I live in an area that just recently got developed, which means most houses are new and there are still traces of bushes here and there, I was skeptical about moving here at first, but due to the high cost of housing in the developed town where I've lived my whole life, and several other reasons including staying close to a location where we can easily buy and develop our property while keeping a close monitor before the area gets more developed and affording it won't be possible anymore, I've seen this scenario play so many times and missed opportunity, as one positive thing about my country is that landed properties tend to appreciates with time, if you are lucky enough to move into a developing area in its early stage, so I decided not to keep missing out like I have seen some people do in the past, better to invest while I'm still young and strong enough to work than when I start getting wrinkles.
I won't lie about having doubting thoughts after I've moved. Still, living in this new area for almost a year now, I can boldly say I took the right decision, even though it's a small community they all keep to certain rules and regulations which makes living in this community very peaceful before I get started on the rules, remember I made mention of bushes, well coming from township girl. Living in the city there my whole life, anything that looks like lots of plants to me is considered a bush, but living here opened my eyes to understand that they were mainly farmlands and gardens, another added advantage of living in a developing area is that I get access to fresh vegetables and fruits for free or at a small cost that would have cost me so much to buy them in the city. These trees also make the area very well-ventilated, whenever I take an evening walk, it's always very relaxing feeling the cool breeze on my face and skin, it's one of the stress-relieving techniques I've found that works for me compared to the contaminated musty air in the town where I've lived before.
On my first month after moving, I found it strange that no waste disposal vehicle entered the community which was common in town but how they managed to keep everywhere clean was a wonder, trust me I've lived in an area where I would always have issues with neighbors due to cleanliness issues, and here felt like heaven for me, so my landlord informed me that a special place was created outside the compound for waste disposal, after taking the trash out, it gets burnt immediately, littering wasn't allowed either, whereas in the more developed city I came from, even though there was waste disposal vehicle, people still dumped their refuse in drainage, on the roads, all in a bid to escape paying for their waste disposed of, one of the reasons why fresh breeze eludes them. To think that I've always thought city life was better, but now I know better that a small community is more easily coordinated by the community leaders unlike the township area, where the local government chairman and council are more interested in collecting taxes from its people than offering the services he promised during his campaign.
Let's not even get started about electricity, I've never enjoyed a stable power supply in my entire life not until I moved to this community, at first it was stable to some extent, I think the first two months I moved in, having about 12 hours of power supply daily in Nigeria is just like hitting a jackpot, the bills were fair enough considering the difference between what I paid in town, that the 12 hours power supply will be splitted in three days, then for about a month, we lived in total darkness, no sign of light whatsoever, we only heard rumors about our power source developing some faults, the community leaders organized a meeting with every house owners, so they could in turn liaise with their tenants about their intention to visit the head office of the electricity company, so we have in mind that they would seek a solution, of course, it would come at a cost, this wouldn't be the first time I would be contributing for something like this, though not in this new community, so I had every bit of doubt about them truly seeking for a change, the last time I contributed for a positive change in our electricity situation,though in the city area, the money got looted by the selfish house owners instead of the situation getting improved, you guess right, it got worst, and without stable electricity businesses are bound to suffer high expenses buying fuel daily to power their generators or those that can afford to buy solar panels which isn't so affordable.
Amazingly, it indeed got for the better in this new community, though with an increase in the electricity bills, which we don't mind, as long as we keep seeing the improvement in what we are paying for.
And finally security,
This was the top most concern I had before moving here, you can have everything you want in a community, but if there isn't security, you lose all, In my previous town, I've witnessed the security personnel themselves breaking in and looting people's businesses all in a bid to make people scared and increase their service charge, sadly I was a victim, I had a store where I sold smartphones and gadgets, these men of the underworld broke in using special tools and cleared my whole store which eventually folded up, as my capital was all in, we had just restocked the store, I wasn't the only victim, and some others haven't recovered till date, families were rendered apart due to the hardship, hopes was lost for the once struggling man, it was not a good experience at all.
I was told that this community still abides with olden days traditions that anyone caught stealing or breaking into someone's house or business place will have their hands cut off, I guess the fear it intends to instill is still in full force because I've never heard any case of theft or robbery since I moved in, and they have local vigilante more like their local security men who keep watch at night time with their local guns in hands, I've seen them on patrol once when I closed late from work, walking down the lonely street late at night, one of them stopped me and questioned why I was out so late, when I gave him a genuine answer, he made some calls to verify my claim, and took it upon himself to accompany down to my house, I was so amazed at such care and security in my new area.
In conclusion,
I think this new community records all this positive progress because they've got a good-hearted community leader who leads by example also because it's still a small community that can be controlled, maybe if the towns were divided into smaller sections and good leaders, not the selfish ones there are put in charge, only then will laws and regulation be adhered to and people won't have to live in fear of their hard work being looted overnight.
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All images used in this post are mine.