I Chased IShowSpeed Around Lagos and Realised I Don’t Know How to Control Myself

That morning, I wasn’t supposed to leave the house. I had plans to “rest”, which in Lagos terms means lying down and scrolling my phone till NEPA takes light. But once I opened Twitter, that plan died immediately.

“IShowSpeed is in Lagos.”

Not was.
Not coming.
Is.

From that moment, my brain stopped working properly. I had been streaming on Speed’s platform for almost a year, so I was beyond excited to hear this.

By 7:30am, my timeline was already blowing up. People were monitoring and tweeting his every move, someone said he had landed, another person said he was at Landmark, one guy tweeted that Speed just passed him on Third Mainland Bridge and everybody believed him, including me.

I didn’t even bath well, I just wore my snickers, grabbed my phone, power bank, and left the house. I didn’t create any budget, I didn’t think, I just knew that I had to SEE Speed.

Outside, Lagos was already in full character.

Okada men shouting here and there, conductors dragging people, people were hawking food on the road like it was sachet water. I entered the first bus I saw going “towards where things are happening.”

As we moved, updates kept changing.

“Speed dey Surulere.”
“No, he just left Surulere.”
“Landmark now.”
“Eko Hotel.”

I was chasing tweets like clues in a treasure hunt.

At some point, I realised I had entered three different buses and one okada. Each time, I told myself, this one is the last, but as soon as a new update dropped, I moved again.

Before 10am, I had:

• Bought water twice
• Bought ₦2,000 Buns because I was suddenly hungry
• Entered 5 okada I didn’t plan for
• Paid “short distance” money that wasn’t short at all

Every spending felt small, so I did not care. ₦1,500 here. ₦2,000 there. “It’s just for today,” I kept telling myself.

When I finally got close to one of the locations, that was when I saw real madness.

There was crowd everywhere, phones were up and people were shouting “Speed! Speed!!” like he could hear individual voices. Some people were crying, jumping, it was pure chaos.

Then the cars came.

Black, tinted, cameras everywhere, and inside that chaos, I saw him, he was mounted on top the car, looking as real as day.

Before I could even process it, the car moved and that was it. People stood there panting, smiling, some angry, some satisfied. I was smiling like a fool.

Mission accomplished… or so I thought.

On my way home, reality started tapping me on the shoulder, or rather, slapping me on the face.

I checked my account balance and that was when my spirit left my body small.

All that movement, all that excitement, which now only exists on my phone and my mind, I had spent way more than I planned, on transport, food, random things I didn’t even remember buying. And the funny thing? I didn’t buy anything tangible.

Impulse spending is sneaky like that. You don’t wake up and say, “Today, I will waste money.”

It starts with excitement, FOMO.
“One more bus.”
“One more stop.”
“One more purchase.”

Before you know it, you’re home, tired, happy… and broke.

Speed came to Lagos, and left, Lagos remained Lagos. And I was left with a lesson I didn’t plan to learn that day.

Enjoy life, yes, but always draw a line for your money.

Because adrenaline will fade away, but your account balance will remember everything.