Welcome to the Streets: A Night in Lagos

The night is a world of its own, and the street comes alive bearing fangs like a bloodthirsty vampire, it's usually a death match out there, wow... The dawn of a new day brings relief you might not fully appreciate until you've experienced the night Growing up in the south-south region of Naija wasn't a blissful experience cause I had lived through the ghetto which I refer to as a jungle, been in the city, and went to a university(dang! this was more like a warzone). I have a saying growing up in a jungle you had to survive, it sharpens your instincts and emotions, and fear becomes fuel for your fight-or-flight mood.Yeah, I am not Rambo so I have been robbed once, and also oppressed but that didn't go as smoothly as they thought it would, one or two attempts on my life were made with a machete and a screwdriver, I laughed but my heart stopped for a moment before I reacted, here's several years from then, here I am in the western region.<img src="/media/inline_insight_image/free-photo-of-man-walking-on-a-street-at-night.jpeg" style="background-color: transparent;" alt="">Here I was on the road by 11:00 pm in an unknown neighborhood walking down a street with high-fenced walls to my left and right, a distinction also parted both lanes for cars moving to and fro, I constantly looked behind me even while my gaze was set ahead of me, kept trying to navigate my way out obviously I was lost. Not too long I saw a man walking ahead of me and another who didn't seem like much of a threat trying to rap his weed, none challenge I walked past, It didn't take long I noticed he wasn't smoking and started walking behind me, ah.... looking forward the lights from the cars revealed the man walking steadily in front had a machete stuck in between his hand and shirt, Ok... shit is getting real, at the other side of the partitioned road I could see another walking like he was taking a stroll but boy I instinctively knew what was about to go down, my mind already calculating how this was going to play out, I just needed an opening to fly. Still walking down like nothing was happening, a mentally derranged looking man walked towards my direction like he was God sent, at proximity the guy with the machettee ramped him to the wall, and right there was my opening out of the triangle they had made, I ran so fast that I could see the cars passing by me move slower than usual, I saw one of my pursuers throwing a stone at me, but mehn...... that's never going to slow me down, I ran to an aboki who was a suyer vendor about closing his store, these men were still on my tail and now they were four, both myself and the aboki took to the wind, I ran this time to a filling station still active and instead of looking very frightened there I was asking about my location while trying to ascertain if this place was safe, well thank God it was, right and then I was no longer attending the night vigil intended to attend, my head had played alot of senerios of what would have gone down this night and none was pleasant.Booked my ride home, I got to my street and I felt so happy to be back in these streets I was so familiar with, 2 minutes in a group of boys started running. I didn't have it so I waited to see what was wrong, I was disappointed as it was policemen doing their usual patrols, got back home safe and vowed never to go out to a place I don't know at night without a fully booked ride with extra money to come back in case I wasn't feeling comfortable.What if I wasn't a guy or someone less intuitive?What story would I be writing?I seem to still be overly agitated though.Well, I lived to tell the story...

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