It’s a beautiful day indeed, even though I had one of the most hectic ones I’ve had in a while. Anyone who knows me knows that I try my best to reduce the regularity with which I go out of the house, especially if it’s a long distance something because I know just how stressful it can be, especially for me now that I’m in Lagos.
But then, no matter how hard I try, something will always come up for me and I’ll always have to go out. Once in a while, I’ll have to take multiple buses to get to the point where I want to get to simply because I have to do it. I only go out when I absolutely have to. And today, I absolutely had to go out.
I had to get to Ikeja today… yeah, another computer wahala. I actually left my home early because I wanted to be home early enough to still catch up with all I had to do today. I left home early enough, trying to beat traffic so that everything would go according to plan.
Unfortunately, everything didn’t go according to plan, but it wasn’t because of traffic as you most likely guessed. The road was free in fact and the traffic jam was kinda light, both when I was going and on my way back. The trouble was actually a Police problem.
While we were going, we came upon a checkpoint, and then our driver was flagged down. The police officer stood in the path of the bus while waving him to the side of the road. However, the driver didn’t go to the side. He kept driving closer and closer as if he was expecting the police officer to give way. He was being stubborn, and the police officer was also stubborn as well. But by the time the driver realized that the officer wouldn’t budge, he then tried to move to the side of the road as ordered. But it was too late.
According to all the officers at the checkpoint, he had endangered the life of the officer and had tried to run him over with the bus. At once, one of them got on and ordered all of us to get off. As in ehn… see me see trouble ooo! As far as they were concerned, that bus wasn’t going to move an inch, they were going to tow it to their station and once it got there, they would decide what to do next.
This driver begged and begged, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Other passengers tried to beg as well, but it didn’t work. Everyone knew that the driver was wrong, he should have simply obeyed the officer and parked the bus. But no, he had to try his luck. It turned out that they knew him very well. The officer had purposefully stayed in the path of the bus because he knew that anything less, the driver would have sped off.
But for me, I wasn’t having it because I was pissed. I had paid N500 for the trip and I had not even gone up to half. I wasn’t ready to leave my money for the driver either, that would have messed up my plans for today. I spent about 30 minutes there until I managed to get N300 from him, he also settled the other passengers as well. At first, he didn’t want to, he kept claiming that he didn’t have any money, but that was clearly not true because we had all paid him. Where did the money we paid him go to? Did it vanish into thin air?
While all this was going on, the police officers kept saying that was just who he was. He always told lies that were never really believable. That seemed to reinforce my belief that they knew him very well. Even with the way the driver was begging them, he also knew them well. I knew where it was all going to end, but I also had to get to where I was going and I was looking to have as little contact with the Police as possible.
So, once I collected my N300, I got on the next bus to where I was going. N300 was just enough to get me there at the distance. I had another hitch though, using Google Maps to find a place in Computer Village… it wasn’t easy at all and quite frustrating. But that’s a story for another day. What matters the most is that I did what I went there to do and now, I’m back home in time to tell you all about it.
It’s been a great day indeed.
