[Scene I]
I came to Abuja to work as a mason in November 2024. The person I followed from Ibadan is a native doctor. He tried to mentor me, but I had no interest in his line of work. Later, someone told me he had a gig in Lugbe and invited me. We worked for like two months. We were plastering the buildings – inside and outside. I won’t lie, I take hard drugs. As we were working, we were smoking. Eventually, the owner discontinued the work because money had dried up. So, there was no work, no steady income. After two weeks, I got a plastering gig in another estate. Shortly after, the work also stopped. And I don’t know anybody. So now I just move around looking for all kinds of work. It could be making cement blocks or weeding. When I’m passing by and I notice that the outside of a house is bushy, if I knock and nobody answers, I can just clear the bush, hoping that they might pay me later.
I have a lot of energy to work. I would have had a lot of money if not for the hard drugs I take. I have the energy to do the work of ₦15,000 to ₦25,000 in a day. Because the work of one mason is ₦10,000 in a day. It used to be daily ₦2,500. Now it is ₦9,500/₦10,000. Before you can even get that ₦10,000, your body would have become weary from work. But me, I do the work of two masons. That’s how I do it. It is not by the number of hours you work, but by how much work you’re able to get done. If you are plastering walls, for example, doing three sections of walls could be the work of one mason for one day. If you are making cement blocks, it would be the work of one mason to cast a hundred. Some people cast up to 200 or 300. If you do 300, it means you’ve done the work of three masons, so you’ll get paid ₦30,000. I’ve never done the work of one mason since I got to Abuja, unless it was a job I got by accident. But if I deliberately went out to work for someone and was contracted, no o.
I am not getting steady mason jobs. I prefer it to going around looking for odd jobs, but it is better than stealing. With the odd jobs, you can still get by. I have walked many lengths in this area searching for jobs. This shovel I have with me, I rented it. It is ₦500 per day.
It’s very common that I would do this kind of work and I wouldn’t get paid, very very common. There are some days I wouldn’t get any work to do. I went to an estate yesterday to clear overgrown bushes. It was where a dog bit my right calf. The owner promised nothing would happen, but the dog attacked me when he wasn’t around; he then took me to the hospital. The wound still itches. I go out every day looking for odd jobs. I don’t know what to expect. I could find mason jobs or cement block jobs or loading blocks/cement bags into a truck. I do everything. I don’t shy away from doing anything, as long as it is a man’s job. As soon as I’m done observing the subh (Muslim dawn) prayer, by 7 a.m., I’m out looking for work to do and how everywhere will be okay. Once I leave this place and go home to eat, I will be out again looking for money. After some time, I will rest for a while and then go out again. That is how I live my life. I don’t idle around.
I smoke Colos. I can’t lie for you. If I saw someone, maybe an Alfa, who could help my life and take the addiction away from me, I would’ve been much better than this. I know what I do and how much I am getting. But whatever money I make in a day always disappears that day. It never remains in my hand till the next day. This is the problem I’m facing, and it is causing me great sadness. As I am speaking to you, I am already feeling the urge to go and smoke. You understand? I have not eaten anything today. I only bought ₦100 worth of pure water with the money you gave me. And that thing, they sell a small portion for ₦1,000. Within five minutes, it’s gone. It’s not even up to that. I’ve not spent the rest of the money, because I plan to buy food with ₦400 and use the remaining ₦1000 to buy colos. Is that life? It doesn’t make sense now. But you know it’s become an addiction.
I can’t lie for you. When I was in Ibadan, I also put body and pressed laptops. You understand. And I’ve seen good money; I’m not just bragging. I was with my friends in the polytechnic in Offa. We were putting body together. But my momsy didn’t like that I was doing illegal things. She had become more religious and would always be crying. That was why I left that lifestyle. I had collected 500 USD before, even 800 USD. I had seen good money.
I didn’t gain admission, but I was always attending classes with my friends. Everyone thought I was a student, too. I lived in the hostel. I wasn’t taking notes, though. It’s not like my friends were serious, too, since they had funds. I started smoking colos with them. The drug is crazy; it’s just better not to taste it. The craziest drugs are colos and ice. If I were addicted to ice, you would have heard that they arrested me in this estate. Because it causes people to steal. You become desperate. As I rented this shovel, I wouldn’t return it. I would just sell it. That’s how it affects you. Your eyes become fierce and bright. You would think you had become invincible and nothing could happen to you. When you’re high, you would look at a gated house and think you could go in, steal, and come out easily. You would have worked out a flawless exit strategy in your head. But then you would get caught. Everybody has what they are eating that is destroying them. If you take colos, you will just be sleepy, happy, and hungry.
The odd jobs I do, the highest I’ve seen is ₦6,000. I only do this so as not to be idle, because the money is not enough. Abuja is great for masons; if you have a busy engineer you can attach yourself to. Before long, you will start accumulating wealth. In Ibadan, you will just be sitting down and doing nothing. You can’t find such opportunities. Don’t whine yourself. You will just end up stealing. Ehn now, especially if you don’t have someone giving you gigs. Here, just enter the estates, and you will find work to do. I would love to remain here.
Where I’m sleeping is not a place that is comfortable. The cold is unbearable at night. It is those Hausa shanties constructed with polythene and wood. You’ll enter like you’re entering a chicken’s cage. The owner is just helping me. We sleep there together, and he doesn’t charge me. In fact, if I don’t have any money, I eat in his shop because he’s a Maishayi. I owe him ₦2,000 now, even.
[Scene II]
The quantity of drugs I buy is based on how I work. I have not smoked anything today because I don’t have any money with me. But as soon as I get some money, I will buy some to smoke and then I will eat. When I’m done eating, I will start having the urge to get more to smoke. That’s how it works. I usually spend up to ₦4,000 or ₦5,000 on it in a day. And sometimes, when I get a windfall … like yesterday when you gave me some money, I’m not going to lie, when I got home, I spent more than ₦5,000 on drugs. What I spent on food was not more than ₦2,000.
I have been picked up by NDLEA before. They locked us up in Eleyele, Ibadan. I spent up to three months in detention and I didn’t smoke anything. The day I was released, I bought some on my way home and smoked. Ah! I nearly ran mad. Because of that, I stopped smoking for over a year. It was the day I got to Abuja that I tasted it again when my friend was smoking. I didn’t react badly to it. And that was how I became hooked again. When I was at the NDLEA office, they gave us water that was in a tank outside. I think they had laced it with something. I don’t know what was inside, but after you drink it, it would be like you just smoked colos. Your body will be okay.
If I don’t have any money, I won’t have any problem. I will be on my own. But once I get some money, rest assured that I will buy it. On my own, I went to a celestial church up there, seeking a solution. But I realised they were looking for someone with money, not someone who would just be narrating stories like me. I saw Yahoo boys there. I explained to the cleric and he said he would give me a special container of water, but he was constantly bringing up the issue of money, which I didn’t have. He told me I would fast, and the money he asked for was not up to ₦40,000. But the money I was making was not piling up, and I could not afford it. If I were saving, how much is ₦40,000?
As narrated by: QUADRI (ABUJA, NIGERIA).
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