WHAT A JOURNEY!
Mom: Where una don reach now?
Me: We stee dey Benin o
Mom: Una don too tay na!
It was a Lagos trip, the whole delay started from the point I paid for my ticket. I wait wait wait soteeee! I almost grew lean!
There were so many passengers but bus was yet to come. Got to the park by 7:am and after spending like 30mins waiting for the Agofure bus to come and pick us to Lagos, the attendant suggested we join one of their buses which took us to another Agofure park in Warri just to get more passengers heading the Lagos way.
It took another 30mins to arrive Warri and took another 30mins to get the bus filled. Time don dey go, Twas 9am already, people started complaining. Oga move this motor Abeg!
Finally finally we zoomed off, and before you know it, we were in Benin. My brothers and sisters coman see Traffic!
When will we leave here? The whole place was jammed up, no where to turn.
Everybody was wallowing in delirium, sweat oozing from every corner, even the ‘Koroffo’ and the Yellow fever police men where more confused.
Before you know it, Twas 12:00pm, we neva even near Lagos. Chai!
See me See wahala!
I was so pissed
God so kind, after like an hour, the coast cleared up, we set off on the road again. Breathe in!
It less than 30mins of our journey, what seemed like a carefully planned witch hunt shook my liver! Another big one happened, and trust me you can’t even try to spell the guess
Our car broke down, one of the tube (tyre) burst! Kpoooooo! Like the sound of an AK-47! Everybody was saving his head.
Vehicle screeched heavily and eventually halted! Driver came down from the bus, looking heavily frustrated in his green uniform. Watin be dis na!
First it was delay at the park, and then a very crazy traffic jam in Benin town and now this! O Lawd! Kuku kee me!
All the passengers had had too much to bear, hence they gave an outburst, they nagged the living day light out of the driver, beginning from the management of the transport service, to their staff, and then to all the other Agofure buses…lol
Now, what’s the way forward?
The driver had a spare tyre in the bus but there’s a big problem still…
The bus was packed full with luggage and bag of garri and all the ‘Gbogboye’ travelers travel with, the problem now was how to offload all this meticulously packed goods and luggage from the bus, bring out the spare tyre and then reload the bus again.
This conundrum set people onto a state of delirium and exasperation …Chai this is just a bad day!
Anyways, How we go do na, we must go the Lagos o! So we the passengers joined the driver as We offloaded all the baggage and heavy heavy items there in and brought out the spare tyre. Hurray!
Naso o, we also supported the driver in fixing the new tyre, nor be small tin o, dat day eh, everybody in the bus became a mechanic. lol
In brief, we finished and packed everything in again and then hit the road. Zuuuuuum!
There was no stop again till we arrived Ore for the normal stop. We did 20mins for refreshments and assembled again to continue the journey, one person was missing. We nor know where he waka go.
After sometime, he came back after we don wait wait wait, remain small the driver for go leave am.
Twas 4pm already, heading Ore to lasgidi, mom’s incessant calls almost ran my battery dead; ‘You neva still reach’? I didn’t know how to start narrating all the wahala we’ve been through.
As if we’ve not had enough, Another shocker met our eyes as We met a very long traffic jam just after we passed Ore. The traffic looooooooog, as a mata of seriousness, all the drivers and car owners came down from their cars, a number of them were just so fed up to the extent that they brought out food from their cars and started eating, some of them were walking about making friends and gisting. lol What a journey!
Our own driver came down, we followed him and all of us on realizing the deadlock in the traffic, naso we put hand for head… Kukuma kee me!
A sudden thanksgiving outbreak began when we learned what the actual cause of the deadlock was…! You still can’t try to guess this one…!
The traffic has been on a standstill for over an hour, as we learned that a steady ROBBERY operation was going on in front, and because the info came, cars were halted awaiting when they see other vehicles coming from the other lane of the highway, which will mean that the robbery was over now, and that the road was free.
ARMED ROBBERS have been on the highway stopping and robbing every car and their passengers of their belongings, from where we were, we could here sounds of gunshots but all we could do at this point was to sing praises to the MOST-HIGH and thank Him greatly for the series of delay he made us go through.
Onlookers who watched us as we were thanking God and singing knew not what orthe reason why we should be that happy and thankful even in such a tensed situation, they had no idea what we’ve been through or what a hectic delay we passed through to get to that point.
IT WOULD HAVE BEEN US!
Suppose we were not slowed down by all the numerous delays and challenges which we complained and nagged about during our journey, we would have been among those robbed and shot.
We had no clue what God was saving us from. All we did was groan and complain!
The wait was long, but this time we didn’t bother anymore, we were no longer in a rush to get to Lagos.
After a while we saw vehicles coming from the other lane which means the robbery was over but vehicles on the traffic refused to move for the fear of who will go first, nobody won die
It took a while o, but las las one man summoned courage and drove forward, only then did the traffic begin to move. As we drove we saw cars parked in front, people wailing, their properties and luggage all scattered around the road, destroyed by the robbers.
Phones gone, cash irrecoverable, people stranded on the highway loitering confused reaching out for help.
That would have been our situation!
But God saved us!
Meanwhile during the deadlock a police van drove and joined the traffic, we were happy that our savior had arrived, Oya na, Police should go and rescue the robbery situation in front, for where!lol
They didn’t answer anybody o! They carefully drove into a petrol station along the road and parked their van there. They didn’t come down o, they remained in the car pressing their phones. These are uniform men who had guns and ammunition in their possession…Smh
Naija Police … In their minds; “Na who Una won kill”?
My dear reader, look back at that terrible situation you’re going through at the moment, it may seem like a Waterloo or something insurmountable, but on a second thought, see it as God’s handiwork, according to Drake, ‘GODSPLAN’.
And for one Sec, go down your kneels, don’t ask Him for anything, just give him thanks for everything! Cos you have no idea what situation in front of you He’s taking care of, just so you can have a smooth ride through life’s journey!
From me to you…
#ItzPr0gr3X
Author
Progress Oberiko
I am a people-centered Writer and Storyteller with over 12 years experience. I curate stories, articles and essays using lived experiences.
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