Independence as a Young Nigerian (Part 1)

You’ve been gainfully employed for the last couple of months and now you feel a little bit caged as you still live with your parents -it might be free but you’re paying for it with your soul (see finish) and patience. Now you look forward to getting your own space.

That job on the Island has got you smiling at your savings and now you feel it’s time to spread your wings and fly. You begin to browse apartment listings on property sites. In your mind, a self-contain would be enough and you already have a vision of what you want it to look like (thank you Pinterest!) and all that remains is to get the apartment.

You begin to call some house agents to make enquiries about some apartments you bookmarked and a couple of them let you know the apartment has been let out. Dejected, you continue to search as you intend not to lower your standards. The apartment must be close enough to the Island and must have a good road network so naturally, the Yaba-Ebutte-Metta axis is your preferred choice.

The search goes on for weeks until you finally settle for a self-con somewhere in Akoka (inner tears) and now it’s time to go inspect the place. You book the weekend for your inspection with the agent and you silently pray the place is good enough.

The weekend is here and you meet with the agent at a popular landmark. No one told you about the inspection fee you have to pay, so you grumble a little before coughing up the money. Now the journey begins. You follow the agent, walking behind as he weaves through fences, compounds and occasionally, someone’s front yard.

Finally, he stops at an old building and greets an old man as he steps in. He introduces you as one of his prospective clients looking for an apartment. At this point, you surmise that he’s the landlord. He looks at you from head to toe and begins to ask questions without giving you a chance to answer:

“How old are you?”

“Are you sure you can afford this place?”

“Who are your parents and where are they from?”

“Do you have a job?”

He ends the barrage of questions with a warning;

“You better not be troublesome”

As you open your mouth to answer, the agent butts in and guarantees the landlord that he knows you personally and you are not a troublesome person (you only just met a few minutes ago). The landlord reaches into his pockets and pulls out a bunch of keys and hands it to the agent.

The agent thanks him and beckons to you to come along. He leads you up a flight of stairs and through a dimly lit corridor. He stops at a door and proceeds to open it up for you to go in and inspect.

As you walk around inspecting the room, the agent begins to brag about how the former tenant moved into his own house after leaving and how people always meet with good fortune as tenants in the building. You just nod to show interest. The room is a lot smaller than you imagined but it would do. The bathroom would need a lot of disinfectant and the whole apartment would need a fresh coat of paint. You look out the balcony and you see the Third Mainland Bridge at a distance and different coloured roofs.

400k ($995) was not a bad valuation, you conclude. You turn to the agent and confirm your interest. He smiles and tells you to hurry up and pay as soon as possible as you are not the only client he has brought to the apartment. He tears a piece of paper and scribbles down an account number and a figure you don’t quite understand; 510k ($1270).

You ask why and he laughs. He then tells you the price stated on the listing is just rent and you still have to pay agency fees, legal fees and service charge for a year. You look on with surprise. No one told you about this and rightly so as you didn’t bother to let anyone in on your plans to get a personal space.

You begin to do some mental maths. This is beyond your budget and could leave a dent on your savings. You give it a little thought and a text from your mum pulls you out of your thoughts; “Be back in time to peel the beans, your father wants to eat moi-moi tonight.” That was the final straw. You tell the agent you’d make the payment as soon as the weekend runs out.

To be continued…