I Visited Nigeria’s Biggest Slum… This Is What I Saw 🇳🇬

本站添加: 2026-05-04

[00:00:00]All this thing is happening to us because we are poor.

[00:00:04]We are poor. We don't have money and we're not in the government. We don't have anybody there representing us.

[00:00:09]>> It was once one of Africa's largest floating settlements. But thousands who lived in the historic Makoko waterfront community in Nigeria's Lagos are now homeless.

[00:00:20]>> There's no place for us to sleep. We have many children. We were just running. We didn't pick up a thing as our properties were damaged.

[00:00:29]People call this one of the most dangerous places in Lagos, >> but nobody really tells you what it's actually like living here.

[00:00:42]This is Makoko, a community built on water, home to thousands of people. And today I wanted to see it for myself. Not from the internet, but from the people who actually live here.

[00:01:12]Guys, welcome back to another video here in Nigeria. Um, today's video is very interesting, very intense. So, this is Makoko. As you can see behind me, we finally made it to this area of the uh city. Um, which is when people talk about Legos, they don't really usually talk about this side. This is Makoko, a community built on water, full of life, struggle, resilience.

[00:01:42]And today I'm with a couple of friends and we're here to understand what's really going on here in Makoko. Uh you know what it's like to live here here.

[00:01:52]Um what it's like to uh I don't know they I wonder if they have schools or hospitals or things like that cuz we went to Ganvier in Benin and they had it was a fully functioning community where they had hospitals, they had businesses.

[00:02:07]Yuck. A splash of water went into me this place and I just ate. I made a mistake. I should have I should have kept my food and um you know eaten it after um this place. But it is what it is. I'll try to manage. But the smell is very strong. Um yeah, as you can see, actually, we have we're not really here on plan. Like we don't we have we want to meet the uh we want to meet the uh chief's son that's been taking people around. Uh hopefully he will let us. And uh yeah, we're on our way right now. As you can see, this water is very very dirty. And uh people are, you know, you'll see people swimming. You'll see people um drinking from it.

[00:02:54]So it'll be very interesting.

[00:02:57]>> Ah relaxer.

[00:03:08]So yeah, once we go inside, I'll let you guys know and uh you can see everything.

[00:03:14]>> Makoko sits right on the edge of Legos.

[00:03:18]And from far away, you don't really understand it, but the closer you get, the more you start to see how life here actually works. Everything happens on water. transportation, business, daily life. Boats aren't just for movements here. They're a way of life. I've always seen it on TV or on YouTube or on, you know, people posting about this place, but I've never thought Be careful. Yeah. I've never thought I've never thought that we would actually come here. And every time this water touches me, I feel a bit disgusting. But um yeah.

[00:04:01]We bumping into each other like crazy.

[00:04:06]>> In order to understand Makoko better, I spoke to someone who's lived here his entire life. Desmond, the son of a local chief.

[00:04:18]So, we finally uh met the famous guy.

[00:04:21]Uh, everybody that sees YouTube sees Desmond. Desmond, nice to meet you.

[00:04:25]>> Yeah, nice to meet you. My name is Desmond and I'm son of the chief. My dad is the community leader in Makoko waterfront here and I'm born and brought up here in Makoko and I've lived all my life in this place and >> your whole life here.

[00:04:38]>> Yeah. Yes. In this place.

[00:04:39]>> Okay. So what does to you what does Makoko mean to you?

[00:04:43]>> Yeah. Makoko um Makoko is a waterfront community and first Makoko people are people who migrate from Badagri. You know they migrate from Badri over 100 years ago by water and because of their occupation which is fishing. So um 90% of people in this place are fishermen.

[00:05:01]So they came here over 100 years ago because they found a lot of fish in this place and they had to build a housey and settle down themselves here. So that's how they came to this place. And >> for years there's been tension between the people here and the government.

[00:05:15]>> We also see that some part of it looks demolished. Uh and we wanted to know uh cuz we've been hearing it on the news.

