“I’m a community leader here. I watch over about eighty...

“I’m a community leader here.  I watch over about eighty people.  We meet every month, and I try to bring their concerns to the government.  They also look to me for guidance on how to vote.  Hardly any of them are educated.  Most of us have nothing.  I’m lucky because I work as a street cleaner, but my salary hasn’t been paid in three months.  But if we try to feed ourselves by hawking articles on the side of the road, the government will put us in jail.  We need jobs.  We need clean water.  We need good roads.  The politicians promise these things before every election.  They visit the neighborhood, and tell us this time it will be different.  But after the election they disappear.  I’ve been to the minister’s office so many times.  Every time his receptionist tells me that he’s in a meeting.  I sit there all day.  The meeting never ends.  But he’ll show up again when the election comes around, carrying eighty packages of noodles, and a polo shirt with his name on it.”  
(Lagos, Nigeria)