ALISHA

Alisha jumped out of bed. Something had woken her and she was trying to figure out what it was. Picking up her phone by her bedside, she realized it was the time that made her jump out of bed. She woke up an hour ago, decided to take a 20-minute nap and had overslept. Sadly, she would be late to work as it seemed.

Alisha resides somewhere in Abule-Egba but she always leaves home at 6am to meet her resumption time of 8am in Ikeja. She is a customer sales representative at a company located on Allen Avenue.

Getting to the bus stop, the odds seemed to be against her as there was a mammoth crowd hustling for buses and the traffic was terrible. She opted for the only option she had – boarding a bike to Ikeja Along. The journey lasted less than 30 minutes, and she crossed the railway in no time, strutting to the Keke stop point to board one to Allen. On getting there, there was a long queue waiting for drivers to come so she moved on to the main bus stop, after the bridge.

Here the struggle began. As she walked through Obafemi Awolowo road, different hawkers selling memory card, pink lips balm and advertising all sorts started stretching their hands to touch her. Cat calls here and there “fine girl”, “ my future wife”, “my color” rent the air and she suddenly became a taekwondo professional, dodging dirty hands and ill-touches.

She cringed at the thought of their hands on her body as she had once seen a hawker urinate then use the same hand to grab a passerby without cleaning it.

Alisha got tired of dodging and snapped at one telling him to stop it but this only seemed to encourage them as they added insults to the cat calls.

Just when she thought one was finally going to grab her, a Keke parked in front of her, calling passengers heading to Allen, and she immediately jumped in, thanking the driver who had no idea what she had been through.

This is the struggle of the Nigerian lady in every city and major market in Nigeria – particularly in Lagos State.

#TheLagosSeries #TouchSeries

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