Life on The Streets of Ajegunle

By Rita Ohai

Children scantily clad in thread-bare underwear litter the narrow roads of Nosamu Street as football ‘tournaments’ roll in full swing. Shouts of excitement pierce the air as one of the players strutting around bare-feet weaves the ball into the goal post made from stones. Road-side shops and food-stands stationed on wooden planks across the open gutters abound as weary people, young and old struggle to make enough pocket-change to put a hot meal on their family tables.

This is a place where the stench of open sewers, garbage and frustration fill twitching nostrils, where houses with rusty roof-sheets are crammed as close to each other as possible as far as the eye can see, a place where the quest for survival is at its highest and where the average young girl is expected to become a mother before her 18th birthday…this is Ajegunle, home to a multitude.

The ‘Jungle’ as it is popularly known serves as a microcosm of Africa’s most populous nation as it juggles an eclectic mix of ethnic groups and religions who manage to co-habit harmoniously despite the harsh living conditions they face.

Gbenro, bus driver and a resident of Onibaba Street, gives an insight on how the average person survives in this city: ‘Life in ‘AJ’ is not easy but man must hustle. Everything in this place is tough because our Government does not even care about the poor person living here that is why we depend on ourselves to make things work. Not everybody can eat three correct meals in a day because of how hard life is here that is why you see a lot of people doing all kinds of things to feed.’

This quest for survival has led to an increase in prostitution as small-scale brothels also known as ‘ashewo joints’ teeming with inviting young girls dressed for the occasion will meet the curious eye of a visitor on tour around the major streets of Ajegunle. Vincent Ezeilo, a jewellery seller at Boundary Junction who has some of these girls as customers, explains why prostitution is a norm, ‘It is not all the girls that do ashewo work but most of them are doing it because it brings quick money for them and a lot of guys like to visit them. For example, if a guy wants to do ‘short-time’, he will pay like N300 but if you have a customer, she can give you for N200 or N250 depending on the person. All the girl has to do is to make sure she does not ‘carry-belle’ because that one will not chop for nine months (he laughs). Some of the girls don’t like living that kind of life but they don’t have any option that is why they are doing it.’

Although the town is located on the outskirts of Lagos, near the sea, residents are forced to live with the constant challenge of water scarcity as water surrounding this part of the State is heavily contaminated with sewage and refuse.  This scarcity has led to the boom in the water selling business. Bilkisu Iyanu Ahmed who has to fetch water from a well, lamented in Yoruba about the lack of water and the high cost of purchasing it, ‘It is rain water we usually use but if rain does not fall, we will go to fetch water from the well but we cannot drink that one because of sickness. If you just bring the water up, you will be seeing some things floating inside so we use that one to do house work but we buy the one that we drink from one man that has bore-hole. He sells one big bucket for N10 but if it’s a 25-liter gallon then we buy that one for N20 upwards and that is what other people are selling and it is too expensive for us because we are using money to buy water that is supposed to be free for everybody.’

Chika Boniface who manages his father’s water business on Mba Street explains, ‘We are selling water because it is money that we use to maintain the pumps and NEPA (Nigeria Electric Power Authority; now known as Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN) does not give us light so we need to use generator to pump the water. If we give the water away for free and anything happens to the tap, none of these people will bring out one kobo to repair it that is why we have to sell.’

He further blamed the Local Government officials for squandering money allocated for the development of the area, ‘If the Local Government people properly use the money that the State is giving them for the development of this area, you will see that they will put enough taps everywhere and we will have regular light. Right now, they give us light once in a blue moon, we don’t have good roads and nobody comes to clear the refuse dump yet they always come here to collect one tax or the other. If it is not radio tax today, it is shop permit tomorrow. We are tired of all these things.’

In spite of the harsh living conditions, this section of Lagos State is popular for producing some of Nigeria’s greatest musicians and footballers. Stars like Daddy Showkey and Taribo West have their pasts rooted in Ajegunle. This probably accounts for the sense of pride its inhabitants have for the area.

For a community with statistically over five million residents facing unimaginable poverty and economic hardship, there are hardly reported cases of wide-spread violence associated with other parts of Lagos metropolis. Motor-bike rider, Uwem Efiok, explains how they are able to co-habit peacefully: ‘The reason why we don’t have too much problem in this place is because it is ‘everybody mind your business’ that we do here. If it does not concern you don’t put your mouth so that nobody will disturb you. Even though we are plenty living here, we know ourselves because nearly all of us attend the same church or mosque so that helps us to live as one family.’

*Ohai blogs at www.ritaohai.blog.com