The Guardians [completed] Season 1

Season 5 years ago

The Guardians [completed] Season 1

☆☆

It was a hot morning in Ketu;
the type of morning which
makes everyone wish it would
rain or better still that a
massive cloud would cover
the sky and block out the sun
completely but there was no
respite for everyone. The
traders at the ever busy
Kosofe market were already
about business and the fact
that it is a Thursday made
them more vigorous in their
attempt to get the attention of
their customers. It was just a
couple of minutes past 10 in
the morning and the market
was beginning to fill out. The
customers were already
coming in and the traders
were in a mad rush to display
their wares. It is always like
this during opening hours
and this Thursday morning in
April is not any different.

The market opened late today
due to a directive from the
Lagos state government that
says that all markets must
clean their environments
before 10am every Thursday
or risk closure. A lot of
markets have been shut down
due to this directive and top
on the list include the
Automobile market at Ladipo
and the popular fruit market
at Mile 12 so the traders battle
every Thursday to keep their
environment clean before the
Lagos state waste
management authority
(LAWMA) inspection agents
show up at their door. The
cleaning process that morning
went the way it should have
gone with each of the traders
showing up as early as 6am to
clean his/her immediate
surrounding and then
gathering the flit in a dump
made available by the
government.

The earliest customers were
pouring in from buses
bringing them in from one
side of the Ikorodu road while
the rest coming from the
other side of the road came
through the pedestrian
bridge. The commercial buses
on the side of the market
were already set up for
business as the time before
trading commenced had been
dull but now, the day is just
beginning. The few who had
managedto display their
wares were already shouting
on top of their voice in a form
of oral advertisement; calling
on customers to come buy
what they had. Some were
basic and some just so
interesting that even if you
were not interested in buying
what they had, you would be
pulled to look at the person
advertising.

The noise from the sellers
combines with the noise from
the old rickety buses most of
whose engine did not
completely burn the Premium
Motor Spirit (PMS) they used as
fuel created a feeling of chaos
from all around. The fact that
the conductors of the buses
were also screaming and
calling out their routes did not
help the noise situation one
bit. In the course of the night,
it rained making the floor
muddy and that was even an
added disadvantage to
everyone but still as though
the cosmic conspiracy against
everyone was not enough, the
sun was beating down on
every one.

The market was along the
ever busy ikorodu road
expressway which ran from
Yaba to Ikorodu making it one
of the longest state operated
roads in the country and
keeping the sanity there
traffic wise is the dreaded
Lagos State Traffic
management Authority
(LASTMA). Their men are
always on ground here to
make sure the traffic keeps
moving asthe road is one of
the most important ones not
just on mainland Lagos but in
the whole state.

Some meters away from the
market stands a branch of
Cadios bank, one of the most
profitable and financially
stable bank in the country.

The bank had opened the
branch forbusiness besides
the market more that 5 years
ago just after the re-
capitalization business by the
then Central bank governor
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. The
bank is big and occupies a
space that is the envy of other
banks. Even the banks in the
area envied it due to its
distance from the market. The
queues at the ATM gallery is
always filled and even the
banking hall is always filled
with customers either
depositing or withdrawing
money so they acquired more
ATM machines. It was a great
idea because it reduced the
number of customers coming
into the banking hall to
withdraw but it did not help
those who wanted to deposit
money into thebank. These
consist mainly of traders who
prefer putting money in the
bank’s vaults than their
houses.