Our new Lagos and the Massive movements...

In our modern day Nigeria, you can talk about cars that just got out of the makers place just like anyone in Paris, New York,Berlin, Jo’burg, Amsterdam and any other mega cities of the world but can talk about new things just out yesterday but no where in Nigeria has got that newness vibe like our new Lagos where everything and everyone is looking really mega because we are in that transition stage, where we are changing from our old self to this totally new us even though that is all we have wished for all the while long, when we were growing up looking through our TV at the London bridge and the city of Paris wishing one day all those could be our backyard.

So now we have got great places, I mean great event places too many for me to name them all. If you have not been to our new Lagos then you probably would be expecting to hear ‘Oshodi! Oshodi’ when you are back here or maybe ‘Wole Pelu Changi e’ is the last one you heard before you left Lagos. Sure we still got the hustle and the bustle thing going on and sure we know that there was once a time, when our city did not have the romance of Paris or the classic look of Venice but this is the city where I grew up and I can hardly imagine how much of me has had to go with the old Lagos.
For Example, I do not need to run after buses to get to the Island or the mainland cause I have got BRT Buses with schedule time and its own lane throughout the whole Lagos,(Can you believe that in this bustling city ), all i have to do is hop in and like light, I am in my next destination (forgive the exaggeration) still looking clean, fresh and in a good frame of mind for that appointment, African time out of the window.

Were you in Lagos about 10 years ago? when Lagos was named one of the dirtiest cities in the world and the then Governor had to instruct all public transport bus to carry with them a waste bin.
Maybe that was a catalyst for the today, maybe not, but I can assure that our new Lagos and you will see the brand herself walking the streets, Clean and all lush.

We even have parks and playgrounds on our street and alley corners are places of pride,where music video directors fall over themselves to get location set in our once upon a time slum.
Need I remind you of the notorious markets of Lagos!(Oshodi Market) I know you remember all the tales but I do not need to tell you of so many things I bought that never got home with me, I remember those days now and just laugh it off because in our new Lagos, the markets are ultra modern, with the best of everything you want to get and remember I told you about this, you will get home as clean as you left home (remember those rain boots you cannot do without in a Lagos Market during the raining season, the dirt).

Yes,our new Lagos is bustling with so many investment opportunities and a great future to look forward to but it would not be fair of me to just tell you all these and not mention the most salient of points that affect the ordinary people, the sacrifices that has been made to achieve this our new Lagos (Mega city)that so many of us are happy to be a part of it.
In today’s Lagos, forceful evictions abound because the little people need to move away for great things to happen or need I mention the amount of people displaced and made jobless because they cannot afford the stalls at our new ultra modern market or the amount of people trying to get into shanty houses in the slum that is been left over for a new MEGA Lagos to tower over.
And yes education seems to want to move on up but it seems like it would be out of the hands of the ordinary and be right up there where the rich can reach because the new fees of our Lagos tertiary institution would astound the great Obafemi Awolowo and shame him to ever thought he declared free education in the western region from right here.

Perhaps this is the price that all mega cities before us has had to pay, Paris, Venice, New York and Jo’Burg before us but it beats one question dead and even puts it six feet below, is the city made to serve the man or did man create the city so as to serve her as god?
Still, this is our City, our new Lagos! Ekabo, Eko oni baje o!
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Written by Akehindegbegbon Alani Obafemi from Lagos