ARAGBE L’AYE – LIFE IS TO BE BOUGHT FOR LIVING - E.T.H...Aina

Mar 28, 2025

The Yoruba aphorism, ‘aragbe l’aye’ which literally means ‘life is to be bought for a living’ connotes many things and has been used by many people to foster interpretations that might not have been the originally intended meaning.

In year 2007, I arrived in Lagos full of hope and great expectations. My host – my aunty and her husband with their three children were living in a single room. Five people and I’d have to join them. That’s six. When I first entered the room, reality dawned on me that adulthood would not be easy. There were eleven rooms in the house and all tenants shared one bathroom and one toilet. No kitchen – everyone cooked their food at their entrance. Each room had at least four to six occupants. It was a proper ‘civilian barracks.’

In less than one week, I had started mingling with other guys in the area. We played football every Saturday and Sunday morning. Other guys would go to Angola field to play what they called ‘proper football’. Angola field is where St. Kizito’s College is currently situated. Every Sunday morning, my aunty would always drag me to the church she was attending – Christ Intercessory and Counselling Ministry on Ashabi Taiwo street. She is a tough woman – a no-nonsense woman who played a vital role in my formative years. So, grudgingly I would follow her to the church as early as 6:30am because she was a chorister and we would not leave the church until 1pm. As if that was not enough, fasting on Sunday was compulsory.

My aunty would say “you have to fast and pray so that you can live long and prosper.”

I was not happy with her as at that time because other guys on the street could do whatever they wanted. My aunty censored my friends and when it’s time to start working, she did not allow me to do ‘anyhow work’.

“You will have to work in a school as a teacher,” she said authoritatively.

I asked her why teaching of all jobs and she said, “the job will let you see yourself as a role model and therefore, you won’t misbehave and become a nuisance like other guys.”

She took me to one of our church members who had a school at Oke-Ira and after a short conversation, the proprietress said, ‘resume on Monday’. When I got home, I told my friends about the job and the 4k salary and they started mocking me. That night I said to myself that I would not do the job but the next morning I was the first person to wake up in our room and I dressed up to go to work. My aunty would have used derogatory remarks to finish me if I had told her that I would not do the work. That was how my teaching journey started. A journey that would later continue for 15 years and 7 months – September 2007 to April 2023.

In the civilian barracks where we lived, there were some guys whose profession was ‘yahoo-yahoo’ and they worked in conjunction with other ‘yahoo boys’ on the street. Those guys frustrated my life because I chose to teach.

‘With that job, you can’t buy one Xpress Music phone, one of them said to me while others chorused “won bi da’ loosely translated to ‘he dares not.’

Life continued for all of us in the neighborhood. In year 2008, our Pastor said everyone in the church should fast for 21 days. My aunty made it compulsory for me. Truth be told, it was difficult but I endured it. It was that period the other guys nicknamed me ‘Pastor’.

I remember going to one of the guys’ houses and his mum said to me, ‘instead for your aunty to ‘step out’ for you, she will be dragging you to church.’ See, ‘aragbe l’aye and that is what I am doing for my children,’ she added. I was speechless or what would I have said?

‘Tomorrow, I am taking your friends (her two sons) to Owo in Ondo State to see an herbalist. He will give them black soap which they will be using to collect money from their ‘maga’,’ she added again.

At that moment, I was no longer comfortable. I had to give her an excuse so that I could leave the room.

Well, she indeed proceeded on the journey because after some months, everyone saw the effect. One of her sons bought a wristwatch which worth 2million Naira. 2-million-Naira worth of wristwatch as of 2008. That’s massive. The woman’s two children were the talk of the town in that time. Malaysia was the best destination for ‘Yahoo boys’ in that time. The two boys travelled to Malaysia for vacation. When they returned, they travelled to South Africa again. When they finally returned to Nigeria, each of them bought a car. There were other guys who were also reigning at that time. For those who could recall, they would remember that Obawole and Oke-Ira were major hotspots for ‘Yahoo boys’ in 2007 – 2012. Each time I was privileged to be with those guys, they would talk about black soap, herbalist, Woli, Alfa in Ilorin, Ibadan, and Benin Republic. They were always on the move. University of Ibadan offered me an admission. While those boys were looking for diabolical and fraudulent means to make money, I was fostering my relationship with God and at the same time, I was working on my personal and professional development.

It got to a stage; I couldn’t fit in again. You know what that means, I was not in the same league with them again. When I graduated from the university and chose to continue to teach since I haven’t found a better job, those guys hated me more. To them, I am a fool and so our relationship became sour. In 2012, my aunty and her husband moved into their own house at Ijoko, Ogun State but I didn’t follow them because of the distance. Therefore, I continued to pay the rent for the apartment at Obawole. From there, I moved to a saner environment and that was how I lost contact with most of those guys. They continued to ‘buy life’ in their own way and I, in my own way too. While they were looking for black soaps and other diabolical means, I was looking up to God for a miracle and at the same time, I was investing in my personal and professional development.

Since 2017, everybody has been receiving their ‘Return on Investment. They have been seeing their profit or benefit according to their investment from 2007 to 2016. In 2017, one of the two guys that followed their mother to Owo in Ondo to see an herbalist became mentally unstable while looking for more diabolical powers. For those who are familiar with Obawole, they will be seeing him roam the street while his brother has become a textbook definition of poverty. Someone who bought a 2 million wristwatch in 2008 can no longer afford paracetamol of 100 Naira for his sick son. Their mother who by now should sit down to reap the fruit of her labour is now the one taking care of the guys – the one that is mentally unstable and the one that is as poor as the church rat. The other guys who relocated to Lekki Phase 1 when they were ‘balling’ have returned to their parents’ dilapidated houses. The then fresh guys now look pale and malnourished.

It is time of harvest and everyone is now reaping the fruit of their labour.

ARAGBE L’AYE – POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE MEANINGS

Connotatively, the statement could infer positive and negative meaning depending on the intention of the user. Some of the meanings that could be inferred from it are:

· Life is full of challenges and trials, be prepared for it and face it head-on (positive);
· You have to go the extra mile and do things differently to achieve success in life (positive);
· You must make spiritual consultations, seek spiritual power and guidance even if it's through diabolical means, seek wealth by any means possible, strengthen yourself by occultic practices and become powerful through magic and rituals so that you wouldn't be killed by your enemies (negative for both Christians and Muslims).

In all that you do, always remember Jeremiah 17:11 (NIV) which likens those who gain wealth unjustly to a partridge that hatches eggs that don’t belong to it—ultimately, such wealth will be lost.
"Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay, are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their life is half gone, they will leave them, and at their end they will prove to be fools."

Proverbs 10:2 (NIV) also warns that wealth gained through dishonest or corrupt means does not have lasting value and cannot save a person, but righteousness leads to true security.