After a legislative retreat in 2024, I stayed for another two weeks in Lagos. One of the places I spent time was Arena Market in Oshodi. When I later shared photographs from that visit, I wrote about the city's effect on my thinking. Lagos made me pay attention: to movement, negotiation, timing and the seriousness with which people pursued their daily work.
I enjoyed that energy. It does not mean everybody must relocate to Lagos or that life there is easy. I am describing the impression the city made on me. Sometimes a different environment makes you notice habits you had stopped questioning, including how you use your time and how clearly you explain what you can offer.
The market makes usefulness visible
In a working market, an impressive description of yourself will only take you so far. Someone wants an item, a price, a service or a reliable answer. The interaction becomes practical quite quickly. Can you meet the need? If not, do you know who can? Are you clear about what you are promising?
Those are useful questions outside a market too. A professional can have a fine profile and still struggle to explain what another person should trust them to do. Watching people negotiate everyday exchanges reminded me that value needs to be understood by the person expected to pay for it.
That understanding should not become pressure to exaggerate. If every offer is described as the best, fastest or cheapest without evidence, the words eventually lose meaning. A person who explains the limits of a service and then delivers reliably may build something more useful than a louder competitor.
Energy needs a direction
Lagos can make movement itself feel like achievement. There is always somewhere to go and something happening. But being busy is not the same as making progress. I would not want to copy the pace of a place without asking what my own activity is supposed to achieve.
For me, the useful lesson is to become more deliberate. Before setting out, know what you need to accomplish. Before entering an arrangement, understand the terms. Before adding another commitment, consider whether you can honour it. Speed is more helpful when it follows preparation.
Rest belongs in that calculation as well. Admiring a hardworking city should not mean treating exhaustion as proof of seriousness. People need time to recover, think and maintain the relationships that make work bearable. A sustainable routine is more valuable than a short performance of endless availability.
Bring the observation home
A visit becomes more useful when it changes a habit after the photographs have been posted. The lesson does not have to be dramatic. It may be replying more clearly to an enquiry, planning a journey better or learning to state a price and the work it covers without unnecessary confusion.
I also value the people who make a city easier to understand. My brother Hassan was part of my Lagos experience, and I appreciate the practical knowledge that comes from people who know a place well. Asking questions can save a visitor from pretending familiarity they have not earned.
I will happily return to Lagos when the opportunity comes. Insha'Allah, there will be more to observe and learn. For now, what stays with me is the challenge to be purposeful about ordinary work. Which place has made you reconsider how you approach your own day?
0 Comments