The Cost of Air

The Cost of Air

By Ajani Musa

In a city where even breathing has a price, one man dares to make it free.

Lagos — restless, loud, unrepentant — is a place where the powerful thrive on chaos, and the poor choke on what’s left. Amid the noise and greed stands Bayo Adeniran, a principled engineer determined to build clean projects in a dirty system.

But when he saves a gasping child from dying in traffic, the act of mercy shatters his carefully controlled world. That single moment pulls him into a storm of corruption, secrets, and power — where air itself has become currency.

The government’s grand “Air Renewal Project” promises progress, but Bayo soon discovers the truth: it’s a front to profit from pollution, a silent weapon designed to suffocate the city’s poor. As he digs deeper, allies turn to threats, and silence becomes survival.

Beside him stands Tope Adegoke, a fearless journalist haunted by her brother’s death in a factory explosion the system buried. Together, they expose a network of elites who control the very air Nigerians breathe.

When Lagos is plunged into darkness and fear, their resistance becomes the city’s last breath of hope. But defiance has a cost — and every truth uncovered demands payment in blood, faith, or freedom.

The Cost of Air is a powerful socio-political thriller — raw, emotional, and urgent. It asks one question that echoes through every page:

If air is life, what happens when life itself becomes a luxury?