Welcome to Lagos

For many 'returnees' to the Motherland, there are many 'Welcome to Lagos' moments.



Those things that you know probably 'hardly' (debatable as they do happen in other places but I guess not as blatantly as it's done in the city of Lagos!).

Honestly, Nigeria is a wonderful place and Lagos an even more fascinating city.

Many unique things about Lagos:
- If you can survive driving here, you can drive anywhere - Possibly give a Formula 1 professional a run for his/her money!)
- It's a city that makes you 'generous' whether by social conscience or by force.. You have to tip anyhow and anywhere... Tip the security man, tip the driver, tip the corn seller, tip the man who smiles and greets you when you come into work et al.
- Prices have magic power.. So your neighbour may drive in his Mercedes to buy corn by the road side and it will be sold to him for N500 - last price, while the magic takes over the price when you go to the exact same place by foot and you get the exact same shape, size and cooking time of corn for N150.. Yup magic can be real.

I could go on and on.. However let me tell you about a 'Welcome to Lagos' moment that I had recently..

So I was sitting at my desk, busy typing (or blog-hopping, can't remember - mehn, a break is needed to 'refresh' the brain once in a while).. When one guy comes in and says to me that his boss aka oga wants to see me.. Because my line manager is also his boss, I thought he was referring to her.

That's how I went down to the said office and 'oga' says please have a seat. So there I was 'having my seat', patiently waiting for my line manager to turn up and 'oga' starts having conversation and asking questions and all that. He eventually cuts to the chase and started his spiel about wanting to go out after work for a drink etc....

Holdddd on!

In our initial conversation, he had told me how much of a Christian he is and how he could pray about anything (emphasis his not mine) on this earth and it would come to pass. On his left finger was a very thick and shiny gold band! On his screensaver was the picture of his daughter! Someone had just come in to ask about his WIFE and daughter and he replied without flinching that they were fine! He had just had the audacity to 'summon' me (without me knowing) from my desk to walk a whole floor, lift not working (part of his responsibility by the way), so I'm talking about a flight of stairs in the heat (no light in the building at that time either - yup, you guessed right, his responsibility as well!)

 ..... So wife and kid in tow, very visible and well displayed and this man tells me that 'you're a beautiful girl you know', let's go out for a 'drink' after work.... Welcome to Lagos!