Entering the community from Onipanu junction, off Ikorodu road, where there are the gathering of chicken traders who are mainly northerners, a first time visitor would think the community comprised mainly of chicken traders. One will marvel at the number of cages of live chickens, in different sizes lining the street, while the Hausa traders could be seen shouting on top of their voices to attract customers.
However, going deep into the community revealed that the northern chicken traders only make up a small percentage of the population. The real business that dominates the community and thrives is printing, where every other building houses a printing press.
In Shomolu, one out of every three shops houses a printing press, computer operator or a paper merchant. There is hardly any house in the community without a minimum of one or two shops. Over an hour’s monitoring of activities of printers in the community revealed a busy area as lorries, pick-up vehicles and private cars were used to bring in printing materials or take away printed materials.
The presence of a printing press in nearly every building in Shomolu is so intimidating and makes one to conclude that in this community, majority of the buildings therein serve dual-roles of a residential and commercial accommodation, particularly from Akeju Street through Oguntolu, to Odunlade Street, Apata road and so many other streets in this large community.
The ever busy printing industry in this community employs over 15,000 people and remains one of the mainstay of residents and businessmen of the densely populated area of Lagos. Oodua Trust can report authoritatively that from paper merchants to finishers in the printing business in Shomolu, the community remains yet to be discovered as the main employer of labour in Lagos after the state government.
A first time visitor to Shomolu will have cause to know that the environment is noisy if such a visitor comes when the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has switched-off electricity supply to the community. In that case, the visitor will be welcomed by a deafening noise from every direction.
Now, if one cares to find out why this is so, he will come to understand that the noise is from various kinds of heavy duty power generators placed on stand-by by the printers, to take care of emergency operations, due to the epileptic power supply in the community.
Although there are other printers scattered around Lagos metropolis like Mushin, Agege, Abule-Egba and others, but the concentration in Shomolu enables it command printing business so much that prices of printing services in the southern part of the country are actually fixed here.
In addition, major printing paper merchants in Lagos maintain shops in Shomolu. Today, the community can boast of having in stock, all types of printing machines that could be found anywhere in the world. That this community is a centre of printing business in the country is attested to by the availability of experienced graphic designers, lithographers, film makers, type-setters and machine operators.
Power outage is one among numerous challenges being encountered by the printers in Shomolu on a daily basis. For instance, one major problem of the printers that sends customers away and invite law enforcement agents to the community on a regular basis is forgery. According to one of the printers, Seyi Adewunmi, who operates his printing business at Odunlade street, there have been random raids of the printing outfits in Shomolu by security operatives. “This act alone has driven many customers away from the community making us experience low patronage,” he said.
Due to the high concentration of printers in this community, residents and printers complained about high rents. “That is the situation we face here,” a printer who claimed to have worked in Shomolu since the early 1980’s lamented. He said the house rent is high compared to what other printers in Agege and Mushin pay to their landlords. “We are coping with the situation because we don’t have a choice. This is the place our customers know,” he said.
However, a landlord denied the allegation, describing it as “rubbish.” “Nobody is forcing any rent on anybody here. Only those who made money but refuse to settle their bills face problems here,” he said. But, regardless of the argument and counter-argument, the alleged oppressive attitude of the landlords in the community is seen as a necessary price the printers have to pay for the inconvenience their round- the clock operation has brought to the inhabitants of Shomolu.
In the community, printers are still being chased about by the notorious acts of demolished Oluwole market forgers. The popular believe in Lagos is that Shomolu is the backbone of document forgers who still operates on Lagos Island despite the fact that the state government had demolished Oluwole Market and rebuilt it to a modern shopping mall.
Insider among the printers admitted that in the past, most of the dirty jobs, such as forged certificates, documents, travelling passports, foreign currencies and others, are brought to Shomolu by the forgers because the community possessed the best printing machines that could be found in the country.
According to the source, printing of such forged documents are done secretly and most times during the early hours of the day between 1am and 3am when none of the security operatives will dare come to give cause trouble. The source added that in spite of this, the printers who engage in such sharp practices used to cover their operation with some legal jobs so that should security operatives swoop on them, they will deceive the law enforcement agents with the legal jobs.
But the chairman Association of Professional Printers of Nigeria (Lagos branch) Mr Olu Adefope, denies the involvement of members of the association in printing forged documents. According to him, there was no connection between his members and document forgers at Oluwole or anywhere. He said he was aware of the presence of those he described as “quack printers.” “These people are mostly young boys without shops. They are impatient people who want to make it at all cost. But we are already working in partnership with the police and they are cooperating with us,” the chairman said.
The chairman also disclosed that the need to address the problem of quack printers and the non-conformists among printers in Lagos was one of the reasons for the formation of the association in 1994. He however, regretted the inability of the association to fully achieve the objective. But he gave the assurance that in the not too distant future, the association will realise its set objectives particularly regarding printing of forged documents and illegal publications.
Adefope said the association had instructed its members to start monitoring those working overnight. “We tell them that they must be present during the time their offices engages in operation or delegate a trusted one to monitor the workers. It is in the midnight that illegal work is done. Whoever goes against the warning will be blacklisted if he is confirmed to be our member,” the chairman declared.
The printers association might have set up a Task Force to monitor its members who operate late in the night but Oodua Trust observed that some of the printers’ shops in this community may be accomplices in the production of fake packaging labels for fake drugs and adulterated products, pirated disc label and others.
