Destination-Ofin Town

 DESTINATION –OFIN TOWN

 A View of The Lagos Lagoon from the other side

     The waves slapped the wooden boats with reckless abandon.  A lonely fisherman sang while he casts his net into the lagoon. I watched. The horizon seemed hazy with the Harmattan. As the sun slowly glided to the east, my friend and I strolled down the dusty street of this idyllic town.

   Ofin town is situated close to Igbogbo, Ikorodu, and Lagos and the lovely town is a melting point of different tribes and culture (Yoruba, Egun, Ilaje and Takpa).

    Ofin waterfront lapped the edge of the Lagos Lagoon. From a vantage point, we could see the buildings that dotted the fringes of the Lekki peninsula and Lagos Island.  My friend pointed to a skyscraper far in the skyline. I nodded, and we moved forward hoping to see more.  The lonely fisherman coasted in the lagoon while he sang. His sonorous voice echoed along the shore and we were obliged to listen. He sang in a language we didn’t understand but there was something empathetic about his song. We waved at him but he seemed not to noticed. We moved on.

      I paused here and there to take pictures of random stuffs while the locals cast us suspicious gaze. A bold native walked up to us. He was dressed in a gangster manner with a bandana tied in an obscure angle over his head. He asked if we were new in town, we said yes and moved on.

   Finally, we got to another opening, a beach cluttered with rubbish dumped from the island. Here, bottles gathered as if they were in competition. My friend led me to another clearing. Here, the sand dredgers work tirelessly. Freshly dredged sands laid around the beach, soon a sand truck came rumbling around. We waved at the driver and moved to the next clearing. A gang of men tirelessly pushed a large boat. We watched eagerly. Some children playing in the water distracted us.  We joined them. They showed us the little fishes they caught from the shallow water. We learnt a new technique of catching fishes by placing bottles in water from them. I picked up weather-beaten shells around the beach as we strolled down the beach.

    While we were taking pictures the children caught up with us and asked us to take off our slippers. “The masquerades are coming”. They cried out. I pulled out my phone to snap but they shrieked in fear. Taking pictures is forbidden! We watched the masquerades and the dance troupe in their resplendent costume display acrobatics from afar. Soon the sound of their music fades. I nudged my friend to follow them.

  Strolling through the town, I noticed that the major occupations of the natives were sand dredging, fishing and commercial boating. The cosy town has tourism potential and it is the proposed site for the fourth main land bridge.

   A tall lanky guy walked up to us. We asked him for direction and he volunteered to be our guide. We walked to different section of the water front with him. We met a native, Mr. Etiam Keyes who told us his story amidst the soft cries of demand of money by his wife. He ignored her. Etiam Keyes an Egun man said he and eleven other persons migrated from Makoko, Oreta, Sogundo before they finally settled down in Ofin. He said they met two other Egun men there alongside the Ijebus, Ilajes and Takpas.

 After his narration, he offered us a boat ride which I declined out of fear (there was no life jacket). My friend gladly accepted. His son skillfully paddled the canoe while the waves beat it. Some splashes of water poured in to the canoe.

 Some locals invited me to eat their local delicacy with them.  I sat with them for a while. And soon a hawk swooped down to seize a fish from the water. I watched and try to capture the moment with my camera but it was too fast. Soon, the canoe ride was over and we had to walked back. I sighed. Our tired guide led us to the bus-stop and waved us goodbye....

Here are the pictures from the town