Olokode Ghetto is rife with chaos and constant fighting. In Lojiji, there’s Akulis (Fuard Ferdinand) who thrives at the centre of this chaos. At the same time, he protects others in the ghetto who are vulnerable, using this money to build his influence. It is this protection that Benita (Peju Johnson), a stripper, enjoys and which enables her to carry on her night itinerary. It is this same protection that Benita extends to Halima (Oyinda Sanni), another woman in the ghetto, whom we later know as a runaway from home.
Lojiji shows viewers much of what plays out in the ghetto: the everyday struggle to use the same toilet, the corporate beggar’s lifestyle of Banker James (Fehintola Jebutu), and others like him who desperately want people to believe they’re only in the ghetto temporarily, even though they can’t afford to live elsewhere. In Lojiji, we see that those who come together in the ghetto are driven by different motivations: some, like Benita, are guided by the desire to make it; others, like Halima, are escaping a painful past; and others still, like ‘Banker’ James, have simply run out of options.
The film shines a light on the sense of bond and goodness that exists in the hood. To many who have lived in such environments, this world does not feel alien. For instance, evils such as rape are handled by Akulis through jungle justice. Though condemnable, such acts serve as a deterrent to others in a place where formal justice rarely exists. The ghetto, for all its chaos, becomes a sanctuary for people like Halima, who finds support in Benita and her church, a church unaware of her past.
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People in the ghetto are also aspirational, driven by a longing to give meaning to their lives and to rise above their circumstances. Akulis in Lojiji is one such person. He quietly nurses the dream to settle down with Benita, the stripper, and have a child with her. But Benita, yearning for a more meaningful life, resists this idea and is also wary of men at the club who she believes see her only as a body to exploit. There’s also Halima, who buys a JAMB form to study Philosophy at the University of Ibadan, a quiet reminder that dreams can spring from even the roughest corners.
The Yoruba movie, written by Niran Adedokun and co-produced with Fedelia Abah Duker, x-rays ghetto life and its mixture of vices and virtues with a refreshing simplicity that isn’t preachy. Yet in doing so, it sometimes slips into caricature, with long, loosely structured conversations among street louts. Many of these scenes feel superficial, extending the pacing unnecessarily, as though the film struggles to fill time for what could have been said in fewer, tighter scenes. Also, the moment when Halima accidentally kills her cousin by pushing him lacks conviction. More realism in how he hits his head would have made it believable.
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Lojiji leaves viewers hanging about the aftermath of certain events. We’re unsure whether the rapist was actually killed or if the police ever intervened. Likewise, the scene where Benita tries to kiss Halima to convince Akulis she’s a lesbian is left unresolved. Perhaps this was a subtle attempt to weave in a queer narrative, though Halima resists, but it comes off as half-hearted and abrupt.
In the end, Halima is arrested – and we don’t know why- and viewers are told to “watch out for part two.” This feels typical of most Yoruba Nollywood movies on YouTube – of stories that build up rather beautifully but conclude abruptly in anticipation of a sequel. The question then is: what more can Lojiji possibly give us in part two?
Still, Lojiji offers an important reflection on survival and humanity within chaos: a mirror of the larger Nigerian society where people are caught between poverty and dreams, between survival and morality. The ghetto becomes a metaphor for a country that shelters both decay and hope, cruelty and compassion. Beneath its roughness lies the universal human desire to be seen, to be safe, and to start again. Even with its uneven scenes, Lojiji quietly reminds us that everyone, whether in the ghetto or outside it, is just trying to make life make sense.
Lojiji is streaming on Apata TV on YouTube.