places where they gave me directions. Very welcoming set of people to strangers I tell you.

All these mixed experiences made me say that Lagosians are Indeed a very strange people.

Many other things I've experienced at Lagos over my other subsequent visits, but Lagos has remained strange to me.

I mean no disrespect to anyone, I'm just a fellow countryman who wants to better know my country.

My question to you guys is, why is Lagos the way it is?

Is there anything I missed or misunderstood about Lagos?

Thanks

PH is almost the same. The only good thing is that no matter how they shout from morning till night, it doesn't result to fight. Everyone is always in hurry as though there's a building burning somewhere that desire their attention. When I first visited PH, I mistakenly hit someone as I was walking on the road , so I told the person sorry, his reply was , "Sorry for yourself". Some hardly reply , no matter how hot it is, they will just keep on going their direction as if nothing happened

Lol if you aren't smart in Lagos they will just use you like pure water and dump you, you have to shine your eyes and be very observant, Lagos isn't a place you can be doing slow slow, growing up and being born in Lagos before I left the country have made me smart and brave and over come alot of things and challenges