Lagos people can do over-sabi – Lucia Edafioka

Have you ever wondered what will happen if a Lagosians owns up that he or she doesn’t know something?

I think, maybe, their heads will fall off.

Ever missed your way before? Then you stopped to ask people along the road? Have Okada men and taxi drivers taken you on a nonsense road tour before? Or you are at the market and you can’t find a particular item? Why can’t people just say – “my sister, I don’t know?”

The other day I went to Yaba to look for a canopy for a project. It doesn’t make sense to rent since it is for a weekly project. So I got to Yaba, walked into the market and asked someone.

“You no go see am for here, go Tejuosho.”

The sun was blazing down, but to Tejuosho I went.

In Tejuosho, “good afternoon sah, please I am looking for where to buy a canopy, where can I find one?”

“Hhh,” man looks up brows furrowed in thought as if the answer will drop from heaven. I waited. After some minutes, “go upstairs, turn right.” I got upstairs and turned right – nothing.

Then I asked a woman upstairs and you won’t believe what she said – “you won’t see it in this market o, go down,” she said and pointed to the road opposite the market: “Ask for there.”

I was happy, hope finally. Getting a canopy to buy is what is delaying this particular project. So I started walking down the road, asked from shop to shop. Everyone had an answer. Not one person said I don’t know. Some said I should keep walking down this very long road, another said go to Ojuelegeba, go to Mile 2, go to Orile, go to Mushin, go to Ajegunle, go to Eko. When I got to the end of this very long road, under the scorching sun, I turned back and went home angry.

I would later call who directed me there in the first place. Guess what? Someone actually had a canopy in Tejuosho market, but he was out of stock.

Now imagine if that woman had said “I don’t know” and allowed me to walk around?

 

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