[00:05:22]uh what's your take on that and has there been uh any progress >> last year 22nd December so they came again and without alternative without compensations without anything so they came and they start demolition so first what they told us is they wanted to you know just demolish 30 m away from the power line and we don't we actually didn't know that was just to you know have us leave go away from the community so but they keep going going going and they've demolished about like 80% of the community. And so, >> but beyond all of that, this is where people live. Families, children, entire lives built here.

[00:06:13]Hearing it from him makes it different because this isn't just something you read about. It's something people here are living through.

[00:06:23]And yet life doesn't stop.

[00:06:27]Even with everything going on, people here keep moving forward.

[00:06:33]Because for them, this isn't just a place under pressure. It is still home.

[00:06:42]While we were talking, I couldn't help but think about a place I recently visited in Benin. Gamvier. It is also a community built on water. But when I was there, something felt different. It felt more organized, more structured, like there was some kind of a system in place. You could see schools, access to basic things. And it made me wonder how much of that came from government support. So I asked Desmond how he sees it. What's the difference between a place like Gambier and Makokco? I've >> been to like Gambier and I've seen how the government is putting a lot of money into that place to make it attractive for people to visit for the same people in this in that community. So they think the same thing can happen in this place.

[00:07:31]So people people pay a lot of money to get visa to come to Nigeria because they want you want to visit Makoko alone. So and if the government could make this place so nice, >> more people could come because I've seen a lot people will book tour. Okay, Sunday I'm coming in 3 months time. I'm coming in 2 months time and they will come. So if the government can make this place attractive for people to visit, that's be fine with us. And if they are not ready to do this, so we know they are government and we cannot fight them.

[00:08:01]We don't have the power to do this. But if they feel like this is a place they want to use it for their self-interest.

[00:08:06]So at least it's not just sending people away and telling them go without providing anywhere for them. Let them get a place for us to move to. Okay.

[00:08:12]These people we evacuate from Makoko.

[00:08:15]This is where we take them to and let people know that Makoko people this is where they are now. Trying. Yes. Makoko is located in a place like you know this is just third melon bridge. But me to me the way I think I think if the government they could like copy other countries.

[00:08:31]I've seen Italy, Venice, I've seen Venice. I I've seen how it looks like.

[00:08:36]I've seen Gambia. The Gambia, the government in Gambia does not say didn't actually said okay because okay, he wants to make it nice. The people in Gambia, I move them away. I want to bring other people there. They could like make it so nice for the same people living in that place to live in. It's not that sending us away because we are poor. You want to bring the rich people there. It's not being done. It's not good. It's not good. They could make it this. If you say if you say you're governor of a state and you say a place in your state is not good looking. I think it's a right time for you is an is is is the best time for you to do something about it. You've not done anything. The government has not even come to this place or say okay people let's sanize this place. They've never done that. They've never come to us.

[00:09:22]Okay. anytime anybody if anybody wants to rebuild this house build it this way before we reject it we have actually not rejected anything from them so but I feel they are actually doing this because they want to do it so they wanted to send us away from this place first we've seen the video of them I don't want to mention name we've seen a video of them saying okay they want to the people are getting close to the dome bridge that they don't want them to get close to doan because they come a hazard since then anytime but the same people are now s feeling close to the third mill bridge now advertising it for people to invest in it so um the truth is me I don't like using the language poor but I use less privilege I believe all this thing is happening to us because we are poor we are poor we don't have money and we're not in a government we don't have anybody there representing us I believe this is why all these things is happening to Hearing him say that it honestly hurt because I've seen places like Gambvier and you can tell the difference. It's not perfect but there's a structure, there is a support from the government and here it just feels like people are being left to figure it out on their own.

[00:10:48]>> What do you guys use this for? To build it. Oh, >> yo, this government does not care about these people. Look at this.

[00:11:12]Look at this. This is crazy.

[00:11:16]the power lines that at one point the government was claiming that they're trying to dedicate people like 30 m away from this power lines. But look at the distance.

[00:11:31]>> We kept moving and this is where you really see it. What used to be homes now just sticks in water. No houses, nothing left. It's hard to look at. All of this.

[00:11:50]>> Wait. So >> what is he saying?

