The pandemic has left many others in Orile, Lagos State, suffering and exacerbated the region’s highly polluted air and water supply hazards.
For Nurudeen Olugbade, taking pictures of life in Orile-Iganmu, Lagos State, the pandemic is a way of claiming that the disruption it has caused in the ignored city is significant.
“You can’t see us. Very little attention is paid to us, but the struggle here is real,” says Olugbade, 28, who has documented the crisis on his phone.
In recent months, strict measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 have replaced the character of the city. Usually, Orile, as it is called, is a colorful city, however, footsteps have been discovered in the streets covered with makeshift department stores built with altered materials. housing units. Many businesses that were allowed the industry as the lockdown slowly eases are open for fewer hours, for fewer customers.
Informal jobs like cleaning and delivery, which cater to wealthier parts of Ikeja City, have slowed. For the past two months, a milk powder factory in Orile that employs many other people was closed.
An alarming accumulation of armed robberies, cult killings and gang wars has destabilized netpaintings members suffering from the pandemic, roaming the region in search of paintings during the day and too scared to sleep at night.
“Everyone is on guard,” says Olugbade. In recent weeks, a situation has been developing in the region. A million children: This is a notorious gang that terrorizes the place and loots. They haven’t come yet, but people are scared.
Olugbade works for a small company that delivers grilled birds from Orile, most commonly to middle-class consumers on the island of Lagos. they the coronavirus. They are afraid of becoming inflamed, but we are afraid of wasting our jobs.
Taking and editing shots absorbs the hours between infrequent deliveries, he says. “I just walk around capturing things. I’ve been taking shots seriously for about seven years, most commonly on my phone or when I borrowed a camera. For Olugbade, taking pictures during a pandemic is rarely too difficult. It wears a mask and helps you keep your distance. A phone is less provocative than a camera, he says. But not everyone he needs to photograph allows him to do that. “finds that taking photos is intrusive and eventually declines, which is understandable; Not everyone needs to be documented,” he says.
Scattered among the trampled plastics of his favela are the clear bags used for drinking water, commonly known as “pure water. “He used laces to turn some into masks. For the series of photos, one afternoon, the young people of their neighbors wear the plastic mask that pulls from their mouths when they breathe. Children stand against a wall, in front of their smartphones and brandishing a paper covered with statements on two lines: “No mask”, “no disinfectant”, “no food”.
“They gave me the concept with a friend. These are their young people in the photos,” he says, adding that his goal is to highlight the inequalities exacerbated by lockdown measures.
“There’s a rule that says you have to wear face masks, but other people feel like they’re not available here,” he says. “I wanted to communicate about it because the government has let other people down. make no provision. “
A face mask costs one hundred naira ($0. 26), which many other people can’t during lockdown. Disinfectants, gloves and soap have become more expensive as demand increases.
Residents who can stay mostly at home, following government measures to inhibit the spread of the virus. For others, however, the measures are unfeasible and the protections too costly, fueling apathy in the face of the epidemic.
Constant exposure to hazardous environmental situations also exacerbates the lack of urgency for many residents. “There are so many chemicals around, you inhale so much into the environment. Pollution is bad,” he says. The well from which we get the water is polluted, it is surrounded by slums. So when you get the water, you just put lime on it and use it. “I think a lot of other people have a hard time seeing this virus as more serious than what they enjoy every day. “
Some other people see the mask less as a precaution against the virus and more as a permission to leave the domain without being stopped by the police. Someone close to them sells them, but other people see other masks, take care of them and then buy to put them on,” he laughs. “Really, I feel like it’s just a passport. “
Half of the 4,900 COVID-19 infections shown in Nigeria are in Lagos. The rate of new cases nationwide is accelerating, doubling in the past 10 days. But his sense is that in the minds of many local people, the virus itself is less of a threat than its effects on life.
“People are afraid of the coronavirus, what they are afraid of is hunger. “
When the lockdown measures were implemented, the Lagos state government announced that food parcels would be distributed to poorer areas. But this aid has been patchy and has fueled resentment.
“Last week, some other people went from one space to another to tell other people because the local government was looking to donate supplies. Later, there were rumors that they gave food to some other people and divided it among themselves. We haven’t noticed any of those who promised. ” The pandemic has been exhausting and has made many other people feel more withdrawn, Olugbade says. “It makes it harder to bond with other people, but still, there are a lot of stories to tell here. “