MOVE – Cath Talks

Lagos is a city that thrives during the day and comes alive at night when other cities sleep. Living in Lagos has its good and bad sides, residents are fully aware.

Tunji got to work 30 minutes late and was called into the Human Resource Manager’s office. He shivered at the thought of losing his job which he got 8 months ago after a 2 year job search.

Stepping into her office, she smiled at him, told him to sit and handed him a letter. With shaky hands, he opened the letter while recounting the ordeal he had been through just to get to work.

“Tunji lives in the Ikorodu axis of Lagos which is said to be on the outskirts but is still a part of Lagos. He gets up at 4am every morning and gets to work at 7:45 am after spending 3 hours 15 minutes daily in traffic. This morning as usual, he got to the bus-stop and there was no vehicle going his way. The thought of taking the ferry crossed his mind but his fear of water shoved it out of his mind.

A car suddenly stopped in front of him calling Obalende and he flew in before the crowd could push him. Music from the radio filled the car and he happily sang along, thankful for his luck.

The traffic moved slowly and as it thinned on the third mainland bridge, Tunji looked at his watch and realized he was 20minutes faster than other days but happiness suddenly became worry as he heard a sound and the car slowed to a stop. Stepping out of the car, the sound turned out to be a flat tyre and he began to panic as it is hard to get a vehicle on the third mainland bridge. Changing the tyre took over 40 minutes as the Car Jack was rusty and when he finally got to Obalende, he had to struggle to get a Keke napep heading to his direction.