Lagos Roads

Lagos, Lagos, Lagos….. One of the most rowdy places in the world! They say “If you can drive in Lagos, you can drive anywhere in the world!”. Driving in Lagos is not a pleasant thing. I consider it as one of the worst things that can ever happen to a person especially during rush hours and the rainy season!…. People drive like they leave their brains at home as they kiss their wives or family goodbye(or whatever they do before the leave the house)… Bus drivers butting heads with private cars, Okada (motorcyclists)  men riding like they have got 9 lives, trailers forgetting that they have containers on their backs, LASMA ( One of the various traffic control agencies) men causing more traffic in the name of maintaing law and order on the road… etc…

Something really odd happened to me this morning on my way to work. It was like people set out today to damage my sweet baby… 1st it was a bus driver that decided to park right in front of a junction just as he saw me turn on my indicator light to get out of the street. so now I am stuck there just moving out slowly…. I let that slide and move on with my day…. ( Already I left my house late! You can imagine the rush) So I’m driving, driving, driving ( well it takes me about 2hrs to get to work when I leave the house late… On a normal day, its about 1hr 30mins sometimes less)  then this crazy dude just cuts in front of me at high speed! and I am like WTH! (trying so hard not to curse at 6:40 sumfin am)…. Again I keep going and going and going…. Somewhere called Obalende, a school girl on Okada hits my side mirror and gives it a 180 degree turn! at this point, I just had to insult the girl (by now its 8:00 am and I’m late 4 work!)…. To top it up, my driver in his haste destroys the plastic covering over my fender! arrrghhh…. Hope the drive back home would be much better!

I wonder sometimes, why Lagos drivers are that way. They only behave themselves when they are forced to. I hear it is not like that in other parts of the country…. Why is Lagos different? Are we not all Nigerians? Most of the traffic is caused by some silly guy stopping abruptly in the middle of the road for no reason, some other silly guy not allowing just one car to change lanes therefore holding the other people behind ransom etc… we really need redemption on our roads. Safety is another big problem but that would be a blog for another day…

Got frustrated on the road lately? Share your experience