Lagosians are accustomed to a certain lifestyle which is different outside Lagos.
Lagos State is indeed a megacity and one of the most fast-paced cities in Nigeria.
Here is three culture shock Lagosians outside Lagos;
1) Mini – mart/shops open late and close early
Outside Lagos, most shops don’t open until it’s 8 am, the ones that open a bit earlier are those who probably have school children as their target audience and want to sell to them before they get to school.
There are even places where most of the shops are locked on Sundays as a lot of people see that as a day of rest.
As for Lagos, lots of shops open as early as 5 am, and some food sellers even finish selling before 8 am. Sundays are not a day of rest for Lagosians.
2) No one is outside by 5 am
In Lagos, the city wakes up quite early. A lot of people have to leave their homes for their places of work or business as early as 5 am or even earlier. At this time, roads are already busy and even experiencing traffic.
But outside Lagos, it is a different scenario, as one can come out by 5 am because everywhere will seem like a graveyard. It will be difficult to get public transport before 5 am.
3) People don’t rush to enter or come down from public transport
Lagosians are very familiar with the struggle of getting into buses, people are usually seen running and dragging to enter public transport.
Most especially when it is rush hour, it’s survival of the fittest and those who are not strong or fast enough, get to work late. Coming down from buses is also another struggle as you try to come down as fast as you can.
This is not the same in a lot of other cities in Nigeria and when Lagosians leave Lagos, they are shocked when a bus driver tells them to take their time to get down from a bus or even reverse to pick them up when they flag a bus.
How many of these have you experienced?