Human beasts of burden...

JOY EKEKE spent one day at the popu­lar Mile 12 Market in Lagos and observed how cart pushers or Alabaru’s eke out a living from abso­lutely nothing. Her report.
 

 The popular Lagos Mile12 market in Kosofe Local Government Area located along Ikorodu end of Lagos State is a market as old as Lagos. It is the last stop for wholesale and retail shopping for foodstuff rang­ing from pepper, tomatoes, yams to onions, plantain and so on. The edge the market has over others in Lagos is the rock- bottom price advantage. The message is: if you really want the stuff cheap, head for Mile 12 market, and you would be glad you did.

The human ‘conveyor belts’ responsible for the movement of food items from trailers to the fi­nal consumers and spot-carriers are four-fold, called under the ge­neric name of ‘Alabaru’ or ‘Alabo’. They are always available in the market premises with different shapes of bowls or wheelbarrows, shadowing and competing to give the best of their services. Whatev­er you buy, they are there to cart or carry wherever you want for a small fee.

And speed is their trade­mark: whether with their bowl on their head or pushing their cart, if you are not familiar with their ways you would think they are running off with your load, but no: fast-pace walking, that is, half-walking and half-running is the culture and tradition in Mile 12 mar­ket; and if you know this pat­tern, you make haste and run after them when you employ their services!
Abdulahi Ahmed resides in Kano but comes to Lagos every three months to offload yam tu­bers from trucks at Mile 12. He told our correspondent why: “I need to get money for my farm and take care of my wives and children.
“For seven years, I’ve been working here. I make N1,500 per day, depending on the way customers come in and out of the market,” he said.

Daily Times discovered a hi­erarchy of close-knit adminis­tration which working system will amaze you.
Emmanuel Ose is the chair­man of ‘Igbo Yam Association (Offloading Section). He told our correspondent that the association is established to assist the market at large in offloading the goods.
“As an association, wheelbar­row pushers get money from offloading of goods. If they lose their wheelbarrow, the asso­ciation helps to replace it. Each one costs N15,000 and we replace it at no cost to them.”
Muhamed Sani, who hails from Sokoto State has been a cart car­rier for 30 years. He gave Daily Times some insight into the chal­lenges in his job.

“I carry mostly yam tubers and tomatoes in baskets from the wholesalers’ shop to the custom­er’s destination, and each wheel­barrow-full of yams costs N200. On a good day, I make N2, 500 after paying my association dues.
“This is not the easiest of jobs; we jostle up and down and some­times customers shout at us any­how, especially if any of their goods falls off,” he lamented.
When Daily Times got to the muddy path that leads to the tomatoes section, many of the young men and women cart push­ers or Alabarus were just too busy chasing after customers and offloading goods from the trucks to notice our correspondent. What that environment would be like during the rainy seasons is best left to the imagination.
No place for lazy people
Surely, Lagos is not a place for lazy folks; it is a city where the gutsy ones derive pleasure in dif­ferent kinds of hard jobs. But in comparison with the hard labour, the earning is pathetically little
Mrs. Rashida Ifayele, from the State of Osun has been on the job for three years. Her story is heart-moving:
‘I couldn’t remain jobless back home, so I came to Lagos and ended up carrying loads here.
My husband is out of job, and the little money I make here fends for the entire family.”

Rashida is paid N100 for four trips, sometimes N150 for five. Sometimes, she said, she goes home without any money.
“I hope to leave this place one day if I can get a better work to do.”
Mrs. Olatodun Mukaila is an­other carrier; she was selling building materials in Ibadanbe­fore, but her husband’s health condition compounded by the cost of the family’s upkeep, forced her into this work.

“I had to join this work after my husband was involved in an acci­dent, and I have been doing this for eight years.
A lot of the money I make goes to my five children and husband in Ibadan. In Lagos here, I don’t have any accommodation, so I sleep with my colleagues in a shop where we pay N500 per month per person. The single room costs us N30,000.”
Bukola Adesanya told Daily Times about the challenges she faces in the Alabaru business.

“I don’t really like this business because they harass and insult us a lot. There was a day a customer’s item fell from my hand. Not only did I pay over N5,000 for it, the woman abused me as if I was a piece of rubbish. It could take mea whole week to make that money, yet the woman had no pity for me. It was a terrible day for me.

“Sometimes customers will even push me and tell me to get out of the way for no reason at all, and this worries me because it doesn’t happen to the other people. And when they call me Alabaru, it hurts me to my soul and I will always cry my eyes out even when my friends try to con­sole me.”

But Tolani Oluwapelumi is less emotional. “When I started this job, people called me Alabaru and I would always feel pains in my heart because in Yoruba land, Alabaru is a very shameful job.

“Sometimes I even prefer to be called Alabo and I tell my custom­ers so.”
Chairman of the Yoruba sec­tion of the association, Mr. Are­mu Olusola made a case for his people: “Wheelbarrow pushers and Alabarus help to discharge large amount of goods from trail­ers and trucks on daily basis, even on Sundays.

“Without the help of the cart pushers, it will be very difficult for the customers to carry their goods, so everyone is useful here.”
That is the story of Mile 12 Mar­ket, the hub of domestic consum­ables in the City of Excellence.