Leaving Las Gidi

Mr. Olowofoyeku and his co-travellers are amongst the thousands of Nigerians who subject themselves to the extreme desert and other life-threatening conditions in their search for a better life outside the shores of the country.

The origin

"My problem began 17 years ago (1992). My father, who was an interior decorator, fell from the third floor of a building and broke his spinal cord," said 31-year-old Mr. Olowofoyeku.

To compound the problem, after his father's accident, his mother, a fish seller divorced his father and left with two of his siblings.

"When it was time for me to register for the West African Examination Council (WAEC), there was no money. My dad had no money and my mum was nowhere to be seen," he said.

However, he was able to raise ₦2, 500 of the ₦4, 000 registration fees for the examination but the school principal insisted they pay the complete fees. As a result he dropped out of school in 1995.

Trial and error

"A friend introduced me to a labourer job at Lagos Island. We were paid ₦90 per day and we worked from 7 am to 6 pm. After sometime, I fell sick and my dad asked me to stop."

Later, another friend introduced him to a job at the Oko-Baba saw mill but he became quickly dissuaded by the spate of accidents.

"One day, the saw almost cut off an operator's leg. Another day, another guy almost lost his finger to the machine. A friend of mine at the mill, Idowu, was not lucky. His left hand was paralysed after the machine slashed his veins. I decided to quit."

In 1997, he got another job, this time as a house help in Festac Town.

"In my second year into the job, a friend came to visit me. He told me my father was dead."

Left without a father and with his mother and siblings at large, Mr. Olowofoyeku decided it was time he tried his hands outside the country's shores.

First, he went to Sokoto State. At the border, between Nigeria and Niger, he said immigration officials seized his monies and passport and refused him exit so, he came back to Lagos.

"Back in Lagos, I did some menial jobs, raised some money, and went back to the north."

Six days later and having traversed the desert plains of Niger Republic and Algeria, he arrived in Tripoli, in 2000.

Different country, same problem

"I was doing menial jobs in Tripoli and the pay was fairly okay. But a problem arose. The Libyans began to kill black Africans."

Panafrican News Agency reported that more than 4,000 Nigerians were repatriated by the Nigerian government at that time, 2000, after violent clashes between migrant Africans, especially West African citizens and their Libyan hosts.

"One of my friends had been murdered before the Nigerian Embassy decided to camp us in refugee camps," Mr. Olowofoyeku said.

According to deportees, at least 500 Nigerians were killed during the attack which was reportedly sparked by differences between Nigerian and Libyan drug gangs, Panafrican News Agency reported.

"I said instead of me to die there, I should go back home. So I returned to Nigeria with just two trousers and two shirts," Mr. Olowofoyeku said.

Yet another search for greener pasture

Back in Nigeria, Mr. Olowofoyeku decided to get a job.

He worked at a Cobbler's for about four months and raised about ₦15, 000. He then got more money from a friend and decided to leave the country again.

"This time I decided to go through Kano because it was easier and cheaper," he said.

Aboard a lorry, he returned to Libya but found the country unconducive.

"Living in Libya had become very difficult so I crossed to Tunisia; it was worse there. I moved back to Libya and then crossed to Abu Dhabi, to Dubai, and back to Abu Dhabi where I finally settled down."

However, life in the United Arab Emirates was not as rosy as he envisaged. So after his papers expired, he decided to come back home.

Home at last?

Two years after his return, he had become disillusioned with life in Nigeria, again.

"Now that I'm back, I'm regretting why I came back. I had hoped to use the little money I came back with to start a new life," said Mr. Olowofoyeku, who now runs a lotto shop near his home at the Ilueri dumpsite, in Apapa-Iganmu.

"By the grace of God, I will still go back. But not from the proceeds of this business. One day, I would be lucky and win big money," he said.

To quell the feeling of dehydration that had begun to swathe him, Segun Olowofoyeku took another swig from the water bottle dangling from his neck. Huddled amidst over thirty young men at the back of a lorry en route to Libya, from Sokoto; his water capacity, just like the other items needed for sustenance during the six day journey - garri and powdered milk, is fast depleting. They are still two days away from their destination, Tripoli, and they had already lost three men to hunger, dehydration, and pneumonia.