The other side of Lagos!Incredible
story of the Lagos you don’t know
By IKENNA EMEWU (ikeroyal@yahoo.co.uk)
Saturday,
September 9, 2006
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•Agodo
kids in their world
•Photo: Sun News Publishing
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It is a fact. Believe it, don’t be carried away by
the stories you hear of how people walk and live in the sky
in Lagos. Maybe you might have been to Marina and Broad Street,
and were amazed by the wondrous skyline and staggering architecture.
Hold your breath and don’t conclude that that is what
Lagos is made of in its totality.
There is a Lagos you don’t really know. There are nooks
of Lagos that shy away from public glare, attention and the
giant strides of hyper urbanism and soar-away advancement
and madness.
From Lagos Island to Epe, another part of Lagos, is about
a 100 km. In between the two points is a stretch of over 40
km of breath-taking modern architecture, state of the art
in design and finishing. That is the area popularly known
as Lekki and Ajah. But after this exotic stretch you advance
to Epe, that town tucked away on rising and sloping land with
some natural drainages criss-crossing the surface.
Another world
In Epe, there is a part known as Ibonwon. To get to this area,
you do a turn to the left on hitting the major junction that
brings you into the town. In Epe you drive through clean metalled
roads, courtesy ex-Governor Michael Otedola who once administered
Lagos State. He is from Epe. After some five kilometers on
a stretch of good road, take to the right through a road that
leads to the popular Atlantic Hall College. That takes you
to a major junction with a gigantic church building to the
left as landmark, then hit the road to the left for another
six kilometers before taking to the right again. The road
meanders through the hills and valleys of Epe into what looks
like the end of the town.
But that is just the beginning of the wonders. Another turn
to the right at a Y-junction leads to what could go for the
most underutilized paved road in Nigeria, if not Africa. It
is clean as the sky in dry season but don’t be scared
driving alone. There is no ban on use of the road, only that
the people who are supposed to ply it are few. Some kilometers
into this diversion brings a traveller to a long bridge that
looks solid at the rocks in Dutse – Abuja suburb. Immediately
after the bridge, take to the left and welcome to a dusty,
windy road. What gives you the confidence that it is usable
is two parallel lines of tyre mark with a grass lawn that
runs in between them. The long grass patch is the area that
falls on the segment in between the two tyres of a vehicle.
Warm embrace and hot slaps
You journey down this road in the warm and ambient embrace
of a secondary vegetation formed by an admixture of tall elephant
grass, legumes (cover crops) of various species, touch-and-die,
comelina, aspillia and some patches of cassava plants that
have been beaten in the game for space in the ecosystem by
the wild plants. The famous tropical root tuber plant manages
to peep out of the straggle of the weeds, but still wears
luxuriant face.
When the car slows down, the healthy bush remains friendly
cuddling the car at both sides like a good friend welcoming
an acquaintance long lost. At the same time, when the car
speeds up as the road surface permits, they seem to get angry
maybe of losing the friend who wants to run away or are hurt
and slap the car mercilessly at both cheeks.
By the time you are through with this drama with the bush,
you are face to face with Agodo.
Agodo is a wonder
Would you believe there is still a place in Lagos State where
talks of health facilities, school, communication even radio,
modern structure and all are still issues that sound like
passing wireless message across the Atlantic before the birth
of Graham Bell? Agodo, the prestine, hidden and unknown hamlet
of Epe is such place. It was simply shocking and unbelievable
to see this settlement of about 20 to 25 huts where most Nigerians
cannot recommend to their pigs existing in its own class.
Most of these huts look like what the builders intentionally
packed into with a plan to complete construction when resources
permit.
Life is simple, peaceful, quiet and delicate here. Should
a parent decide to send the child to school here, the child
should be ready to walk about five kilometers to and back
from school irrespective of the age.
Fused life
Everything seems fused and straight here. Consider where a
community relies on a river with mud-coloured water for all
manner of water supply. It was fun and at the same time amazing
watching an elderly mother saunter down to the river not up
to 30 meters away from the back of her house to wash her clothes.
What she did was simply to scoop up water in her plastic basin,
apply some soap on the wears and wash off the dirt, and after
empty the water into the river at the spot she stood, only
to scoop another basin full from the same spot for the rinsing.
The children looked scantily clad in near rags, but look well
fed.
Agodo is a fishing and farming community that carries on simple
sedentic rudimentary economy. At the time of Saturday Sun’s
visit, most of the men and women had gone out for fishing
and farming. The place looked deserted save for some two men
who were busy over huge fires turning white cassava powder
into garri. The only house that looks different here is a
Catholic Church recently built by the pastor of Immaculate
Heart Catholic Parish of Ibonwon, Rev. Father Vincent Olofinkua.
Agodo is a kind place in Lagos State where the residents asked
the tender of human pasture to choose a section of the rich
tropical rain, tear down the fauna and build his church at
no cost whatsoever.
Really peculiar
“Can you believe whenever I come here I still go round
to beg the people to come to Church. Funny enough, one still
comes out to sit down in shorts and with his chest open. I
say, no problem just keep coming”, Father Vincent Olofinkua
narrated amid laughter.
A little after Saturday Sun and the tour guide – Father
Olofinkua and Miss Mayowa Fatinikun arrived the church premises,
a woman, dark as charcoal emerged with her two daughters all
smiling from ear to ear. The premises of the church is till
covered with stumps of cut trees and weeds that have started
taking space
They were identifiable. These were three of five persons we
passed on the way to Agodo. As the cream 5-Series BMW pulled
closer, five persons – mother, two sons and three daughters
cowered way out of the road to the right and got huddled together
in the bush that had become friendly now the car had stopped.
They smiled broadly and exchanged pleasantries with the pastor
who excited introduced them as “some of my parishioners’.
Maybe in anticipation of a function at the church, the mother
hurriedly went back home appeared like a ghost at the church
premises with the daughters of about seven and five. They
were brimming with joy with their white teeth like tiny piano
keys lighting up dark tanned African faces. The mother barely
spoke Yoruba and whenever she did, it came in heavily accented
language of one of the Delta/Edo State ethnic tongues. The
settlers in Agodo and neighbouring hamlets scattered around
the riverbasin are not Yorubas, according to our source. They
are from some of the fishing communities of Delta, Ondo and
Edo States. The regime of their life is strictly tied to the
watercourse, which they trail to wherever for their trade
of fishing. It was a very different Lagos from the one most
of us know or imagine.
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