I don’t go out of my way to analyze the world; it just happens. Like anyone else, I’ll find myself scrolling through my phone, watching a viral TikTok, reading a random Twitter thread, or catching an Instagram Reel that the algorithm threw my way. But I’ve noticed that what I take away from these moments is rarely what the average person sees.
Where most people see a clip of entertainment, my brain instinctively looks for the bigger picture. I don’t try to force it, but I can’t help but spot the patterns: the human behavior, the hidden message, the societal structures, the "why" behind the "what." It’s a reflex. I see the wiring under the hood.
This reflex kicked in heavily the other day.
I was watching a documentary by a filmmaker exploring the darkest under-belly of Lagos, specifically the "Argentina Bridge" along the well-known Third Mainland Bridge. On the surface, it was a video about crime. The reality there is terrifying. Rape, kidnapping, murder, and drugs are the norm. If you can pass through safely, it’s a miracle.
But while the camera focused on the shock value, I saw a pattern.
Watching an interview with a masked man who has cycled in and out of Ikoyi Prison, Kiriri Prison and Kotoki Prison amongst others, multiple times, I stopped seeing just a "criminal" and started seeing the mechanics of a trap. It forced me to ask a difficult question: Is it truly possible to escape poverty when you are born into it, or is the gravity too strong?
I looked at that man and wondered: Is he just "evil," or is he simply playing the only cards he was dealt? We like to think we have choices, but the position from which you start the "game of life" dictates your strategy. Your brain, your formative years, and your environment set a trajectory that is nearly impossible to break.
It’s about Inertia.
Just as the richest man in Africa has remained the richest since I was born because wealth preserves wealth, those born into the "storms" of the slums tend to stay there because poverty preserves poverty. It’s not necessarily about having bad intentions; often, it’s about survival. You can choose a path like school, entrepreneurship, or crime. But once you are positioned on a specific track, moving to a different one is agonizingly difficult.
The tragedy is that the environment often forces you to make choices that stain you. That man wore a mask because of the "work" he does. He knows society won't accept him in the open. Evil didn't just appear; it was cultivated by necessity.
Every path has its pleasures and its prices. But the hardest thing in the world isn't choosing a path; it is changing your starting position.