[00:11:54]>> He said this place you are currently your house is here.

[00:11:58]>> Right here.

[00:11:58]>> Yeah. Right here.

[00:12:01]>> Oh, right here.

[00:12:05]>> Wow.

[00:12:06]>> Yes.

[00:12:07]>> So Oh, that's why there's these stick things coming out.

[00:12:10]>> Yeah.

[00:12:11]>> So all of these were houses. Oh man, they're really coming.

[00:12:15]>> That area you see used to have houses when they've been demon. So it looks like you can see the sticks sticking out from the ground.

[00:12:21]>> Those were the sticks that were holding the houses, the foundation.

[00:12:27]>> All these.

[00:12:29]>> Okay. Because it was blocking the power line.

[00:12:32]>> According to them, >> according to the government or according to Yeah, I mean they are very close. If these were the houses, definitely >> this is the remains of Marco, the largest slum over.

[00:12:56]The sad thing um about this place that he was saying is that they're actually willing to negotiate, but the government is just like, "We want you guys out of here. We have no solution." So, the fact that I don't know how accurate Desmond is uh conversation with us was true. Uh because I'm kind of skeptical cuz he said, "Oh, we're happy here." Uh to be fair, even if he was born here, you would want to you would want a better opportunity for your people. And you know, it would have been nice to hear him say, you know what, we want to like people are not happy. They wish they could have better uh area or better cleaning uh uh you know um water, better things like that. But when he said we are happy here, I mean, I don't know.

[00:13:48]What do you guys think in the comments?

[00:13:49]Please let me know. But for me, I don't think I would say I'm happy.

[00:13:55]But yeah, so here's the you see here's the area here's the here's the part the demolished areas.

[00:14:07]You can see you can see that you can see it.

[00:14:15]It's very very disheartening.

[00:14:23]I'm not going to like pretend everything is perfect. There are challenges here.

[00:14:28]Access to clean water, proper housing, education.

[00:14:33]These are real issues that people are facing over here um every single day.

[00:14:38]But what stands out to me, >> I don't know what she's saying, but uh what stands out to me is how people are still living, still working, still smiling, and just doing their own thing.

[00:14:54]So um what I was saying is that being here is actually humbling uh because it makes you realize um people can build a life anywhere.

[00:15:11]People can build a life anywhere and sometimes we only um hey we only see one side of places. So you know >> you okay?

[00:15:24]>> Are you okay?

[00:15:30]>> Delicious water.

[00:15:31]>> Very delicious.

[00:15:34]>> And they had sick.

[00:15:48]Chief, are there Muslim people here?

[00:15:50]>> Yes.

[00:15:53]>> Oh, okay. That's good.

[00:15:55]>> Traveling with Lennox. You've seen it in my videos, but I'm also with a brother.

[00:15:58]What's your name?

[00:15:59]>> Aam.

[00:16:00]>> Aam.

[00:16:00]>> Aami on YouTube.

[00:16:02]>> Tell us a little bit about your experience today.

[00:16:05]>> Uh, my experience has been one of disappointments because I've been here before and um the last time I was here, this place was bubbly. So many houses on water.

[00:16:14]>> Okay. you know but currently a lot of the houses have been demolished by government about half of them actually you know and a lot of people have been displaced >> so the spirit is not the same >> no it's not the same it's not the same forunate >> quite unfortunate I just hope the government will hed people living in this community >> and give them a solution an alternative either relocate them to a place that is befitting or do something about this place and um yeah >> help them clean them at least Clean it.

[00:16:45]Clean it up.

[00:16:46]>> As you can see, the water is quite um dirty. Yes.

[00:16:50]>> So, >> is this is this a clean water?

[00:16:54]>> Yes.

[00:16:54]>> That they drink here?

[00:16:57]>> Is it?

[00:16:58]>> Yes.

[00:17:01]>> Homie. Ah. Okay.

[00:17:04]>> What is this area? I hear music. Is there like restaurant or something?

[00:17:17]Come here.

[00:17:19]>> We got some uh >> lively people.

[00:17:29]>> How are you?

