These two photographic series, “Night Market” (Abuja, 2007) and “Idumota (Distorted)” (with Olatubosun Obileye, Lagos Island, 2005), represent the vitality and, at times, the subterranean nature of market life. The markets portrayed here are not legally designated ones – although very few open markets have been legally sanctioned by Nigerian states since 1960, the year independence was achieved from British colonial rule. But unofficial markets such as these prolifically emerged all across Nigeria and African countries in the 1980s/90s. Unofficial markets formed as a direct result of structural adjustment programs mandated by the World Bank and the IMF. These liberalization policies were meant to balance Nigeria’s national debt after global commodity markets crashed in the 1970s. They mandated removing tens of thousands of state jobs, eliminating numerous life-ensuring subsidies, the privatization of health systems and education which became inaccessible to most, and the devaluing of Nigeria’s currency. As a result, the national debt grew even more over time. Moreover, these policies instantly threw millions of people into protracted poverty, which, to this day, has not abated.
Unofficial markets became a place of refuge, a place to hustle a living, when the dream of higher education and a secure job was no longer available to most. They are legally defined unofficial markets that grew tremendously in the interstices of urban space, that is, within neighborhood public space, on the side of the road, in traffic jams. But working in the market represents a constant state of insecurity and precarity for many who find their way there. Ironically, the removal of state jobs in favor of entrepreneurial activities – such as those found in these markets – is precisely what the Chicago School of Economics promoted with its version of neoliberalism (and subsequently adopted by the IMF and the World Bank) as a form of personal freedom from state intervention.