Makoko New Dawn

The Third Mainland bridge is packed with a couple of million motors every single day at the crack of dawn. They ferry many more millions to their day jobs. They are the legitimate citizens of Lagos who eke out a living recognised by the powers-that-be. Their new dawn is part of Lagos' acceptable social fabric. They are part of Lagos' frenetic pace of economic and infrastructure growth fostered by foreign money.

Just beneath the German made bridge, which spans twelve kilometres over the Atlantic backwaters to connect the legitimate millions to their workplace, the new dawn means a different story to the Makoko residents. They are the illegitimate ones confined to their stilted homes and hand-oared canoes, with no social identity. Bereft of legal standings, they don't stand a chance to the join the mainstream populace. The grind of their daily rut-driven lives has evolved into a self-sustaining economy, which can witness human progress only from the distance of their fetid smelling homes. Every new dawn will see Makoko residents on their boats, beneath the Third mainland, dropping nets to catch fish after more fish. Fish that will fill the plates of the 'other Lagos'. And Makoko will continue to stare at the motors on the Third Mainland from beneath, hoping that someday they will leave the canoes to ride the motors above to prosperity. Till then, every new dawn will remain different for Makoko.