Lawal Yaya, a 30-year-old Hausa man hails from Sokoto and has lived in his homeland for years before migrating to the rural part of Lagos in order to earn a living. He has lived in Lagos for 15 years. According to him, he is now controls millions as a result of his achievement in Lagos from jobs many the Yoruba people cannot do.
In the western part of Nigeria resided by the Yoruba’s, the Hausa’s do jobs that include disposing dirt for residents, buying condemned items, picking tins and irons on the street for resale, selling noodles at bus stops, etc. These types of jobs mentioned above are mostly regarded by the Yoruba’s as ‘dirty jobs’.
According to him, no typical Yoruba man will allow his son or relative do the work or jobs earlier mentioned. Many even view it as jobs that fits the Hausa caliber. He further mentioned that Hausa men makes a lot of money from these jobs regarded as mere, ordinary and dirty jobs.
He went further to narrates how he became successful in Lagos with jobs earlier mentioned. Yaya said he was a disposer of dirt for the first five years he spent in Yoruba land. He said, back then, he pushes an old mini-truck on sunny afternoons just to earn a living.
He recalled he usually dispose dirt for residents at the range of N100-700 which varies in respect of the quantity of the dirt to be disposed. Therefore, it was easier for him to make close to N4,000 which is excluding other accrued benefits.
While there are many of the Yoruba people finding it hard to have a three square meal in a day, there is a man from another tribe making close to N4,000 daily in a tribe that is not his.
With the improvement of the environment agency in Lagos State, Yaya had to step up his game by buying another mini-truck to start picking tins/irons on the street. He said he would pick a lot of irons/tins on the streets and then buy some more at cheap rate and then sell them off at huge prices.
He said buying and selling of tins/irons was what boosted his daily income and gradually made him a millionaire! He also talked about how dirty he looks when doing his daily routing of picking irons on the street, but the fact is that money comes from no easy place.
Lawal Yaya then concluded that if the Yoruba people can also think of uncommon and weird businesses with higher profits, the will become millionaires.