Lagos Nigeria is one of the most ferocious places in the world, and people will do anything to survive, including endangering their own lives. Most of the time, people see the ability to make ends meet as the main purpose of their lives, and they are considered to have a form of disability when they are unable to provide or make money, regardless of how rough the terrains in their immediate surroundings are.
Most of the time, when people are caught in crime, they blame it on a lack of job opportunities.
While this is not a legal reason to commit crime, it is a justifiable reason because there are no jobs. We have people who spend 50% of their salaries on transportation because there are no opportunities in the areas where they live, and the houses in the areas where they work are experiencing inflation because there are more people who want to stay but there are not enough houses; there is only one economic consequence of scarcity: price inflation.
In Lagos, Nigeria, there is no such thing as good or bad; only sellers and buyers, opportunists and people who are taken advantage of
It is either you are below or above, and the people at the top decide how much a commodity should cost. Worth and value do not exist here. The price of a product is determined solely by the number of people who want it. There is no morality, no sense of humanity; it is either profit or not. This is why Nigeria is one of the most price-inflated places of the world. It's a sophisticated type of auction house, where people are living by bidding.
Someone wakes up, creates artificial scarcity, drives demand, and raises prices. It gets worse because people make the same amount of money, but they work in a retail and commercial system where those in charge of productions are treated as gods, with no form of regulation to keep them in check. I used to watch shows where wealthy people would buy endangered animals for consumption that were on the verge of extinction.
They did this not because the animal was highly nutritious or had any medicinal value, but because the animal was on the verge of extinction.
This is the current situation in Lagos, Nigeria. People are at the mercy of the wealthy, who will pay anything to get their way. As a result, the price they are willing to pay becomes the new normal, causing lower-income people to pay the same price as wealthy people. Wealthy people in Nigeria mostly do what they do to display how wealthy they are; at the end of the day, the people at the bottom of the ladder are left to either stay in bid or be outbid.
People are living in shacks, exposed to mosquitoes and harsh weather conditions, while paying exorbitant rents. The truth is that if you are unable to pay, there are ten others who are willing to pay. This is not because they cannot afford a good house; rather, the value of their money is now less than it should be.
So, as more people are willing to pay, the price becomes a game for those renting or selling their homes. These people take pride in being businesspeople despite the fact that they are primarily criminals; they claim to have families to feed and justify their crimes by claiming that life is a business to be exploited.
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I saw a video of people paying around 250k naira for rented makeshift houses built under a bridge. It felt so funny because the house used the bridge as a roof, and it is incredible that people would rent such a house without considering the potential danger. They did not consider inconvenience because the inverse of this is luxury. However, from the perspective of these people, they are most likely working on the mainland or the island, and instead of paying over a million for a decent apartment, why not pay $250k for something outrageously dangerous and save some of their salaries?
Aside from being dangerous, it is also illegal; however, hiring a crook to rent them a government-owned property is criminal enough.
There is a lot of criminal activity in Lagos, Nigeria, all in the name of survival, but this has to be one of the most serious crimes in my opinion.
Personally, I have seen and known corruption, but corruption that defies the odds is usually when a large number of people are involved, including those who should be stopping the corruption to begin with.
I believe that people on this side of the country are no longer drawing boundaries when it comes to survival. There is always a higher justification, which is ironic given that most people end their lives and jeopardize their mental and physical health in order to survive. Although this rat race occurs almost everywhere in the world, I sincerely hope to see a country where people live and pay for makeshift accommodations under a functional bridge.
With the living conditions in Lagos, Nigeria, people sometimes have a justifiable reason for endangering their lives; otherwise, they simply cannot compete.
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That's horrible, and exactly how society shouldn't work. The rich and corrupt get what they want and force the poor to live in illegal housing to just survive. That's just sad an wrong... It's hard to blame someone doing something dangerous to survive in that environment.
You're right, it's hard to blame someone who is doing something risky. I mean, sometimes we mostly don't even have common sense when we don't have any choice at all. Sometimes it takes looking at that point of view to truly understand.
The things you describe seem to be driven by... primal instincts, on one side, and greed and power, on another. When we degrade to almost animals, who remembers that thing the civilized world calls (but only calls) human rights?
It's crazy. It's like there's always this need to be opportunistic and exploit the need of others to the fullest. Most people with the right, power, connect or authority to exploit do it without looking back and the consequences on the economy is and the quality of life of people is always disastrous
I believe there's a lot of egocentrism in their actions, and also a lack of vision. The world doesn't end with them. They have children, grandchildren, and so on. If they destroy everything around them (or care about nothing except their own family's well-being), at some point their descendents won't be living in a bubble and will be affected by the surroundings.
Well, it's one thing I use to feel that if people were conscious about their children, grandchildren and even family they'll probably reduce their carelessness and not want to destroy the world simply because they want to make profit.
Lagos is full of opportunists so if one is not smart enough to take opportunities, the person can’t grow here. It’s really crazy how we have made it seem like a normal thing while we all know clearly that all of these are just extortions
It’s crazy but that’s where we’ve pushed ourselves to
Yes, only Lagosians who have seen the thick and thin of this place will truly understand.
While I can't condone the criminal activities you mentioned, I can understand the motivations. When faced with the choice between breaking the law or potentially starving or becoming homeless, I imagine many people would feel like they have no other option. It's a tough situation, for sure.
I hope that the Nigerian government and other stakeholders can work to address the root causes of these problems – things like lack of job opportunities, affordable housing, and effective regulation.
If people had more access to legitimate ways to support themselves and their families, maybe they wouldn't feel so desperate to resort to shady tactics.
You're right. Most times in life, the need to survive mostly outweighs everything in life. What people do to survive is often unthinkable, but it's probably life and it's what it is. At the end of the day, we just justify anything with the fact that it was survival instincts. As for the Nigerian government. It's a pity. The country will not get better with the people we're constantly voting, and this is why this country might just remain the same.
These business criminals always justify their actions in the name of taking care of themselves and their family, but what they don't realize is they're actually committing extortion and this will one way or another come back to them. Somehow, when one sector increases the price of goods, all others follow along irrespective of whether it's necessary or not. Such a state of lawlessness is a quite chaotic and hyper tensed environment.
When I thought of Lagos I see a state that has the ability to determine you as a man