Till today I'm still very much sceptical about having my life in the most popular and populated state in Nigeria called Lagos state. During the time I was winding up my one-year service(NYSC) in Imo state, I and the pastor of the church I fellowshipped had a father-son conversation and along the line, he mentioned how he travelled to Lagos state immediately after his NYSC as any other graduate would do in search of greener pasture and according to him he spent two years there and when he saw that nothing was working for him, he decided to come back to his home village and applied for a teaching job and at the end of his story, he added “Bro Kingsley, Lagos is not meant for everyone, sometimes it's good to take a road less travelled”
"Hmmmmm" I sighed in disbelief because how could someone have travelled to a place like Lagos and returned to a very rural area with fewer social amenities to live his life?
My mind pondered as I remained silent, not knowing how to tackle him with questions because I was sure he must have done something wrong or didn’t try hard enough. I had the mindset to bulldoze him with 'off' questions but no, he's my spiritual head and I should save some respect.
The truth is that, that wasn’t my first time hearing how tough and competitive Lagos is but I couldn’t just phantom how a highly spirited clergy would go to Lagos and fail. That thought remained with me until I started looking for jobs after my NYSC.
As life would have it, I got a sure job offer from an Uncle, Uncle Ezekiel who was living in Lagos working as a top staff in an insurance company and wanted me to join him. I was choiceless because I needed just any job even when Insurance and Marketing weren't my discipline. He helped me to process everything and at the final stage, I was called to travel down to Lagos for a one-week training.
I was glad because finally I was going to the much talked about Lagos; the land of numerous opportunities.
The travelling day came, I began the journey as early as 5:00am in order to get there before night. After about 8hrs of non-stop driving, we got held up in traffic and just like a play, we stayed there for over an hour with our shirts soaked in sweat because there wasn't an Air conditioner in the car and even when the windows were opened, it was as if the air penetrating inside were parboiled.
I was surprised and I was piqued to ask the guy next to confirm if we're in Lagos already because I've heard that traffic jam is very common there.
"Lagos? This must be your first time, right?" The guy in surprise asked in a fairly loud tone that attracted the attention of two other passengers in front of us which made me a little bit awkward.
"Yeah, it's my first time" My voice was lowered in what looked like I was hiding in shame.
"This is not Lagos oooo! We are in the state before it and it's worst there. What we are experiencing now is more like a rehearsal" He concluded with a loud laugh which other passengers held and laughed at as well.
Within a few minutes more, we were bailed out and continued the journey. When we hit the next traffic jam after like 20mins drive, I didn't need to ask to know we were in Lagos already. I was peeping through the window and seeing how people were jam-packed like it's a refugee community, the road hawkers were shouting tirelessly and running towards motors to sell whatever they were selling. The atmosphere was strange to what I used to experience and at that moment, what people said about Lagos and its competitiveness began to purge out and I began to look everywhere with such a mindset. Although I was feeling different already, I was determined to fight any odd thought in me, to live in Lagos.
We spent almost 4hrs on traffic within Lagos before I got to my destination which was around 9 pm.
I rested very well that night because I was weakened and had to go to bed early that night. Time was 4:00 am when I was tapped by Mr Shedrack, the man I stayed in his house.
"Bro, you need to prepare to live for the training because if you don't do that now and wait any longer, you might get there around by 10:00am or so"
I thought maybe I was dreaming, I stretched my hand, picked up my phone to check the time and 4:11 am was boldly displayed on my phone.
"This is 4:11 am" I said surprisingly because even though I knew that they wake up very early in Lagos to go to work, I didn't expect to wake up by 4:00 am.
"Hahahah! Yeah, I know it's 4 am. You can only try doing the 6 am thing when you're living in Mainland and not in a place like this" He ended that with a chuckle missed with low laughter as he walked into the bathroom.
"Hmmmm. You're trying. Why didn't you rent a house in the Mainland then?" I asked.
"Only if you know how costly are those houses in Mainland. Even here, if I tell you how much I'm paying for rent even though it's out outskirt, you're going to be marvelled"
Upon hearing that, I didn't bother to ask him how much is his house rent in order not to be swept off my feet.
I didn't argue again, I got prepared as he said and as soon as I stepped out of the gate, the area was busy as if it was 8:00 a.m. already. Bikers were running to and fro with their dimmed lighted bulb on the bikes which were not fighting the darkened environment at all. The most shocking one was seeing a teen girl dressed in a school uniform with a backpack on her shoulder and I presumed she was going to school at that time(around 4:40am) which was odd.
Well, I was able to find my way in the dark through the biker that carried me to the junction where I boarded a bus after waiting for almost an hour due to the long queue there.
In all these, I was losing hope in continuing with the job if I got employed after the training.
After the first day of the training, I and the lady I sat close to in the hall became friends and she became my daily compass, directing me to various shortcuts to take and that's because she's a Lagosian. While were chit-chatting, she asked a question that stitched my mind,
"Kingsley, you said you came from Delta state, right? Do you know what you're risking? Lagos is tough and this job is not worth coming from Delta state."
I didn't bother to ask her why she asked neither did I give her the answer, I just smiled and felt like I was ready for the work but meanwhile, what I had experienced already was enough to tell me that Lagos was going to be tough for me especially for a field job like marketing insurance services for a particular company with many rivals in the state too.
After the whole five days, we were given employment letters to start immediately and I had to beg my uncle to help me redeploy back to my state because the work is done remotely and he did just that for me and that was my saving grace.
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