Every day I walk past the streets of Lagos, I see resilience. I see young men threading through traffic selling water, plantain chips, or even hand-painted portraits. These aren’t just random sellers these are artists, hustlers, and survivors.
On the roadside, where the sun hits hardest and the dust never fully settles, you’ll find people creating magic out of an artwork, selling car parts on the road side, selling foodstuffs and Artworks that could be showcased in galleries are sold for a few thousand naira A just enough to buy food or send a child to school.
We don’t talk enough about how hard people hustle here in Nigeria. No salary, no insurance, no holidays. Just grit. You’ll see a guy pushing a sewing machine through the street, or a girl with earrings and paintings displayed on her arm like a mobile gallery.
The truth is: survival has its own creativity.
These people are entrepreneurs in their own right. They know how to sell, adapt, and stay visible even when no one sees them. And in the middle of it all, they still smile, they still greet you, they still hope. That’s powerful.
So when next you see someone on the roadside selling stuff appreciate them because Dey deside not to sit idle and beg for food but choose the Options to sell on the road side to make a living.
Their hustle is not just survival, it’s art. And it deserves respect.