I was in a bus that had to pass through Igbosere area of Lagos on its way to Ikeja.  As we crawled through the traffic, I played a mental observation and recording game. I looked at the busy streets crowded with traders of all kinds of items and services trying to out do each other in the quest for patronage. I saw the hard currency traders, calling out to bus conductors, who, by virtue of their appearance, would be the most unlikely people in the dollar and pounds ownership league; the mallams do not work by sight in Lagos.

They never make the mistake of underestimating the non- classified income earners; After all, it is a very well known fact that a late chairman of agberos was a primary school drop out who owned five wives, three hummer jeeps, a fleet of cars and all the molue buses in the Lagos metropolis. In Lagos, you are rich if you are strong and a little bit out of alignment and the conductors, they are strong and they are not like you and I. So, yes, they should definitely go around with them dollars and pounds.

I left the mallams and the conductors after drawing my own liberal conclusions from their dealings and continued to watch objects as they slowly moved past the bus window. I saw the MIC, undertakers, their shops were gradually taking over a major part of the street; somebody should have remembered to inform me about the rising trade in coffin!   I also noticed that they have attracted a lot of competition; other undertakers with odd names that I failed to memorize have sprung up alongside MIC.

As I watched, a wheel barrow came into view and slowly moved past; it contained a coffin covered in a material that may have once been called white but which was gradually turning dark with dirt; the coffin obviously had an occupant.

Then my eyes caught other shops that had no business being in that vicinity, they were close neighbours with the undertakers. Some even shared the same room in the same building with the coffin people. There was a boutique, marketing kiddies' wears and accessories for nursing mothers, there were fashion shops, mechanic workshops and the weirdest of all, one or two restaurants! I am talking of open-air food vending shops, the types you find mostly in Lagos, with the three-footed big pot simmering on the fire outside, in the open street as people passed by.

Then the pot would be placed very close to a coffin on display. Well, I don't know any reason why the scenario should grate on my sensitivity other than that I am from a superstitious background and have probably unlike you, heard ghost stories. The sight of people sitting and feeding under the full view of coffins on display brought the goose pimples out.
I remembered telling myself that the sight is only peculiar to Lagos. Nowhere else in the country would you find people tinkering with food and coffins.

Only in Lagos, a place so lacking in values that people have lost all respect for the dead. If you have to bury somebody in a public cemetery in Lagos, you must also put structures in place to ensure that the person is not exhumed and replaced with another corpse as soon as you turn your back. The accommodation arrangement in Lagos also applies to prospective occupants of graves.

The state government has declared its determination to turn Lagos into a mega city. In line with the policy, a paint colour has been chosen for all the houses along major highways and byways, somebody pointed the colour to me one day, a deep brown colour on a light brown background. I told my friend, this is the new colour for Lagos and she exclaimed, You don't mean it.

I am hoping that with the innovation in painting, something can happen in the area of power supply, water supply, heavy traffic and then, the government would kindly turn to the Lagos mainland and talk sense into the people who have formed the very mischievous habit of placing food stuff and children's clothing items alongside coffins and dead bodies.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Dear villagers, This week, I am starting the canary series, my uncle gave the name c...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 30.03.2008 01:28

emj  Villager

# 2 I am hoping that with the innovation in painting, something can happen in the area of power supply, water supply, heavy traffic and then, the government would kindly turn to the Lagos mainland and talk sense into the people who have formed the very mischievous habit of placing food stuff and children's clothing items alongside coffins and dead bodies. Hmmm........Anne,omo, u seem to always forget that most people you see around u are living dead...a shadow of themselves....Nigerians have been so sapped of good living that they don't even know how to live anymore......it's da shame/same rat-race day in day out....wake up 4.30am....leg it out to work and won't get home till 11.30pm, and that is if u don't get mugged on the way home........:eek::p PS>>>>>walahi u be real Canary...series 1:lol::lol: I wont do u simon cowell tonight...nice read:) Posted by emj| 31.03.2008 22:05