My ill luck with buses and bus drivers
People who are familiar with Lagos, Nigeria will agree with me that Lagosians are mad people especially when it comes to driving. No one is exactly sane.
Also, you will agree that Lagos passengers are crazy people as well. There's just always a lot of drama waiting to unfold whenever you enter a commercial vehicle.
Because of the terrible traffic situation of Lagos Roads, no one prays to enter a bus that is faulty (may break down in the middle of the journey), will have an accident(even as little as bashing another car or almost) or has a slow driver.
Recently, I've been having a lot of bad luck with the buses I've been boarding. I've had all three of this experiences.
The first time was Friday last week, I was rushing to get to work in time when I boarded a BRT. The driver drove like a snail so much that the passengers were aggravated and almost went physical with him.
A journey that would've normally taken an hour amounted to two hours. To make it more annoying, the driver decided to accelerate his speed when we were about five minutes from our destination.
And just when we thought we were gonna alight in time, he hit a coming vehicle.
Lord! This alone delayed us for extra ten minutes or more. The thing with Lagos is that once a car gets hit, no one moves on. At least not the hit car or the car that hit.
That day, I got to work at 9:01 am exactly; an work is scheduled to commence at 9 am. Thank God I left home early.
That same day, I was returning home from work and took a commercial bus. The driver decided to stop on the 3rd mainland bridge to help tow another bus. It was so annoying as there was thick traffic jam ahead and the driver did not even seek our permission before doing so or even apologize after. He even went further to insult as many as complained about his actions. I got to my destination by past 8 pm after leaving the office by 6:30 pm or so.
Finally, yesterday, I entered a bus whose driver hit the mirror of a small car while in haste. There was a short tussle between the owner of the car and the bus driver. It was decided that the bus driver should park at a corner so the matter could be resolved. Once he was allowed to move, my bus driver drove off and left the man behind.
In the middle of the third mainland bridge, our bus developed a fault. People began to say that it was because he had left that driver stranded that karma had occurred to our bus. Perhaps that was true, perhaps not. We had to go slow and steady till we arrived our destination.
I've had poor luck with buses lately. But today, I am in a bus that is taking me to my destination without fault or accident. If you live in Lagos, you need to be indeed led to pick a good bus. Otherwise, all the buses are relatively bad.
God help us all.
- Chizaram Opara
