• How concocted alcoholic drinks and Indian hemps are ravaging their lives
By Debo Popoola
Walking down the road to the bus-stop at Berger in Lagos, the air is filled with nothing good: smell of branded and unbranded spirit or liquor mixed with igbo (Indian hemp) nauseate passers-bye. At different spots in the car park are these women in trousers with their bowls of assorted alcoholic drinks in different sizes of bottles, clustered by their regular customers – the agbero boys and the drivers.
Give me one Chelsea there!
Give me Baby-O-Ku and Ogidiga!
A cup of Opa Eyin and Jedi!
The adventurous ones among them would order for the mixture of four to five different concocted drinks, after which they top it with a rap of the real thing, igbo. The igbo is rapped openly in the park and lighted and passed around.
To many of these drivers and agbero boys, a day can never start without some cups of these concocted drinks. To many, they have become a daily dosage of medicines.
“These drinks are agbo (herbal drinks) now!” Said Tajudeen as he sipped from the stainless cup half filled with the concocted hot drink. Tajudeen, like every other agbero in the car parks in Lagos, believes taking these drinks will boast their energy to work tirelessly for the day.
“This work is very demanding. You have to shout at the top of your voice to call passengers to the bus. You have to run after buses to collect your money and you have to do all these over and over again. That is why one needs these drinks to stay strong” Tajudeen said, after which he emptied the cup with at a gulp.
The side effects of these concocted alcoholic drinks and Indian hemps are never hidden in the appearances of the agbero boys: their eyes are always bloodshot and wide and capable of scaring a child to run; their voices are always guttural and scary baritone. After taking those things, they lost their part of sensibilities and that is why many of them talk to passengers in an offensive way. They get easily offended at every little disagreement are always ready to throw punches at each other.
Many are addicted to taking these drinks that not taking them in a day will destabilise their body system. The little money they earn from their agbero job is expended on buying the hot drinks and Indian hemps. Many of them have become nuisance in their homes and society. Some don’t even have a home; they pass the night at car parks, inside buses.
However, some of them have tried to stop but could not because it has become a strong addiction. This is where the government needs to come in. Rehabilitating them will surely make them better persons and the society stands to gain.