Not your typical type of journey

Public transportation in Nigeria can be pretty boring most of the time but sometimes, you come across things that make it interesting or just end up scarring you for life. To give you an idea of how crazy it can be, out of all the entries I have read from other Nigerians on this topic, only one person had a positive memorable experience with public transportation, and it wasn't even entirely positive.

And the funny thing is that most of those bad experiences happened in one State: Lagos. When it comes to people talking about their horrible public transportation service in Lagos, just know that it is always caused by one thing: traffic. How do people even cope with the road traffic over there? I stayed in that city for just a month and I almost went crazy because of the intense traffic. If I hadn't traveled to Lagos, 8 probably wouldn't have any memorable experiences to talk about, so here we go.

My experience

I did my industrial training (I.T)in Lagos last year and unlike other people's I.T, my entire class went together to one institute in Lagos and we lived together in an accommodation provided by the institute. The headquarters of the institute is located in Victoria Island while the accommodation is at Ajah. We usually go to the HQ every morning and without heavy traffic, the journey would have taken an hour but was there ever not heavy traffic? Nope, so the journey usually took at least 3 hours.

We usually leave the house around 5 a.m., just so that we can arrive at the institute on time (usually 8, or at most 9 a.m.). On this particular day, we left the house by 6 a.m. and after just a few minutes' drive, we encountered heavy traffic which was abnormal because we don't usually meet much traffic on that road. We were moving slowly and we finally got to the underside of a bridge (Ajah Bridge). That was where we met the mother of all traffic jams.

It was so crazy to the point that our bus didn't move for over an hour. We were all frustrated and decided to call the institute that we wouldn't be able to come in that day but the very strict director insisted that we come no matter what, so we had no choice but to sit in traffic. After moving at a snail's pace, we finally got moving at a reasonable speed again and we arrived at the institute around 12 p.m.

Remember when I said we left the house? Yes, 6 a.m. and we arrived at the institute around 12 p.m., a 6-hour journey that should have been just an hour! That was the longest traffic I have been in all my life. Oh, and it gets worse. We spent just a few hours at the institute and it was finally time to go home. We had an arrangement with the bus driver that we would call him to come pick us up when we were ready to go back to the house, but there was a big problem.

This period was during the intense fuel scarcity last year and when we called the driver, he said he couldn't make it because he couldn't find a place to buy petrol. So, we decided to just start taking regular commercial buses from one bus stop to another. We got to the first bus park and met a lot of people waiting for a bus. One bus finally arrived after a while and everything went crazy as everyone struggled to get on.

I have never fought to get onto a bus before but that day, I was just shoving and pushing people just to get a seat. I managed to get in with some of my classmates and the others decided to wait for another bus. Things were very uncomfortable in the bus because it was overcrowded and one of my classmates was sitting on my lap, not a very fun moment. After close to an hour of the torturous journey, we got to the next bus stop and I couldn't even feel my legs.

At the next bus stop, we met the same scene: twice the crowd and no bus in sight. We joined the crowd and kept waiting for a bus but none came. After an hour, it dawned on us that we were stranded and we were still very far from home. Some of my female classmates managed to beg a truck driver to let us hitch a ride and when he agreed, other people who were there quickly took that opportunity as well to get on the back of the truck. I also fought my way to get on the truck and got some injuries on my arm and legs.

The rest of the journey was just filled with jumping from one vehicle to another. From the truck to a bus, then to a tricycle which took us to Ajah bridge, and finally a motorcycle from the bridge to where we were staying, the whole journey was a rollercoaster of pain. I remember the one thing I just kept saying all through that day; "I hate Lagos, I hate Lagos, I hate Lagos". There were a couple of fun activities during my stay there but that particular experience that day with the crazy traffic ruined the whole Lagos experience.

Even when we were going to Lagos from Benin, the trip was very interesting and fun because we hired a luxurious bus. We watched movies, played games, ate delicious foods, and did a lot of other fun activities while on the journey to Lagos but right now, I have forgotten a lot about that fun part, the one experience that still remains clear as day is this bad one I just described. That's the one thing I can narrate with very high accuracy all through the one month I stayed in Lagos. Their public transportation and road network over there is on another level, definitely not something I would ever want to experience again.

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