It was a beautiful cloudy day in lagos, and Mr.Nonsowrites said to himself, “it is a beautiful day! Let’s go and drive,” Unbeknown to him He was going to do more than driving today.
So he ventured into the streets and got his first-day trip. Unlike the previous rideshare platform he uses, this new app doesn’t disclose the rider’s destination until the ride begins. So it came as a shock to him when he discovered that the trip was to the notorious Apapa.
Nonowrites had heard bad stories about Apapa. Most drivers advised him never to take that route, but nonsowrites like money and adventure. Plus, the lady who booked the ride was pleasant.
It was a good trip. Nonsowrites had a decent conversation with his rider and Apapa did not look that bad. The roads were decent and there were enough sites to feast one’s eyes on.
Now, the issue with this driveshare business is never the dropoff, but navigating your way back to a familiar location. As someone who has lived most of his life in lagos but doesn’t know anywhere, nonsowrites have to rely on Google Maps, which has failed him countless times but he has no other option if he wants to continue this business.
Everything was going fine on this trip, however, as nonsowrites got to a certain part of the bridge with multiple exit points he got confused. He needed to react quickly to the voice command–which he did. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong turn.
While trying to navigate his way out of the wrong route–and this happened in a split second–two strange men jumped in front of his vehicle. Nonsowrites froze. At first, he thought, "this must be taskforce office,” but he did not pick up any passengers along the way. Also, the man in front of his car wasn’t wearing any uniform, however, the one at the side had this lastma vest on.
Trouble
“Why did you pack on the express?” they asked whilst banging on nonsowrites tyres. These were not the typical lastma guys, these were hooligans masquerading as lastma officers. Nonsowrites was scared and forgot the major rule when dealing with these guys: never let them into your car. He did let them in and that was his biggest mistake.
It was a long drive to their station. At some point, nonsowrites thought he had been kidnapped. Eventually, we got to their station and nosnsowrites was asked to pay a $100 fine. he explained that he had not stopped but was trying to navigate his way away from the buses in front of him, but that all that fell on deaf ears.
To cut the long story short, nonswrites pathed with about $30. He could not drive for the rest of the day after the traumatic experience and he is here documenting the experience. Another shitty day in the life of nonsowrites. But as always he takes it in his strides.
LESSON LEARNT
- Always put your pointer on (immediately) when having issues navigating(or any issue at all) on the road
- The police and other road officers aren’t there for your safety. They are extorters and you should avoid them like a plague.
- Never drive to Apapa or any of the notorious places in lagos
- Bad things happen irrespective of how you feel.