Rasak Oseni, nicknamed Rosco, whose life experience is a highly motivational and inspirational one. He is a scavenger, who resides in Lagos and who financed his education with money his widowed mother got from scavenging.
Rasak is married with two children and he caters for his family with the money he gets from scavenging. Rasak is a responsible father and husband, who goes to work diligently every day like every other white collar job employee. He does this so his family can lead a better life.
When Rasak graduated from the university, his mother did not want him to work in the dump, so she got a job where he would be earning one hundred and thirty thousand naira a month but he refused it because he knew he was going to make more money from working on the dump.
On a typical day at the dump, Rasak makes between N9,000 to N12,000 daily (that’s around N300,000 and N400,000 per month respectively) and because he is a familiar face in the dump, he is highly respected and regarded by all.
Abiding by the rule, ‘No food for a lazy man’, Rasak eats from what he makes, waiting until he is done with his work and selling all his merchandise before buying what he’ll eat.
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Rasak at work |
To Rasak, people that work in the dump don’t believe dirt can kill, they don’t even believe diseases can kill either. Everything they need is in their abode, from barbers to food sellers to toilets to manicurists, who are important to them because they carry a lot of dirty things that are bound to stain their nails and cuticles.
Interestingly, Rasak’s family is highly supportive of his choice of career and they are proud of him to say the least because, to them, it would have been a terrible situation if he was jobless. Rasak met his wife in the higher institution, so he only had to explain to her that he couldn’t cope with working white collar jobs and that he needed to go back to the dump which he described as home. She later came to appreciate the difference between the two jobs. And today, Rasak is almost at the completion stage of his own single-storey home at Ikorodu, which he is building from money made right from the dump.
On issue of the widely known arrogant attitude of scavengers, he said it depends on the situation the person (scavenger) was in. He also said there are health precautions he takes before he leaves for work and on his return. Rasak survives through tough determination and focus because he believes no condition is permanent as one can always turn a bad condition into a positive one.
About coping with the smell of the environment because of the stink in dumps, he said that he was used to the smell since he had been working there for the past 4-5 years and everything seems normal to him. He also revealed that it takes more than just going around, picking things to be a scavenger and that in fact, there is an association that regulates scavengers’ activities.
Rasak narrated his inspiring story when he featured on the Hope 234 show, which is produced by Glass House Entertainment and designed to compel young people towards a positive outlook on life. The show throws light on the weird kind of jobs some people do, especially educated ones, and of which many people are not aware. The show is hosted by Lolo and Saka.
Hope 234
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