Some years back, a typical middle-class human somewhere around Nigeria will have to disguise himself, look left, right, up, and down just to be extra sure familiar faces are not looking at them before they scurry into those clothing shops or roadside markets for clothes popularly known as ‘Okrika’ or ‘bend down select’ where second-hand clothes in their heavy trademark perfumed are piled up for the buying and cheap bargaining.
True to the perfumes on these clothes that take a dedicated amount of washing time to get rid of, most second-hand cloth do not reflect their buying price as they normally last beyond imagination.
The explanation given in consolation to the stigma associated with using second-hand cloth of unknown originating users is that majority of them are rich men clothing’s, bought, used sparingly, and discarded because they are too lazy to wash.
Thanks to the current state of the economy in Nigeria and the inflating price of clothes in the marketplace coupled with the menace of the notorious Yahoo boys creating artificial inflation in the price of jeans and fashion items, innovative eyes are turning over to the side of Okrika, with needed motivation coming from inflated price of the dress in boutiques.
Doing away with shame and stigma; With minimal startup capital and a readily available market in dire need of a linking bridge, Okirika is a business venture with high potential that has been sprouting up within and outside the major market square, solving both the artificial inflation problems associated with the Yahoo boys and the spiral effect of economic recession affecting both the government working class and artisan who are finding it hard to put food on the table not to talk of buying luxuries in clothing.
Going down history lane, Akube(Second-hand cloth) has been the poor man messiah from the 1900s, since whence they were been officially shipped down from Europe to Okrika port; the only port that could bring in used cloth as of then which explains how the second-hand clothes get their widely acclaimed name: “Okirika”.
© Olaoye Sheu Ibrahim is a writer, a Journalist in training, and a practicing tailor.
He is currently undergoing his Higher National Diploma program at the Federal Polytechnic Offa.
09137511923
Olaoyesheuibrahim3@gmail.com
