Igbo Obioma itinerant street tailors in Lagos are disappearing and many
Hausas from northern Nigeria are now seen with the traditional Singer
99K sewing machines carried on their shoulders on the streets of Lagos.
During
the recce for my "Sights and Sounds of Lagos" tourist documentary series, I met one of the
remaining Igbo Obioma tailors in Lagos on December 29, 2015 who said
Hausas are taking over their traditional Obioma street tailoring
business, because many of them have outgrown the business and the
younger generation of Igbos don't find it attractive and lucrative in
the fast developing world of the 21st century. But he said the few of
them still in the street tailoring business are making more money than
the monthly salaries of many graduates with diplomas and degrees. He
said a hard working Obioma can make as much as N2, 000 daily from about
30 customers, because there are many poor people with torn clothes to
stitch and it is the safest affordable trade that does not require power
supply or fuel and they are not harassed by street touts or law
enforcement agents who extort money from other self employed
professionals like transporters, street traders and others.
The
Obioma itinerant street tailors became very popular after the Nigerian
civil war in 1970 and "Obioma" which is the Igbo word for kindness or kind heart
became a household name especially in Lagos where many of the returnees
from the eastern states of the former Republic of Biafra flocked to in
search of means of survival. They moved from place to place with the
popular Singer 99K sewing machines often used by housewives to stitch
torn clothes.
Almost everyone living in the lower class and lower middle class homes patronized the Obioma
.
~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima
Copyright © 2016 by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima. International Digital Post Network Limited.
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My Dear Brother In-Law, former
President Goodluck Jonathan, stop all these your PR Stunts overseas
arranged by PR agents for your image laundering.
