Abuja Living VS Lagos Living – Major Culture Shocks

Hey fam! It’s been an terribly busy week for me but this is my third blog post this week! Ahhhh! God is good mehn. Someone messaged on WhatsApp asking how I find the time to write and I had no answer because sincerely I don’t know. This outgoing month (April) has been my busiest all year.

I was put on a project out of Lagos (Finally!) – It is in Abuja. When I heard the news, I was excited. In fact, excitement doesn’t fully capture how I felt. Minus the fact that the project is on something I’m pretty excited about, I just needed a break from Lagos (the traffic actually). It’s not a permanent move o (at least not yet)… but a very welcome break.

I have been in Abuja for almost a month and this evening I just thought, why not write somethings about your stay so far…

I decided to just enumerate the things I want to say. It may not all be related but please bear with me. Let’s start already!

Let’s get started! 😎

1. No traffic in Abuja!
   When I got to Abuja for the first time, as the car pulled out of the airport and into the town, I wore a confused look. I tried to remember if that day was a public holiday or something because I just couldn’t understand how and why the roads were sooooooooo free on a Monday morning. Having lived in Lagos all my life, it was a huge culture shock for me. I still wake up by 4am only to go to bed and wake at about 7:30am. Sweet life 😍😍😍
   On this one, Abuja 1 – Lagos 0 🙂

   

   I don’t miss you 🤭 Source: The Sun Nigeria

2. Everybody is gentle
   See guys, I can say in the past one month, I haven’t seen a fight ensue on the road o, in the market or anything like that. Unlike Lagos where everyone is almost always angry about something. I can hardly go a day without one drama or the other. If I miss it at the bus park, somebody must sha commit in the bus or conductor will sha misbehave… lol, In fact, on my way to my lodge this evening, the keke I was in almost collided with the other. If you ask me o, the other guy was wrong because he attempted to overtake from the wrong side. Still this our keke driver, waved the other man sorry. I was confused… like excuse me??? This guy was wrong, why are you still apologizing? When the other man caught up with our own keke man, he also apologized and our driver waved back at him and everyone moved on. The Lagosian in me didn’t even understand what just happened. On this one, Abuja 1 – Lagos 0

   

   See how I went to embarass myself the other day. Having lived in Lagos all my life, I don’t know how to behave in this town 🤦‍🤦‍🤦‍

3. City life
   Abuja is boring sha. Nahhh. I don’t even want to hear anything on this one. I mean, minus the malls, the eat-areas, the parks, and the mountains where you can climb for fun and adventure (this is not so fun though when it’s sunny) – there is literally nothing else to do especially if you don’t want to spend so much. Unlike my sweet Lagos, you can just vex and stroll out and catch some fun, get some nice and affordable street food and go to bed with joy and gladness in your heart (and belly!)
   I miss Lagos so much. I miss the small chops at Costain. Guysss, did I tell you how I suffered this past week when I was craving small chops. Chai. It wasn’t funny. The guys I was calling were just saying, enh, I need to pre-order, two packs is too small, blah blah blah. I kept saying if only I was in Lagos. I even went to two major malls. I didn’t see. I was astonished. Like how can you not provide small chops for your citizens! That’s the height… How do you expect them to be happy???
   On this one, Abuja 0 – Lagos 1,000,000! 😋😋😋
4. Extreme weather
   People of God, the sun in Abuja can fry eggs. No jokes 😑😑😑.
   Just arrange your pan with small oil under the sun for 5 minutes pere and then pour your eggs. It literally bites at your skin. And sun is up so early, as early as 8, 9am.
   On this one, Abuja 0 – Lagos 1

   

   I low key miss sleeping in transit because I know BRT cannot lost me 🙂 Now, I have to stay awake even especially when I cab ☹

5. Transportation
   A car would make your life simpler in Abuja. Unlike Lagos where a car is an actual extra burden because you and your car over time would suffer the effect of everyday traffic. In Abuja, there is no mass transit (like the BRT). I heard they have buses in the remote areas and stuff but transportation can be expensive if you don’t like stress like me. So when it’s not work and I have to commute, I just taxify or uber. That is quite expensive for me compared to Lagos when I can bike or keke or BRT. Thankfully, there isn’t so much traffic and some days, it doesn’t cost so much. There was a time, I paid #300 as Taxify money. Even though I had a 30% promo code, it was still wonderful. I think it’s in between sha.
   On this one, Abuja 0.5 – Lagos 0.5 (Yes, I’m stingy like that with my marks)

Overall, both cities are good. To be fair to Lagos, Abuja is a man-made city, it was really planned – the wide roads, the network of buildings, malls in strategic places. I mean, Abuja was literally cut out of several states to form the Federal Capital Territory. But Lagos is like life – it just happened! No planning (evident in the scattered road network and buildings in places that shouldn’t have buildings) But I love the spirit of Lagos, the air, the hustle and bustle, the energy!

I was feeling like such a babe on this day 🔥🔥🔥
This is what happens when I actually pick my outfit and not all that 4am scrambling I do in Lagos 🙈🙈🙈

I believe Lagos can be an even more beautiful city if traffic is taken care off. I would suggest (Yes, suggest. Who knows Sanwo-Olu may just stumble upon my blog post 🤩🤩🤩)… So, I would suggest that waterways be explored by the government (making it safer and more affordable), also the roads should be expanded, just like they did in Ikorodu. Five years ago, it wasn’t funny commuting in Ikorodu, especially from Mile 12 to Ikorodu round about but the wider roads have helped even though there’s still traffic.

Can you tell my bias towards Lagos already?🤭
Loool. Mind me not…. It’s time for me to hear from you. Please share in the comment boxed, which city have you experienced? which do you prefer?
Please share this post also (using the social media buttons underneath), who knows? Maybe Sanwo-Olu would get to read this anywaysss 🤭🤭🤭
A girl is allowed to dream big yeah? :-)Thank you for the read and in anticipation for your comments. xoxo 🙂