Post by Myro Ozah (@myroozah)

‘Karo! Karo! You no wan comot? Abi na your intestine wan fall out? You don dey there for thirty minutes na. People dey queue dey wait abeg’, Mama Bisi quipped. Yes, I have been in the toilet for some time but not up to thirty minutes. She is only exaggerating like she does whenever she sits gossiping with the other female tenants . It is a shared pit latrine serving ten families with at least six members and I as the only bachelor in the ‘face me I face you ‘ residential style building in the Mushin suburbs. I took flagyl earlier to help combat the diarrhea. This is the fourth time I am using the toilet within two hours and the local chemist advised I visit our community Health Centre. Just before other neighbours pull down the wooden framed unrefined zinc door to the ‘shalanga’, I ran out making my way to the Clinic.
The conditions here are severe. I have not lived in this ghetto style neighbourhood in my life so far, well almost never. I was born in the great Ajegunle, popularly referred to as Aj City in the era when Daddy Showkey and Daddy fresh held the music industry sway with their ragga genre. Even at that, I would categorically say that Ajegunle was not as bad as this present day Mushin ghetto. Just yesterday, Rafiu, a promising fourteen year old boxer was paraded at Idi-Oro bus-stop as being a member of a robbery gang. He was allegedly caught while trying to untie Baba Moruf’s Ileya ram. I still cannot wrap my head around it. Baba Moruf is our community leader and has direct access to the Presidency. His son, Moruf, is the leader of the NURTW unit in our area.
I still have not fully adjusted to this lifestyle. The ghetto lifestyle I mean. After losing substantial riches in a bad business deal, I moved here from Ikeja as it is what my finances could accommodate. The food, the people and local customs still appear strange in my third month of residency here.
… to be continued.
From the fiction “Karo Survived” by Myro Daniel Ozah.
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