[00:17:31]You >> good?

[00:17:37]>> I don't think they understand any English.

[00:17:38]>> Uh, not really.

[00:17:42]See ladies cooking.

[00:17:45]>> Mhm.

[00:17:56]>> Hey, look at this. We've reached traffic.

[00:18:08]This is the only traffic jam you will get here.

[00:18:22]People are upset.

[00:18:29]High five. High five. High five.

[00:18:36]>> Hey, you. High five. Like this.

[00:18:39]>> Like this.

[00:18:59]I I'm actually very surprised the way they're like managing without flipping.

[00:19:04]If it was me, I would definitely flip.

[00:19:08]But you know what? If I fall in this water, just leave me there.

[00:19:14]>> You're a Muslim.

[00:19:21]You are Christian. Ah, okay.

[00:19:25]>> We're going to get some cold drinks and uh stuff like that.

[00:19:34]>> What's the name of this place?

[00:19:38]No. No.

[00:19:46]Atikuma.

[00:19:48]>> Wow. We came to a restaurant.

[00:19:51]Let's >> get some cold water. Some refreshments.

[00:19:54]I I didn't know Makoko can actually get very I didn't know Makoko can actually uh >> water.

[00:20:04]>> Yeah, please. Cold cold water.

[00:20:08]>> I didn't know I didn't know this place can actually get exhausting. It's uh going around. I think the sun is also blazing and we're just like taking it all in. Um but I thought he said there was no electricity in this place. How are they charging?

[00:20:23]>> They need generators.

[00:20:25]>> Ah, okay. Generators. Okay.

[00:20:28]>> You know where we were?

[00:20:29]>> You know why?

[00:20:30]>> Okay. So, this place is closer to the road.

[00:20:33]>> Okay.

[00:20:33]>> Yes. So, I think they have access but I think deep inside the water >> they don't have lights.

[00:20:38]>> Ah. So, this this area is close to the mainland.

[00:20:40]>> Mainland. Yes.

[00:20:41]>> So that's why they're getting electricity.

[00:20:44]>> Okay. Cuz I was surprised cuz he said that they the people here don't have any electricity. So I was kind of confused.

[00:20:52]Makoko is one of those places you can't really understand from the outside.

[00:20:59]There's so many layers to it. The community, the energy, the way life moves in the water.

[00:21:07]And then right next to that you have the reality people are facing.

[00:21:13]The demolitions, the uncertainty, the feeling that things can change at any moment.

[00:21:24]And hearing from it someone like Desmond, someone who's lived here his whole life, it makes everything feel more real. Because this isn't just a place people talk about. This is home.

[00:21:37]for thousands of people.

[00:21:40]And being here, you start to see beyond what's usually shown. Not just the struggles, but the people behind it. The routines, the families, the everyday life that continues no matter what.

[00:21:55]And I think that's what stayed with me the most, how people here continue even with everything going around them.

[00:22:09]I just come back to my house and uh I'm not going to lie, you know, today really um had me really made me think from the outside looking in, guys. Um this is not the kind of place that people would choose to live in and there are real challenges and that that's something you can't just ignore. You understand? And but at the same time I also had to remind myself happiness looks different on everybody. For some it's not about where you live. It's about community, family, familiarity. This is what they know. This is what they call home. And I also understand that everyone has their own perspective, your own opinions. Some people here are used to telling their story to visitors. Some benefit from tourism. So of course the way they present Makoko uh might not always show the bigger picture and that's why I think it's important to see both sides uh both perspective not just the struggle and not just the positive as well but the reality lies somewhere in between. Yeah. And for me being here was uh humbling I would say because it made me reflect on what I consider comfort, what I consider struggle. you know, I went out there and then now I'm back to my comfortable um Airbnb. So, and that's just how different life can look depending on where you are in the world.

[00:23:33]You know, you see the struggle. You have your own life as well. But at the end of the day, these are real people living real lives. And I think the least um we can do is try to understand before we judge. And uh because no place is ever just one story. Anyways guys, I'll see you guys in the next video. Thank you for watching. I love you guys. Take care.