Thread by @RGAMeyer

On Onikoyi?
Y’all need to chill with the hot takes that have ZERO nuance or knowledge!
I lived off Banana Island Road in 2017 to 2018. It was a MASSIVE construction area. I wager it still is: the humans you are labelling were construction workers, handy-staff and the barbers...

Hairdressers and food sellers mainly cater to them. You can literally see they make the shops against walls of undeveloped plots and empty houses for goodness’ sake. The best hairdresser Ibukun was on a temporary shed on a wide piece of land which they rented from the owner...

Next to Ibukun was a food-seller. When you have cheap labour, cheap associated skill and transportation (buses, taxis etc) will and must follow. Do you expect labourers to cut their hair inside Biporal or eat at Southern Sun??! Or use Uber to leave work?
Stop the stigmatising!

What you see in Ikoyi is same ANYWHERE informal labour exists. A community of service providers will arise around it. Should things be better planned and handled? Yes. Should people be tagged with the blanket term “criminals” because they are hanging around, seeking work? HELL NO

People will not immediately leave their roadside businesses just because work has dried up. The barbers you see service security guards, and even the hairdressers in their shacks have always been called into that same Banana Island: Ibukun was in high demand as at 2018. Nuance!

This is not some oooh the “poor want to eat the rich” scenario so stop masturbating on that point.
The hanging around has been around FOR A LONG TIME. I spoke at length with Ibukun, several of the barbers who became friends and at a time was even considering reporting on it.

Just because some of the “rich” of Ikoyi are now scared or have finished using the labour of these people and are using their elite voice to scream the loudest doesn’t mean these people are all criminals.
Most are looking for work, as others NATIONWIDE.
Fix employment. Period.

And while employment and other “governmenty” things are being handled or brought to the attention of the government - the rest of you need to FIX yourselves.
The fools stigmatising the same poor on whose backs their homes and businesses were built and staff are fed... FIX UP!

Then you the other fools using the poor of Nigeria to score points on Twitter and push your mumu agenda you need to FIX UP!
May your children or their children not be used for banter.
Detty akuko!