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If you’re heading towards Lekki, a short distance after VGC, if you look to your right you will see a placid lake, maybe with a solitary boatman like I saw. It is a beautiful sight; one artists and photographers would love to capture. Chances are that you will miss the beauty, because you will stare with apprehension. In Lagos you look at everybody and every sight with suspicion – even the beautiful. Almost everyone has a tale to tell here… of brazen daylight molestation and robbery. Make no mistakes, the dagger with which they threaten they would employ if you’re uncooperative. They would deal you multiple stabs and leave you for dead. For Bade’s lousy phone, they shattered his side window which cost way more than the phone, glass particles flying onto his face. Even pretty Jumoke that no one ought to hurt in this life, she has her story. Lagos, then, looks grim, burly, and dangerous. So you imagine that this dog that approaches coyly, wagging its tail, will bite.
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Further down the road I got off the transport. Tear-leather Toyota Yaris with chilling AC. But this is Lagos; you couldn’t be comfortable. As they innovate in business, they do too in criminality. In order not to appear new and attract a cruel welcome, I don’t ask questions too often. I act like I know where I’m going; and that was how I came down at the wrong bus stop. What a bus stop though! The filling station by it had paved and railed the sidewalk. It was lovely. But in Lagos you might miss this. Your eyeballs will roll from side to side in their sockets, scanning the environment for sinister-looking young men. I swell myself like a toad and start to walk like I’m the most notorious criminal alive. I walked to a bike guy, pointed ahead, and told him to take me to Elegushi Beach. I spoke in Hausa for kindred spirit sake. But the beach wasn’t up ahead; it wasn’t this way at all.

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The next ride took me beyond my bus stop, and I had to use the pedestrian bridge to cross over to the other side and go back. I could have taken a selfie from that height but was too scared to bring out my phone. Hoodlums could be watching. Over at the other side, I take a bus, then bike, then 1k gate fee, and I was at Elegushi Waterfront. Wow! Merry-go-rounds, horses, booze, friends… Every industry of man on sight was dwarfed by the magnificence and vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. The waves roared back and forth, and beautiful people were dashing about as the waters teased. Who can miss this euphoria on account of any Lagos grudge! Europeans, Americans… would surf here, but we were just jumping about as the waters charged and receded, truly grateful for this immense gift. We let the surging tides come at us… up to our knees, and for not-so-tall company, their bums. I thought if I put a note in a bottle and cast it in, it may arrive at some foreign shore someday, and the person who picks it will read my handwriting, “This water that kisses your feet, once kissed mine”.
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Lagos. The skyscrapers around Balogun Market amazed me. Their streets, blending in with building and main road, created a Manhattan feel – whatever it may be. All over Victoria Island people live in buildings that shoot into the skies. World Trade Center whispers here, whereas in Abuja it shouts and brags. Eko Atlantic, wow! The fence around Bar Beach is endless; seeming like someone has walled off the ocean. From Ajah to VI there’s enough sight to make you smile unaware; but I am told the real Eko is not even here. There’s the Mainland. Surulere, Festac, Ikorodu, Yaba, Ikeja… everywhere a full-fledged city of its own. In other climes Shoprite would spring up to much acclaim, here it’s just one other supermarket. There are bigger deals.

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Lagos. The Commercial Capital of Nigeria? Of West Africa if you ask me! This is a terrific place. The nasty molestation of hoodlums is the price you pay for being here. Oh, and the traffic. Beautiful people in cars, afoot, ashore… heading to where daily bread is baked. From as early as 7am cars already line office parking lots… the occupants recline their seats and sleep till 8. This is the Lagos way. If you do not acknowledge the good offering of the city, that is your problem; you’ll most likely pay for being here, anyway. But if you acknowledge it, savor it, and appreciate it, it just might smile back, and never hurt you. I don’t know about love, but I respect this place… this Lagos. She deserves it. The grind can’t touch that respect.
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The beauty of Lagos is tainted somewhat by Federal ruins. Massive building projects on choice locations that have been abandoned for ages. Almost everything our politics touches it destroys. In my usual restlessness, I’ve asked why not turn it into this or that. Why not sell it? Why not finish it and pour young people inside to innovate? I’ve asked about 7,694 of these kinds of questions in my lifetime. They never get answered. Who am I even asking! Well sha, don’t look for faults; you will find if you do. So why not focus on the beautiful?! I did, and still do. I bless the memories of the people who molded this place: Abraham Adesanya, Lateef Jakande, Professor Babatunde Aliyu Fafunwa, and many more… Rare men; they fathered this place, and left their footprints on the sands of time.
I think, Even if you are down and need emotional healing, Lagos will heal you. It will show you beauty… try to look. Here there are castles on land, mansions in the sea, and homes in the skies. People, fashion, food, Owambe… Everything. Sore from the monotonous hassle of the weeks, there are these beaches to wash your tears away. Every time you can, come. Tears, phlegm, even urine… the ocean will receive and no one will know. While on the Third Mainland Bridge, if you would stop worrying for a second about hoodlums and traffic, you would see the mist to your left and right, and wonder how mere mortals without the rod of Moses parted the sea to plant the bridge. Smile, in spite of your predicament. I see people frown in traffic, I don’t see it solve the problem.
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.Can a lady leaving in Lagos find a man to Marry in Lagos? Well, I can’t say. Of the many things Lagos is renowned for, love is not one. I may be wrong. But it seems to me that people are too busy for it. Career is the focus for most… money, opportunities… They marry the girl that lives close to their office… because it’s convenient. I’m not sure sha. In any case, where will you find someone outside your trajectory? You spend all day at the office, half the night in traffic, the other half at home trying to catch your breath and prepare for tomorrow. .

Let Me Stop Here....