Olukorede Williams

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: A LAGOS LOVE STORY By Korede Williams Whenever the word Lagos comes to mind, a “whirlpool” of notions begins to materialize and just like its literal counterpart it only gets stronger and more definite the longer it is allowed to fester. Lagos is the city everyone ascribes as coming closest to selling the fabled idea of ‘the American Dream’ in Sub-Saharan Africa; and for all the right reasons too. What’s there not to love about a snazzy, bustling metropolis teeming with so many opportunities underscored by unbridled ambition? There’s even a colloquial adage that goes, “if you can make it in Lagos, you can make it elsewhere”. Tales abound of how scores of prominent personalities in pop culture as we know them today sojourned into the ‘city that never sleeps’, armed with little more than the desire for a more fulfilling life and over the course of time have risen to the apex of their respective forte (did I hear someone mention 2face Idibia, Sam Adeyemi etc?). The commercial capital of West Africa, amongst several other monikers it has been christened with, Lagos is arguably a self-reliant prime mover of industrialization and technological advancement in Nigeria. From real estate to telecommunications, banking to education, entertainment to yet-to-be-classified ingenuity, there seems to be something for everyone and a generous dose of sophisticated aura to go with it, right? Wrong! The beguiling “El Dorado” that never ceases to awe and inspire edenlifenigeria.com Like a camel trudging through the draconian Sahara Desert on a full tank, knowing it will thrive so long as it has its water reservoir available to withstand the harsh externalizations of its ambience, Lagos is progressive so long as its ‘success appeal’ is potent enough to stave off the undertones of unsavory vices inordinately peppered throughout its purview. It is analogous to an imagery where Beauty gazes into a mirror and the Beast’s reflection appears. Both exist simultaneously in this relationship in roughly the same strength. Beneath the veneer of glitz and glamour there lurks a stark and grotesque reality. Overwhelmingly overpopulated for such a tiny coastal region (21 million people on board in 2014) Lagos has seen more than its fair share of strife. Being the largest metropolitan area in Africa also means you have to put up with gross land, air, sea – not to mention noise pollution, escalating crime wave from disgruntled and unemployed street urchins, numerous ideologies of civil societal groups – some of which are questionable and confusing to begin with and of course legions of irate motorists and densely packed traffic jams – the latter has become a staple of the cosmopolitan metropolis. Perhaps this is the inevitable price to pay for a large and ever-evolving city; albeit judicious management at all echelons would be a major factor in determining whether Beauty’s radiance permeates through, or the Beast finally comes to rule his roost. The dream is free - but the hustle is sold separately www.ktravula.com