#StorySeries: One Night in Ikorodu (Episode Seven)

You can read Episode One, Episode Two  and Episode Three, Episode Four, Episode Five  and Episode Six of our new #StorySeries titled One Night in Ikorodu

This is a story inspired by a true-life event, names have been changed to protect and respect those involved.

If you know Lagos well, then you know one of the worst moments to be on the road is when it’s raining, the rain always comes with traffic.

Some of the roads in Lagos have very bad drainage systems, so when it rains, instead of the water just flowing away, it occupies the road like “Occupy Nigeria”. So yeah, there I was on my way to Ikorodu inside traffic and it was raining heavily.

I would love to give you the gist about the whole drama that happened inside the bus but that drama isn’t as important as what happened when I finally arrived in Ikorodu. Oh by now just to mention just in case you might be wondering, I actually didn’t get to Ikorodu on time, I got there an hour behind schedule.

Now you also need to understand something about Ikorodu, so depending on which side of Ikorodu you are going to, there are different bus stop in Ikorodu where you can alight. Most times a lot of people alight at Argic Bus Stop which like I said at the beginning is the most popular bus stop but then there is Sabo bus stop also, which is the final bus stop.

So that was where I alighted, oh did I mention that I didn’t know where I was going actually, the plan was when I get to Sabo, I would call her and she would direct me from there. So while we were about 30 minutes away from Sabo, I called her and she was like “I’m still in church ooo but before you get to Sabo I should be done”. So when I got to Sabo my first instinct was not even to call her, my first instinct was to get cover from the heavy rain that was falling.

There is a filling station at Sabo and that was where I first stayed but I couldn’t stay there for long because the rain was pouring down heavily and buses kept dropping off passengers so it was becoming crowded. So decided to enter the rain, I bought this nylon raincoat from one woman that was selling from the station, used that to cover myself, though that didn’t do much because of how heavy the rain is, it was able to protect my bag which had my laptop which was the most important thing. I walked into the rain and I located a small kiosk and I had to walk over this muddy water just to stay there.

I won’t even lie, at that point, I was already getting angry, not just the fact the rain was beating the hell out of me but I called Miracle and this babe had this audacity to tell me, she’s still in church. Sweet baby Jesus, I was f**king angry, excuse my French, but yeah I was mad like my body was boiling, you could almost see the steam coming out from me.

We agreed to meet by 1PM, I got to Ikorodu by 2PM and by 3PM you tell me you are still in church, you self reason am, who does that? like how can people be so nonchalant about time?. If I had not said “see if I don’t see you in the next 30minutes, I would go back home and block you for life”

I have to be honest here, if not that it was actually raining, I would have easily gone back without even telling her, but the rain was one of the things that held me back. Now, what I'm about to say was something I didn’t see coming but it was something that calm my nerve.

So still staying in front of the kiosk, there was the guy that came to join me there and from the way he looked, I could tell he was one of the area boys. I didn’t mean like the thuggish area boy, I mean like a boy that stays in that neighbourhood. So he came and was like “omo this rain no go allow this woman come today sha”, referring to the woman that owns the kiosk and that was when I knew the kiosk is a “jedi” kiosk because he added, “good thing I have this weed with me, if we don’t see jedi to drink, we still have this to keep one warm”. Oh mind you these things he said was actually in Yoruba but my Yoruba is bad and I don’t want to disgrace myself so I say make I just put am for English. 

Next episode is next week