Photographic essay by Laco Maďar was created between 2011 and 2016. It documents the daily lives of people of middle and lower class in sub-Saharan largest metropolis Lagos. The discovery of black gold in Nigeria has resulted in turning away from agriculture, fishing, textile industry and mining. People leave the countryside and migrate to the cities. The population explosion (Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and has about 184 million people) in Nigeria brings dependence on import of all types of goods. Nigeria is not an exception and as other African countries is “lucky” to have the evil, greedy and corrupted government. Nigeria is the twelfth largest oil producer in the world and the eighth largest exporter. As for the confirmed oil reserves is on the tenth place. Unfortunately none of these help ordinary people and country suffers from a lack of education, health and social systems, drinking water, electrification and infrastructure. People are literally fighting for their lives, children in the streets between the mad car drivers are trying to sell everything just to help their families. If you are not born into “the right family” you just have bad luck. On the contrary, those chosen are buying houses in the most expensive cities in the world.
Photographs are authorized © Laco Maďar.