I Live in the 4th Worst City in the World. Here Is Something Worse
You don’t know injustice like this.
According to the EIU, Lagos, my city of residence, is the 4th worst city in the world to live in. Before you cry Argentina for us, can you give a moment of thought to the fact that the report says we have ‘improved’, being as we were the 2nd worst city to live in — for 2 years prior?
Lagos.
Sincerely, I love this state. This state, for all its cons, is one of the most diverse in the country. Muslim, Christian, Pagan, Atheist, Rich, Poor, Foreigner, Local — we are all here, and for the most part, we get along …okay.
As per my title, there is something worse than living in the 4th worst city in the world:
Thugs.
Lagos and thugs go hand in hand. You cannot mention Lagos and not mention the “omonile.” In translation, omonile means the local landowners.
Really, like every place that has a lot of diversity, of course, there are locals. In Lagos however, Omonile means a thug.
These are grown-ass violent men who wreak havoc on the lives of every other hardworking Lagosian — including locals just like themselves.
Want to build a house — you buy all the materials, get the builders, and the “omonile” in that location will come over immediately to shut down your build until you “settle” them.
Settling someone in Nigeria almost always means giving them a bribe. You settle the police, settle omonile, settle every uniform person, settle government officials.
So, with the omonile, there are no 2 ways about this — if your build must go on, you must haggle some form of settlement with these men and pay them off otherwise, they will destroy all your properties, chase away the workers, and shut you down until they are settled.
In the wild wild west that is Lagos, shutting down your build is not gentle — imagine broken bottles used on the workers and you, if you are close by, bricks used on workers — anything they can get their hands on.
What if someone dies? Did the omonile give you a name? If someone dies, they die. It is the jungle out here.
Your Question: What about the police?
Answer: Lol. What police? They will stand by and watch it happen. Their only advice — pay them.
You go to the market and buy stuff that will require you to hire a car.
Stop there!
They command you. You have to pay them for buying stuff.
You want to move house and you hire a vehicle to move your stuff?
Stop there!
They are the landowners after all. They are laws unto themselves and the government does nothing because they are the ones who get paid to rig the elections for the state. (Please tell no one I said this). Just watch the news and see them blatantly making off with ballot boxes, beating up election officials, and causing stampedes.
Your Question: What about the police you ask?
Answer: Can you please stop asking about the police?!
Thugs make every part of the state 100 times worse than it should be.
Your car breaks down on the road and you call a tow truck? At this time, anyone in their right mind will think:
Awww, if nothing else, this human needs kindness because his car just broke down. Right? Right?
Enter the omonile.
They will just pop out and surround the vehicle.
Park well!
You comply and you settle them otherwise, that car can get shattered, giving you more debt than the one you are already dealing with.
There are more general problems like bus fares that keep increasing.
This isn’t just a fuel hike problem. The omonile has many stops along the way where they pop out and stop the buses. The bus driver will settle them. This creates a loop — a negative loop. The bus drivers hike prices to recover all their losses. If a fuel hike brings a 20% increase in the bus fares you add the omonile charges, sending them up over 70%.
Bus drivers have had strikes against this but, (again I did not say this, the news did), the current President is actually their godfather. Exactly what justice do you think you will get?
Your job is not safe.
Are you a content creator?
You are standing on the land. If the omonile sees you, they surround you and ask for settlement. Some omonile now give people receipts for a certain time period so they don’t ‘tax’ you again within that period. This should be funny if it were not so evil.
What is the job of the omonile?
Extorting everyone they can. These are men who wake up every day and make money off hardworking people with impunity. And they are very wealthy. The foot soldiers have bigger bosses all the way to the government. So there are people you cannot see who have heavy interests in your extortion.
The omonile isn’t going anywhere.
They bully everyone and they have no consequences. Women flock to them because they have clout and easy money.
They promote intolerance between the diverse ethnic groups in Lagos. Their intolerance is strictly ethnic because there are people from different religions among them. Most are indigenous to Lagos and this is their only requirement for bullying everyone else.
Watching the omonile will break your heart.
You have the most depraved people making the lives of others horrible — just because they can. They exist all around me. Every day all Lagosians like myself wake up and navigate the terrains made harder by these men who extort us to make their own lives much better. At night when we are returning to our homes, these men are returning to their homes.
I always wonder, when their children ask:
Daddy, how was work today?
What do they say?
