Pausing

image: iconfinder.com

Yesterday, I took a pause.

I had many tasks pending, emails to reply and work plans to make. Yet, I decided to do something completely non-work related. To stand back from it all and free my mind.

I went to check out the Lekki Free Zone, and examined the Ibeju-Lekki I keep receiving real estate deals about. I was also hoping I would see the Lekki Airport, the Dangote refinery, the 4th Mainland bridge and the paradise the marketers constantly talk about.

Interestingly, I wasn't disappointed. Not that I saw the paradise the marketers described but that what I saw was way more than I expected. I am already accustomed to the ways of marketers. I have seen people market training I gave them the idea of and would facilitate for them, and when they were done embellishing it I felt like registering for the training too. I guess it's the nature of marketing itself, because even the hyper technical me can sometimes get into an angelic description of Microsoft Excel and how it will save you from all your enemies + make your dreams come true.

I took a bus from Iyana-Oworo to Obalende, another bus from Obalende to Ajah. Then I took a bus from Ajah to Eleko. At Eleko, I took a bus to Free Zone (that's what the bus driver called Lekki Free Zone, I almost missed my bus stop as it didn't register in my brain). I tried getting into the Lekki Free Zone but my schemes didn't work on the security men. So I had to content myself with a walking view of the industrial area by walking from the 2nd gate back to the main gate. Then I asked about the other places -- Dangote refinery and all. I even asked if one can get to Ondo or Ogun state from following the Ibeju-Lekki road to the end and was told that it ends at the ocean, so any going further will be by boat.

I then went to Eleko beach. Paid one parasite N500 at the entrance. You should have seen the way he leeched on me. At the beach, I saw waves wasting away and no one riding them. A few locals who go waist deep while others try to keep it at ankle level. It reminded me first of Bar beach, then Cotonou beach with its white sands and Lome, the city by the beach. In Lome, all you need do to go to the beach is get on the expressway. You could throw a stone from inside your car into the sea while on the road. Then I remember Bayelsa state, their ungated beaches and the children who swim in the sea. Finally, I felt bad for us. I had asked a guy at the beach if no one comes to surf the waves and he said only the white guys come on Sunday to surf the waves. So even in our own land, we still don't know how to make the most of what we have. The foreigners have to mine the crude oil, surf our waves and own the Lekki Free Zone. Not that we should become xenophobic but that don't we ever feel ashamed that we don't try to rise above some mediocre level of use of our resources and capabilities. Anyway, I decided I was going to rise to the highest innovative level in my own chosen field.

Then I went home. And it was a long way home. Ibeju-Lekki is extremely far. It's like going to Ibadan. If you are buying land there, be sure you want to build a country house there and not your 24/7/365 house (where you'll go to work from).

Yesterday, I had a good pause. It was like a micro-vacation.