Do you remember a story, one early morning in July 2013, of a bird that turned into a woman in a part of Lagos? According to the story, three birds were flying up in the sky when, all of a sudden, one fell and landed in water and immediately changed into a woman. Well, that purported incident happened in a street in Okokomaiko named Afromedia.
Okokomaiko, or Okoko for short, is one of those areas of Lagos that their names precede them. You may never have been there, but it’s easy to hear the name of the place from far-flung parts of Lagos. In the good old days of molue in Lagos, those long, often rickety buses would do a round trip of the city from Okokomaiko to as far as Oyingbo or CMS and back, and along the way you would hear names of bus-stops like Alaba Rago, LASU Gate, Iyana-Iba, Volks, Barracks, Abule-Oshun, Under Bridge, Ilepo, all the way down to Maza Maza, Mile 2, Suru Alaba, Coker, Alafia, Orile, Costain, and so on. In these days that Coaster, LT and danfo buses have replaced molue, some of them have taken over those long-distance routes.
The origin of the name of this popular locality in Lagos is not known. That does not, however, diminish the fact that Okoko is iconic in its own right, being located along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, Nigeria’s international gateway to the West African coast. Okoko boasts of the presence of a good number of landmarks around it, including the main (Ojo) campus of the Lagos State University (LASU), the headquarters of the Ojo Local Government Council, the Alaba International Market (the largest electronics market in West Africa), as well as the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria at Ijanikin.
Nollywood veteran actor, Chiwetalu Agu, who is renowned for his funny exclamations in all his movie appearances, once popularised the name of Okokomaiko when he used it as an exclamation in one of the movies he featured in. “Okoko enoo Ajamgbadi!” Chiwetalu Agu exclaimed. This expression, which translates as Okoko has swallowed Ajamgbadi, another prominent locality in the Ojo area, may simply be a pointer to the continuously rising profile of Okokomaiko.
At Okokomaiko, you are sure to find street names like Tajudeen, Rasheed Babatunde, Adeshina, Ago Hausa, Jengbadun, Olowotabutabu, Alhaja Memunat, Bello, Kemberi, Isijola, Oni Ajisafe, Otubu Estate, Seriki, and so on, while PPL and Cassidy are two popular bus-stops.
Okoko has produced a number of stars in the entertainment industry, including Brymo (real name, Olawale Ashimi), songwriter/vocalist who has been active since the mid-2000s; Oba Lurge (real name, Olufemi George), a fast-rising hip hop artiste whose first international collaboration (featuring Jamaican dancehall artiste, Swazz, and Afrobeats singer, Ghash) titled “Red Rose” was announced due for release around July 2021; and Bella (real name, Akinbiyi Abiola), who sees himself as an ambassador for his Okokomaiko community.
Okokomaiko is also where ace comedian Akpororo (real name, Jephthah Bowoto) has built a home. In an interview, Akpororo said he chose to live in Okokomaiko because he believes that his being in the area gives hope to people. Thus, he organises a monthly programme tagged ‘Street Praise’ where the people come together to praise and thank God.
“We dance and encourage each other. I just love the place. I feel there is something about that area that makes people work hard,” Akpororo said.
The bad state of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway over the years may have kept Okokomaiko in the backwaters, just like many other localities along the corridor. However, the entire stretch is getting a breath of fresh air with the ongoing reconstruction of this all-important corridor that links Nigeria to its West African neighbours like Benin, Togo and Ghana.
