Gangs of Lagos: A screenplay with lots of angles and lessons for me

The day I saw the movie, Gangs of Lagos, I agreed it was the best use of my 2 hours, and that's because I learned a lot. Life has a way of giving us the chance to learn the facet of good living and activating one's moral compass. Mine happens when I decide to spend a few hours on a movie. Since I usually don't like watching many movies, I make sure that once I do, it will be worth it.

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I loved the Trio, Tobi Bakre staring as Obalola, Adesua Etomi staring as Gift, and Chike-Ezekpeazu staring as Ify. Those trio rocked, right from childhood, they had each other's back, and the bond grew stronger.

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So, it was inevitable for me to cry very hard when the trio lost Ify. I am very sure that I cried more than the cast in the movie, I dropped my phone and cried for 3 minutes. When his mum gave the speech at the burial ceremony, I burst into more tears. And when Oba knew the truth about the death of their pal and talked with Gift in the night, I cried even more.

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My tears were mostly centered around how one person can control the lives of young lads just because he had the keys to the lives they all dream about living. Ify wanted to be a successful musician. Obalola wanted to make enough money so he could travel abroad, become a programmer, and live large once he landed the job of his dreams. I don't know if Gift had dreams but I am sure she probably wanted to leave her Homeland too and look for greener pastures.

Although Obalola's mum and his new family, Nino wanted to keep him off the street, there was nothing anyone could do because It was his destiny. His mum tried her best, I love Nino, that guy really wanted to keep Oba off the street too. He was prepared to send him to school and fund his way to a higher level of education. But destiny doesn't work like that. The moment destiny finds something or someone standing in the way of what you should be, destiny finds a way to delete them.

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I had a feeling the prophecy on Oba's life was just because his dad died when he was a baby. It really didn't mean he will die young. They were just trying to protect him. But destiny had plans for him, bigger than what his family and loved ones had.

The thing is I supported the role destiny played in his life because if Nino had succeeded in sending Obalola to school, I don't think the school would have been a better option for him.

He wouldn't be able to protect the people he loved if he was merely a graduate who joined the corporate ladder. I also believed that even though that had worked out, destiny would have found a way to draw him back to where he belonged.

Just like in The Godfather, Don had a son who didn't want to have anything to do with the family business. In the end, destiny brought him back. I already said destiny will always delete people who try to get in the way of one's destiny, for Michael, his elder brother who wanted to take over from Don got killed by Don's Enemy and it brought the throne all the way back to him without his permission.

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Anyone would think Bimbo Ademoye who starred as Teni should have tried to avenge her dad's death since she witness Gift and Obalola killing him. But what I think happened is how the grass suffers when two elephants are fighting. So trying to get revenge would have been a losing battle.

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Apart from that, it was no one's fault how her dad ended up. Right from the day, Her father killed Obalola's dad, his path was decided for him. It was only a matter of time before everything he did catch up to him. The thing about towing the wrong path for power is that you keep killing people to cover your tracks and that's what Teni's dad was doing. He wanted power so badly that his killing did not stop at Oba's dad, he proceeded to kill other people including Nino, Ify, etc.

The last straw that broke the camel's back was plotting the death of Ify. This was Obalola's childhood friend, with whom, they had sworn to stick together till the end. So, Kazeem, Teni's dad time was already up when he decided to make Ify take the blame for the death of the opposing party.

I have seen it happen again and again, when a bad person's time is up, they will touch a particular person and bring all their past crimes crashing down on them.

In these kinds of things, people ought to learn when to stop, For Teni's dad, he did not his limit.

Ps: Images used in the Canva designs are screenshots from the movie.