Life in Lagos has really thought me a whole lot of things, here the weak magically learn to become strong and in some situation it's not because you want to but because of the day to day struggle that can be so challenging, tiring, frustrating and annoying all at once.
Then to think of coming out from your comfort zone to hit the road of Lagos is one annoying experience, but then it's something we have to do to survive and make daily bread.
Generally, due to the massive population in Lagos there always tend to be road traffic all most all the time, even on days that there are so called public holiday. The traffic would even tend to be more crazier on such days, that it has even changed my mindset on weekends being the craziest traffic jam day.
Well the thing is this traffic's most times are caused due to the poor road and gutter drainage, accidents or in a situation where two frustrated drivers decides to block the road because of an argument or impatience.
Most times it's no longer encouraging to wake up much early so as to beat the traffic because when you feel or have the thought that you should wake up early so you don't get stuck on the road so you try to hit the the road early, you will just end up meeting the traffic.
It feels like everyone had the same thought as you, so there's honestly no early time or late time to avoid getting stuck in traffic, you just have to let Mr Luck play his part.
So here is a story of one of my worst traffic day, I seem to have thousands of bad traffic day, But I will be sharing with you just one of those frustrating moment.
Some years back, a very close friend of my brother invited him for a musical concert so I decided to tag along. It was my going to be my first time so I was really excited and looked forward to that day. It was an evening event so I had all the time to prepare and get ready for it.
Fast forward to me, my brother and some friends hitting the road that day.
It was around 5pm and we already left the house, the concert will be starting by 8pm so we felt we had enough time. We boarded our first bus, the weather was fair and the road was really free so we had no traffic worries, we had two more drops before we'd finally get to our destination.
We came down from the first bus, then we entered the second bus, some minutes later the bus started moving slowly, slowly until it stopped and the first thing that came to my mind was traffic, but it wasn't traffic the bus had run out of fuel.
Everyone started talking, complaining and saying all sort of things to the driver and conductor (someone that calls out for passenger and also collects money in the bus from the passengers). There was no fuel station around, the conductor guy had to take a bike to a fuel station to get fuel.
The thought of boarding another bus wasn't even an option because we already paid to the conductor, so we had to wait. It didn't take much time and the guy was back and we hit the road again.
So we came down from the second bus and entered the last one that will take us close to our destination, few minutes later the bus started slowing down then I was like 'Not again' thinking it was a fuel issue again, only to realize that it was traffic....damn it was already past 7 and we weren't even close to where we were going.
Source
Thirty minutes gone and we were still at the same spot so we finally decided to come down from the bus and then the thought to take a bike which would have been the fastest means to get to the concert but then it wasn't safe, because the road was so congested so we walked and trekked like never before until we finally got there, it was already past 10pm.
The journey was a bit fun because we were in group but then I kept sighing and grumbling because my legs were already aching.
All my life in the jungle of Lagos that was the longest I have ever trekked, I felt so much pain on my legs for days.