Lagos traffic could be terrible. If you work on the island and resume by 8am you had better be out on or before 4;30am else you will end up with a query on your table. Just get to work and catch up where you left your dream. If you happen to be in one of those commuters buses at the early hours of the day(mostly before dawn), you will notice some of these;
* Heads bowed as some try to catch some sleep or worst still your shoulder suddenly becomes heavy as someone leans on it as though it was a pillow(some may be even be snoring. Lol).
* Some people due to the above miss their stop and get to alight at a farther distance.
* Some religious folks are seen either muttering their prayers or chants. Some have their daily devotions on the go.
Going off traffic is usually better especially in the evening. It's a smooth ride. If you have an appointment you will definitely make it in time as against those early morning traffics that has cost some people a lot.
However, when you are going off traffic and suddenly see a long line of vehicles ahead it could be due to unprecedented issues such as a mechanical faults or accidents, you've just got to be patient.
I had an experience that wasn't in any of these categories and it was almost frustrating.
I was at the commuters bus station to purchase the bus ticket then I queued up waiting for the next bus to arrive. Apparently, I met a long queue which later I got to know was due to the fact that some buses didn't wait to pick up anyone.
At some point the vexation in people grew and I started hearing people protest that the ticket vendor should do something about it( which wasn't their job description, anyways). The number of frustrated soon grew larger and they almost mobbed one of those innocent vendors. Thank God for some elderly women who came to intervene before one of the management staffs came and war of words erupted.
Hmmm...that's not my concern. At least that was what I thought until some Elderly men(I guess in their early 50s) took the fight beyond verbal abuse to physical misappropriations or each other's wifely-washed attires. Who would think that men who would had some experiences in life would disgrace themselves in the public. I actually wonder what the lot of their wives and kids were. You would think they are heavy weight champions ready to set a new record.
Well, since the Devil is in the details, as one of my lectures do say, little did we know the fight will produce some successions of unpalatable events, subtle and smart.
It happened that after we've all been checked in, one of the wrestlers started rattling around in search of his mobile phone. It became an issue of concern when the peace maker was giving the look of being the first suspect. This Peace Maker was young tall and brad shouldered with a heavy untrained baritone voice. He and some other unelected legislature suddenly emerged and suggested ways of looking for the phone.
The first line of action was to call the cell if it will ring and then be traced. But this is Lagos where your unnecessary patrol in an area can be queried not to talk of a mobile device that suddenly grew digits and wandered off ready to have a new owner. So it calling the cell was effort in futility. The response on the other side was, "the subscriber you are trying to call is switched off, you can send a voice sms or dial..." and that's because the smart ass thief had removed the sim card.
The driver was informed and was advised o pull over at their nearest check points where security officers of the bus company long after the police came around to start a one by one check. There was a riotous fiasco as some group of committees suggested that everyone should sit and be checked as against the opinion that we should come out one after the other and be checked.
To cut to the chase, about one third of the bus had been checked when the phone was found with a guy who was trying to quickly find a way to put it aside. He was taken away for interrogations by the police.
That was how the journey of 15 minutes lasted for over two hours!
Stay tuned for more experiences for My World!
Cheers!!!
Comments