AREA BOY MENTALITY
And so I decided to go out without my car and on my way back in the night, as I stayed on the BRT queue just to have a firsthand experience after a long time.My wallet was eventually picked as much as I tried to stay conscious of my environment at the most popular bus stop in Lagos. In it were some small cash, two ATM cards, my voter’s card and my driver’s license. I looked around for a while hoping someone would come along and tell me it was found on the floor out of my carelessness.
So I brazed up, simply walked up to the closest area boy in sight, tried to make my voice hoarse to give the impression that I no be omo get inside ( a popular phrase for a butter pikin) but a confirmed street boy. And then I told him to please help out and tell “them” to take only the money and bring back my wallet informing him that I had already blocked the ATM cards as if that was true and would deter them and that the license was useless to them but my voters’ card was VERY important to me. I was shocked when he replied that “they” will probably check to know if the cards had been blocked and I wondered how they would do that without me. An hour later, he returned to ask me how much I was willing to pay for his “services”. In the end, I gave him five thousand naira out of the ten thousand I had after I was handed the wallet and I certified everything in there was intact. For my mind now, I be sharp guy abi? I asked him for his name and he simply responded with a very harsh voice that “my name na Pumping”. Who names a child Pumping? This Lagos sef na wa.
Then something happened. Twenty minutes later while on the bus, i got the first alert and didn’t check as I thought it was just a WhatsApp message, I heard two more alerts in quick succession and then decided to check, alas they had wiped my last 100k and please don’t ask me how they did that because me sef no know o. Thank God I had already bought my bus ticket before it happened; if not, na only me for waka come o. I could not cry as that was the little change I had planned to use to do big boy before the next pay day which was the following week. So I as no go fit do big boy as planned, I go just maintain my champion jeje for house, thank God say cable TV subscription never expire.
Lesson learnt. No matter how conscious you may think you are, these guys are experts that can pick anyone’s wallet at the bus stop or even remove your wrist watch without you noticing. SHINE YOUR EYES FOR LAGOS COS EKO O NI BAJE O AND ITESIWAJU EKO LO JE WA LOGUN O. No political affiliations o abeg.
