WHY WE ARE THE WAY WE ARE

andrevashaw.blogspot.com

For most part of this year 2017, I have had to commute to work and a few other places by public transport not because I do not have a car to run around but because I decided not to drive for most part of the year given some reasons including trying to keep my sanity having being attacked in broad day light in traffic right in front of a military cantonment and nothing was done by the patrol team who went into the building the hoodlums ran into. Another reason was until Governor Ambode sent those “special people” in uniforms off the streets who were frustrating drivers and car owners thus making driving a nightmare as no matter how hard you tried to keep your car documents together, they would always find a fault or two so as to give you a fine which many times do not come cheap. Unnecessary traffic in some areas was also a big “NO” for me including some other reasons which are best known to me alone. in this city called Lagos.

On some of these commuting by public transport, I would run into a couple of friends and foes alike who would ask me questions such as “why didn’t you drive? I saw you at so and so bus tops, what where you doing standing on the road waiting for a bus when you could have easily driven? Including a host of other cynical questions. My replies usually  included “oh I didn’t feel like driving too far today” or on the days when the car had a small fault “I took it to the mechanic” or was it when I was still battling with road safety for my drivers’ license? Too many instances when I had to be asked questions upon questions on “why did you not drive”?

On several occasions, some of these ‘concerned people’ would say “you like to stress/suffer yourself sha” and my immediate reply would always be “shey before we started owning cars and being driven around town, many of had to move around by public transport until God started blessing us with the wherewithal to buy cars?

Where am I going with all of these?

Dear reader, let me not bore you with long stories anymore.

My point is, we are where we are today as a people and as a nation because of the mentality of “what would people say” so many of us do things that we would not naturally do because we do not want people to talk.

Well, I’m sorry to be the one to re-echo that “no matter how hard you try, or what you do, people will always talk” so no point killing yourself just to please anyone amongst the crowd out there that think or care nothing about you.

Our leaders will continue to steal us “red” because even when the good ones are elected into power/positions, they are put under pressure by family, friends and those around him to steal from the ‘big government pot to prove that they have arrived’ even when they never intended to do such.

The incumbents look at the lives of predecessors who did not steal while in government and how society has all of a sudden forgotten them as they seemingly have nothing to offer being out of government. Their children are mocked and told such lines as “your father was in government for so and so number of years yet he couldn’t do this or that for himself yet see Mr A and Mr D who held the same position for just a few months, their properties, this that and so on all around the place but your father can only boast of that single flat you all live in at the moment”.

After such remarks, tell me why the next person will not steal when elected into power? That’s if he/she is not self-willed against all odds?

It’s really a terrible world we live in. where evil is applauded and good shamed!

The life that many of us live today is not what we ordinarily want but for the sake of society and what the next person would say, we tend to live our lives for people.

Dear reader, that kind of lifestyle must stop.

As 2017 grinds swiftly to an end, take time to access your life and decide upon how you want to run with 2018. If you want to live a simple life, by all means go for it and save yourself the brouhaha of trying to meet up with the bandwagon of those who want to live their lives to please others thereby killing themselves in the long run.

The awful part of joining that “bandwagon” is that if you drop dead today, many of them would not even notice that you are gone and even if they notice, they wouldn’t even attend your funeral. The least most of them would do is type ‘REST IN PEACE’ on your social media timeline for others to read when they visit your page and thereafter everyone would move on without you.

So dear reader, think about 2018 critically and run it at your pace.

Peace!!! 

STELLA ENE-INYANG   

A BLANK DAY: MY MANY THOUGHTS AND I

Since I got into the office this morning, I have been seated at my desk trying to whip up a good blend of topics and also deciding on which to write upon but the clash of topics in my head have restrained me from doing justice to any of them so as an upshot, I would say ‘blank’ is my companion at this very moment.

Too many topics!

Today would have been the late OJB’s 50^th birthday but he chose to celebrate with the angels in heaven and so on my way to the office, I stopped by his place to get some of the branded shirts for his candle light procession billed for later this evening and as soon as I stepped into the premises, behold, his pictures and the condolence register were the first to be seen and then reality sets that truly our very own OJB is no more.

So should I still say “happy birthday Jigga”? All the same, ‘happy birthday Jigga’. I guess that would do.

