'Wahala' is a Nigerian pidgin word that means 'Trouble'. It can be used as a noun to describe a troubling situation or as an exclamation to express shock when something bad happens. In today's post, I am going to exclaim.
Wahala!
For the past 3 weeks, we have been battling with fuel/petrol/gasoline scarcity in Nigeria. Petrol is vital to the Nigerian economy and powers almost every home in Nigeria given that Nigerians do not have or enjoy a constant power supply despite being an oil-producing nation for over six decades.
Life has been terrible for my flatmate and me. About two days ago our electricity was cut off due to some issues. We have had to rely on our inverter and mechanical generator which runs on fuel. The generator happens to be our major source of power, which puts us in a difficult position.
I have been unable to work for the past two days due to no power. Most of my time has been spent on the road, looking for petrol. Yesterday during my search I was lucky to find a petrol station that sold. The queue at the station wasn't too long like other filling stations so I decided to join.
After three hours of waiting patiently in the queue, we were told by the petrol station manager that they were no longer selling petrol to customers. Now here is the funny thing: It was almost my turn. There were barely 6 vehicles in front of me. Secondly, a big tanker with petrol was offloaded right in my presence. So I was perplexed as to why they would stop selling petrol considering it was barely 6 pm and most petrol stations during this period close by 9 or10 pm.
We were promised by the manager that petrol would be sold the next morning so I left. I later got intel the following day that they sold later in the night to other motorists and those selling petrol in the black market for double the price.
I woke up around 5:30 am today to get to the filling station, so I could get a nice spot while I waiting for the station to open by 7:00 am. On getting to the station there were about 10 vehicles already queued up. It was expected. I brushed my teeth on the corner of the road and afterwards waited in my car.
Around 7:00 am the petrol station started to sell petrol. However, it took till about 2:00 pm after a lot of waiting, complaining and fighting before I could purchase petrol for my car and my generator which I had in my booth since they were not selling in kegs. This was the result of poor organization. Vehicles that were not in the queue were allowed to purchase petrol. When we complained to the manager he brushed us off.
"This is Nigeria," I had a couple of times today. These were the statements of ordinary Nigerians who were cheating their fellow countrymen and women, doing things wrongly and boldly justifying it. It was exhausting, to say the least.
The second reason for the delay was the petrol pump(s). There was only one functioning at that moment and it was slow. Mind you, there were a total of four pumps in the filling station but they decided to use one to create a false sense of scarcity. After hours of delay, they turned on another petrol pump. This was around the time I purchased petrol.
Now, I left out one tiny detail. While waiting for petrol, we were locked outside the filling station. The manager said he wanted to reduce the crowd in the station. However, they kept letting people in through the exit which extended our waiting period. When they finally decided to open the gate at around 2 p.m a silly motorist who had just come in recently was trying to double-cross me.
There have been very few times I have been angry this year and this was one of them. I had it over my head. It was either this miscreant let me or I was going to damage both our cars--I wanted the latter.
Probably he thought I was an inexperienced driver so he could outsmart me but I am sure he was shocked by the way I followed through. I scratched the front of his bumper and the side of my car while I was manoeuvring. While he was barking at him I was returning the same energy.
We both are going to act like animals today if this was what it took to get what was duly mine and I did not mind the cost.
After he saw he could not double-cross me, plus I had the support of other motorists who have been with me since 6 a.m, he decided to step back. On getting to the station he mentioned he would have beaten me if I had done more damage to his vehicle. That would have been the worst decision of his life because I was going to break every single glass on that vehicle of his if he had done that and I would have done that with no remorse or even fear of what would happen to me or my vehicle.
Well, I finally got petrol. After all the stress our power was fixed--so we currently have power. I am exhausted and probably will nap again. This sums up my day.
Wahala!