Isale Eko : City of dreams and demons

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You know how Los Angeles is like the city of dreamers in the US? The go to for anyone interested in breaking into the entertainment industry over there ? That’s what Lagos represents to Nigerian dreamers.

Zik was one of them, he had just quit his job as a banker and packed up his life in a spur of the moment decision to move to Lagos and make his dreams come true. His mother didn’t understand it and she tried her best to convince him to stay back home with them. His father a highly respected political figure in IMO state was fuming with rage.
“ If your mother didn’t spoil you beyond measure and make you feel entitled to the world you would not leave a perfectly good job and run off to Lagos As if there is something waiting there for you!!! Do you think I became who I am in one day? I started as an errand boy to the local government chairman!!! You are just like your mother”. He spat out angrily at Zik who tried to explain how depressing his job was and how he no longer looked forward to waking up in the morning.

“When he graduated with honors he was not like me o!!! Now that he wants to pursue a career in the music you introduced him to he is like me? He gets his stubbornness from you Mazi” his mother retorted, all the while binding whatever evil spirit had possessed her son.
Zik didn’t care, he had made up his mind and reached out to a friend in Lagos who swore he had connections to all the industry gate keepers including Don Jazzy and Ayo Animashaun.
Zik had been sending him money to put things in order for an eventual relocation to Lagos but he had never imagined it would need to be so soon.
He couldn’t place his finger on what triggered it, he had always planned to move to Lagos eventually but he had hoped he would have finished setting up his studio and house before he did. He had only been able to set up the house so far, he had visited once a year ago to make sure his friend Tunde wasn’t just eating his money and sending him fake pictures, it wasn’t as big as the palatial estate his parents owned but for a young man it was grand.
He had sent Tunde money to order the very best equipment possible as well, he planned to do it like Nipsey hussle when he moved to Lagos, be his own label and pay for everything from production to promotion and then reap all the benefits.

He didn’t inform Tunde he was coming, he knew the address to the house and had a copy of the Keys so he could access it without his help, he would settle in and get his head on straight before letting him know he was in town so that they could begin this crazy journey.

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On the flight he thought about everything he was leaving behind, his father had hoped he would eventually take a liking to politics and follow in his footsteps, and as the only son he truly wished he could give the man what he wanted and just do that. Marry the right girl, Have a brilliant career at the bank and then move to politics and become a name to reckon with like his old man. But he couldn’t and it hurt him almost as much as it hurt his dad.

The ride from the airport to his house on admiralty way was so long that he fell asleep in the Uber, he spent over two hours in standstill traffic and just when it started moving it stopped again!!! He started to wonder if he had made the right decision and if this city was really meant for him.
He arrived at his house exhausted and ready to just collapse on the bed and faint, he barely took note of the fact that the man at the gate looked nothing like the boy he had met a year ago when he came here last. it didn’t matter anyways, Tunde might have forgotten to mention when he switched gatemen.
As he walked up to the door the gate man ran up to him to inquire who he had come to visit.
“I no be visitor o, Na me get the house, Oga Tunde no brief you when he hire you?” He asked the man. “Oga e too late for this kind joke, I sabi our landlord well well and no be you, and he no get pikin, the people wey dey stay the house no dey around o but you fit drop message”. The gateman replied looking at him as though he had clown make up on.
He took another look at the house and saw all the signs of life, someone definitely lived inside this house, there were slippers by the door, there was a car, there was a generator he didn’t recognize and which definitely wasn’t supposed to be there seeing as Tunde had charged him an arm and a leg to install solar panels in the house.

He tried to call Tunde but a girl picked up “Tee is in the hospital, I’m taking care of him. Can I give him a message when he wakes up?” She asked sweetly ignorant to Ziks current dilemma.
“Tell him Zik called to check up on him, tell him I’ll be in Lagos tomorrow evening.” He said struggling to control his anger and frustration at not being able to hurl insults at Tunde for whatever mix up this was.

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He ordered another Taxi and selected the only hotel he knew properly in Lagos, the great Eko hotel and suites, he had been here once before for a conference and he knew that between the pool and the breakfast buffet he would be in much better spirits by the next time he reached out to that foolish Tunde.

His driver was very polite and eloquent and complimented everything from his luggage to his outfit wondering all the while how much money a person had to have to buy original Louis Vuitton luggage and not one of the ones that screamed Louie Vuitton, he wished he could afford these things and loved observing rich men wondering all the while what he would do if he had the money they did. Zik paid the guy no mind and focused on trying to respond to the dozens of messages from his family, he lowered the windows to call a hawker and in a flash his phone had left his hands.
“Ole!!! Ole!!!” The driver screamed hysterically stopping the vehicle in the middle of the road causing the car behind them to run into their vehicle immediately. The impact deployed the airbags and the next thing Zik saw was the driver in a headlock with another man as a crowd surrounded the vehicle.
He passed out.