Welcome to Sodom ... Lagos community where drug, prostitution are way of life

Segun Ajiboye

A primordial heart beats loud in a part of Ikeja, the capital of Lagos State. Although it is concealed by the hustling and bustling of business men and women, beautiful structures and sophistication of modernity, Ipodo, a community in the heart of Ikeja has not lost touch with nature. At its centre is a large shrine dedicated to the worship of Esu (the Yoruba word for Satan).

Constructed with blocks, the shrine, symbolic and instructive of the kind of lifestyle that prevails at Ipodo, is decorated with pieces of white cloth that have long turned brown with the vicissitudes of weather. Pots containing various sacrificial items also adorn the shrine. Ipodo’s paradox consists in the fact that it is also home to at least a church and no fewer than two mosques also meant to serve the religious needs of the Christian and Muslim population in the area.

I started business washing clothes for neighours- Real estate boss Yetunde Babajide

The life of Chief (Mrs.) Yetunde Babajide can no doubt serve as an inspiration to many young jobless Nigerians. The product of a not-so-rich parent, young Yetunde set out for Lagos from her Ikire, Osun State base after acquiring her National Certificate of Education (NCE) certificate, hoping to get a white collar job.

But after several long fruitless searches for a job, she took up the challenge to fend for herself. After a quick meditation on what she could do, she opted for a one-man dry cleaning service. Moving from one house to another, Yetunde went through her neighbourhood, soliciting customers. “After leaving school, I came to Lagos to live with my uncle. I thought I would get a job as soon as I got to Lagos, but weeks soon passed into months, with no sign of a job in the horizon. But after I got tired of the fruitless search, I woke one day and decided that I would be doing dry cleaning for people around my neighbourhood. I became a washerwoman.

“I could not just sit down and do nothing. I was very lucky to have the kind of parents that I have. My mother sold food items in Ikire, while my dad was a driver. We were brought up to be up and doing early every day, as early as 4am. From that time, there would be no sleeping again, because we would all be doing one thing or the other. My dad did not discriminate between the boys and the girls. So there was nothing the boys could do that I could not do. We washed our dad’s clothes and iron them. So the job of washing clothes was not really new to me.”