One Major Skill Every Lagosian Should Have
Lagos is the city that never sleeps — in case that isn’t in the Wikepedia content. At 2a.m in Lagos, you can step out of your house to get food, recharge card, drinks and maybe even find a group of strangers to party with.
Apart from this, Lagos is the ‘don’t-dull’ city. No matter how ‘dense’ (I am sorry for this word but that’s the Lagos word to use) someone is, when they move to Lagos and spend few months, their thinking capacity increases and they become less ‘dense’ (sorry again)
Many arguments have ensued on who a Lagosian is. I’ll use this medium (see what I did there!) to let out my opinion I never air: My mom and dad are both from Lagos. My mom is from Epe and my dad, from Lagos Island (Agbole Olowogbowo*) and they have lived in Lagos all their lives. They gave birth to me here in Lagos and automatically, I have Lagos on my birth certificate as place of birth and state of origin. I have lived in Lagos almost all my life and I always visited when I wasn’t living here. I am a Lagosian and I think if you were born in Lagos, always lived in Lagos and can’t seem to live anywhere else but Lagos, you’re a Lagosian too. Oh, if you’ve always dreamed to live in Lagos, you’re a Lagosian too (home is where the heart is)
Serious people say true Lagosians are those who don’t have anywhere else to go when war breaks out or the city gets destroyed but I don’t think they took into cognizance the evolvement of the modern world. If anything happens in Naija sef (all of the 36 states), a good number of us would have somewhere else to go and eventually, a new home.
This article is for Lagosians who aren’t aware of the uniqueness of the city in which they live in and for the JJC’s who intend to stay in Lagos for a while or those who permanently want to live in the city. There’s a major life skill you must learn, sharpen and master if you want to more than survive in this city and luckily for you, this skill is essential for work also, and if you have to relocate to another city, back to your original village, or migrate to another country, you’ll be seen as an elite because we all know Lagos is a hustle city. If you can outdo every other hustler like you and make it big time, you can do same in any city in the world.
You must be Street- Smart
This phrase might have been overflogged but it’s a skill many of us terribly lacked or many of us are working on improving. I think it’s a necessary skill for life anywhere on this earth. If you’re going to relate with people, pursue ypur dreams, live the life you want, you’ve got to be street smart, let alone if you are living in Lagos.
Everything in Lagos seems to be out to get you: the traffic, the bad roads, the high prices of everyday essentials and non-essentials, the high transport fares when it’s raining or when there are many people at the bus stops, the long distance relationship between your office address and your home address, the neighbours you can’t just seem to understand, the public transportation system, the night life, the everyday slayage you see that gets you wonder how they can keep up with slay when you can’t even keep up with seeing your friends as often as you want to, the countless tantrums you’d face daily and lots more.
Now, being street smart isn’t being razz, uncivil, uncouth or unruly; according to Urban Dictionary, being street smart is the following:
- Getting Along With Others: Being with people and being okay with them. This is basically letting people know may dem dey their dey, may you dey your own day. If you want to be super open to them, you choose that and take steps toward it. If you want to keep people at an arm’s length, your choice and your rules also. The ability to see people, be a good judge of their real characters, interact with them on different levels, being polite and acting as human as you can while being assertive is one way to thrive in this Lagos. This is where communication, interpersonal skills are hidden. All in one package.
2. Common Sense: You know how people say common sense isn’t as common as we think? Be like people. Think that way too even if you don’t say it out loud. Don’t have high expectations of the other person on the sidewalk, the commutter in the BRT buses, or the person in front of you on the ATM queue. There’s more to this common sense — you’ve got to find your own clan, your kinsmen (kelegbemegbe e*)You’ve got to have a stable supplier or vendor of the things that are important to you. You need to form an amazing relationship with them. Make them really like you. You’ve got to be aware of the areas that are offlimits due to security issues, bad road networks or high traffic possibilties. You need to put your ears down on the street and be at alert because Lagos people don’t always warn others of evading danger or get involved in other’s battles. Common sense is knowing your people, or your set, sticking with them, and building up your life so as to move on to the next step in the ladder.
3. Self-defense: You must be able to sense attackers coming your way. You have to be sensitive in all of your senses. The ability to sense a smoker coming your way before they get all in your face could just save your life. The ability to suspect the group of guys approaching you are pickpockets will help you get home with your wallet. But what if you do all these and the streets still don’t smile at you? This is where you have got to know some basic self-defense moves. Don’t roll your eyes, there are centers within Lagos teaching people self-defense moves. Protect your self today, tomorrow and the next.
4. BS- Detection: In Lagos, many people want to throw you a lot of sh*t. You have to be able to call people off their bull before you even fall a victim. These BS-shots are in different levels; the petty traders have theirs, they can be very manipulative and the bus conductors who want you to not get your change is in a different class. Packaging isn’t just a thing in Lagos oh. It’s a whole career. You’ve got to be able to smell through the expensive perfume the man or woman who is a Yoruba demon or Karashika. In Lagos, you can’t tell the difference between regular people and these infidels. They are all out to get someone, it doesn’t have to be you.
I hope with these few points of mine, you’ll get working on these skills or get improving on them. All these 4 skills would help you in your job and through your business if you’re an entrepreneur.
- Olowogbowo means the person who has the money collects the money.
- Kelegbemegbe is to know those who are in the same social caste as you.
