Men in other parts of the country are known to carry loads from one place or the other and receive payments for such service but in Idumota Market in Lagos, the story is different writes PEMBI STEPHEN-DAVID.
Lagos, as many people know, is a land of many things- a centre of excellence, relevance and a city where everyone and everything seem to be working. Above all, Lagos is a place of peculiarities.
To the business man or woman, it is a place to make money; to the unemployed, it is a place of ample opportunities. To those who aspire to improve their careers, it is the home of improvement.
To the man and woman on the street, it is a place to hustle to become relevant. To Mama Iyabo and her colleagues, it is a place to ‘‘struggle with men in order not to go hungry,’’ as she puts it.
Mama Iyabo, an Alabaro (load carrier) in Idumota Market, Lagos enjoys her trade and is happy. She works round the clock to ensure that her family is confortable.
Mama leaves her home in Obalande to do her business in the ever busy Idumota Market every day at 5 am . Today, as in most days, she had arrived the market as early as 5:30 am with every vigour.Mama says Bola, one of her three daughters, is getting married in a fort night and she had to work hard to ‘’ save the situation.’’
As one Mr. Kakai was pricing a Samsung LCD television in one of the electronics shops in the market, she stood by patiently (though not part of the transaction), waiting for him to buy so that she could render her service to him by carrying it to the bus stop or his car, as the case may be.
‘’ I had to wait her for the man to buy so that I could carry the load,’’ she said. ‘’ You see,’’ Mama continued, “there are so many of us in this market so if I don’t target the shops around, I will not make any money.’’
Mama, like most people who came to Lagos, left her native town of Ibadan at the age of nine. She says her uncle, one Mr Ibukun, took her to Lagos to help his young wife and also attend school.
To her amazement, the second idea of going to Lagos never came to pass as she was ‘’always taking care of the children.’’
Sad enough, at the age of 58, Mama Iyabo is still finding the way to school. ‘’ still want to learn but as it is, my time has passed so I do my best to make sure that my children go to school so that they will have a decent work to do and? take care of their families.’’
While her peers indulge in ungodly acts in order to earn a living, Sikirat, 24, is out there in Idumota market, struggling to make ends meet. A native of Iwo, Osun State, she says there is no greater joy than for her to work and be paid.
‘‘At my age, I have the liberty to go about with men and make them pay my bills but that is not the case.’’. ‘‘You see,’’ she said, looking for clients, ‘‘I respect myself so I cannot imagine myself waiting for someone to foot my bills at his will. So I do this work in other to sustain myself.’’
Mama Ibukun, a 53-years old widow and mother of five, is a workaholic. aside fending four her children, she ensures that they attend school and get the best of the society.
She says she lives in CMS but goes to Idomota Market to render the service of carrying loads from one spot to the other. Mama Ibukun has no one to take care of the children while she is at the market so she cooks breakfast for them and give them some money to buy something for lunch
With a basin full of cartons, everyone would mistake Nike for a girl who came to the market with her mother to shop for the weekend. Everywhere her customer, a woman who gave her name simply as Bukky goes, Nike was trailing her.Wherever any Bukky stops, Nike would stop.
They moved from one shop to the other as Bukky was shopping for the whole month. ‘’ I have to follow her,’’ Nike explains, ‘‘If not so, someone else will. Look over there,’’ she said, pointing at three women, with their basin, they are looking for loads to carry.They don’t mind someone taking them round and pay them for carrying loads.’’ She said.
‘‘I have been with this woman for the past thirty minutes or so and I am not bothered because at the end of the day, she will pay me for carrying her load,’’ Nike explained. Well, depending on the load, distance and the time it will take us to carry the load from one place to the other, we collect? a hundred naira,’’ revealed Nike.
Making between one thousand two hundred and one thousand five hundred daily, Mama Iyabo and her colleges seem not to be having a bad moment in their quest to survive in the nation’s business centre.
‘‘Well, we thank God that at the end of every day we have something to hold unto. But I must tell you that it is not an easy work because we compete with the boys and the market is always busy. It is not easy to carry load and move in the market.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY on her choice of helps Alaru, one Mrs. Adekunle who had an Alaru woman trailing her, said ‘’ the women are more reliable.
You will agree with me that it is safer to allow the women to carry your load than the men because of security reasons. Ok, they will follow you from one spot in the market to the other, from the time you engage them to the time you pay them , they know your movement and what you buy and where you remove money from so they can take advantage of that.’’