By Vivian Onyebukwa
In the last few years, Amuwo Odofin, located between Mile 2, Festac and Ago Towns in Lagos State, has emerged as one of the fastest developing residential areas with most modern estates and upscale relaxation spots in the Lagos metropolis. But the beauty you see when you drive in through the major roads linking Amuwo Odofin isn’t what you see from the Ijesha side of the road, off Apapa-Oshodi Express Road.
Ijesha Bus Stop is tucked between the popular Cele Bus Stop and Mile 2 Bus Stop. By the right side of the bus stop, a good number of churches can be found, including the popular Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement. Daily, souls searching for redemption from God troop into these churches. Amid the echoes of Hosanna that resonate in this neighbourhood and beautiful spectacles of modern houses, there are other souls pining away in nearby shanties. The sight of these developing slums conjures up a strange image of shanties in paradise.
Curiosity piqued Saturday Sun reporter, who sought explanations from one of the squatters of the shanties, Jude. According to him, there are over 200 squatters dwelling in these slums, and they include Nigerians from different tribes, old and young.
Dismissing the impression that the squatters are mostly members of the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement, he said members of different denominations also live there. Though they enjoy electricity, they can only access drinking water from neighbours in better houses with borehole water.
Amuwo Odofin’s slums beggar belief, however. The crappy environment has been worsened by the rains. The other day, there was heavy downpour, which got the awful track road flooded. Like a scene out of Amazon jungle, residents would have to wade through mud and dirty water before accessing their apartments, constructed with wood panels.
Almost all the ramshackle shanties are situated on top of stinking drainages, where squatters cook, eat and bathe. Also, their mobile toilets, constructed without provision for proper disposables, are situated near the shanties, making the vicinity an awful setting for human habitation.
explaining how the squatters survive in such a filthy environment with buzzing mosquitoes and sun flies, one of the residents, who didn’t want her name in print, responded casually: “What can we do? There is no alternative. We buy insecticides to spray the house when we want to sleep. Some of us have also acquired mosquito nets.”
How did the residents acquire these spaces, in the first place, to build their shanties? Saturday Sun reporter met one Mummy Divine, who revealed that the area was primarily occupied by members of Odua People’s Congress (OPC), who began renting the spaces to interested individuals. Saturday Sun was not, however, told which of the OPC factions was controlling the area and renting out the shanties to the residents.
“Here, we pay for light, security or one thing or the other to OPC members who are living here. They are the ones in charge. They also sell the spaces to those who are interested. Some people who are living here said they bought the land from them,” she explained.
According to findings, house rent is not uniform here. It depends on who owns one’s apartment. It varies from N60,000, N30,000 to N20,000 per annum. “Some of the OPC members living here go to work,” Mummy Divine, who hails from Obibiezena, Imo State, said. She is married to her husband, who hails from Umuhuokabia in Orlu, Local Government Area, Imo State.
“It is hardship that brought us to this place. I was not living here before, but because of one problem or the other, I landed here. But I still thank God that I came and experienced another type of life, because, if you are comfortable where you are, you won’t know that there is another world,” she added.
While she squats here with her husband and two children (a boy and a girl), and does her casual laundry services, she still believes that things would turn around one day so they would move to a better place. For her, the current adversity is part of human tribulations, hoping that it would end as a life testimony one day.
A young bachelor, Uche Unanka, said he had lived here for five years. Narrating how he found himself in that environment, he said, “I got this place through a woman who lived here with her husband. I used to work with a transport company, where I helped them to load their motor, but the money they were paying me was not enough, so I started washing their vehicles for them.
“When I moved into this place, I had to expand this point. I used to pay N1,500 to the woman, but, in the last two years, I started paying N2,000 to her. Since then, I have not met up with the payment, so I have owed her since December last year. She is a Lord’s Chosen Church member with her husband. We have fine young girls and boys living here with us too,” said Unanka.
Unanka was optimistic that God’s divine mercy would fall upon him one day and he would move out from the squalid environment.
Another squatter called Blessing from one of the South West states, said she had lived here with her husband and three kids for some time. Lamenting about the standard of living, she said: “We are just managing. We can’t afford to pay house rent now. We are hoping that help would come to us one day and we move away from this place.”
It was afternoon, and none of the members of OPC, who served as temporary landlords, was around to speak to Saturday Sun on living and managing shanties close to a paradise.
Since the particular OPC faction in charge was not known, Saturday Sun could not confirm the level of their involvement from leaders of the different factions.