Then the issue of the ban on street hawking in Lagos took me off the thoughts of OJB for a while and then I am forced to ask nobody in particular “is street hawking our biggest problem or challenge”?

These hawkers do not have alternatives otherwise they wouldn’t be on the streets. Please nobody should get me wrong by thinking me the ‘devil’s advocate’, no, not at all.

However my take is that if these people are taken off the streets completely, what would they fall back on as many of them peddle their wares as a means of livelihood? I kid you not, if there were other jobs, these people wouldn’t be found on the streets because from all indications, street hawking is no lazy man’s job.

Yeah, no lazy man can go ‘street hawking’ as he or she has to bear the burden of running after vehicles under the very sometimes unfriendly weather. Often I feel really bad when some commuters or drivers make the hawkers run after them haggling on price and at the end of the day, do not buy the item. Mtcheew, mean isn’t it? Well sometimes you lose or win some.

Even at that, the hawkers are undaunted as they keep, keeping up on a daily basis, hoping “e go better” one of these days.

Now that ‘means’ is about being taken from them by the government. What is the plan for them? Like someone asked on a lighter note “if they are caught, will they not feed them in the prison for the six months”? A ‘begging question’ there, right?

My take on the ‘hawkers’ issue is that, the government could give them the option of hawking in certain areas and at specific times of the day. But then, who am I to proffer solution? My opinion though.

Another clashing thought is the issue that government is taking over one of the new generation banks today and  news have it that it’s the first of nine banks  intended to be taken over as the times go by.

 

Hmmm! Can it get any worse for the bankers than it has been these past few years, months or days? Maybe, just maybe, it could be a turn of a good era for the bankers so let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Finally, trying to remember the other thought.

Aha! Now I get it. What is with the fight on social media?

Well, I’ll leave that topic for another time as my head is beginning to settle in to work again.

And so, it’s back to work, even as I get ready for the Candle light procession which starts in a few hours.  

GOD! HELP US KEEP OUR COOL BEHIND THE WHEELS!!

No matter how much of a Christian, cultured or classy you are, as long as you drive in Nigeria, especially Lagos, it will take the grace of God for you not to curse or use derogatory words at other road users especially the commercial Bus ‘Danfo’ and  Tricycle ‘Keke Marwa’ drivers, even some private motorists are not left out.

When I mentioned the ‘grace of God’, I didn’t mean just the normal everyday grace but an ‘extra grace’ is what you really need while driving in the city of Lagos; so you keep your cool at such times and not appear uncouth in the eye of the public as these aforementioned drivers can really drive you MAD.

I have always said that NEPA (or is it PHCN), commercial drivers of dnafo, keke marwa, okada et al will have a special place in hell. As for NEPA/PHCN, that will be a topic for another day as our main focus today is on the travails of very sensible road users such as ‘yours sincerely’ which is moi (me) *laughs*. Believe it or not, I am a very sensible driver and road user.

A danfo driver overtakes you wrongly and just when you decide to overlook him the first time and keep moving he stops abruptly right in front of you in the middle of the road to pick passengers without a care in the world whether or not he’s causing traffic or putting the lives of his passengers at risk, should any oncoming truck or another vehicle loses control and runs into them.

And then again, disregarding the blaring of horns from motorists behind, he turns his face in the opposite direction when you eventually drive up to him after successfully maneuvering your way from behind him because he expects that you will rain insults on him so he avoids eye contact by turning in that direction.

He’s unperturbed by the insults (which he gets on a daily basis) given that as soon as he’s done picking up the passengers from that spot, he makes a concerted effort to overtake you again, from any angle he deems fit as though you are in competition with him over who gets the passengers from the next bust stop.

  

Just when you are trying to contain the stupid Danfo driver who is struggling (though with little results) to get the bus on very top speed ahead of you, behold two Keke Marwas on both sides of your car trying to box-you-in the middle of the road like escorts in a motorcade, hence you are conditioned to automatically drive at the pace of the danfo driver who is still maintaining his ‘struggling speed’ in front since you can neither overtake him from the right nor the left. Hmmm! God help you if they don’t leave your car with ‘yellow’ scratches from those tricycles before you eventually detangle yourself from that mess.

99% of these commercial drivers DO NOT understand the rules of driving one bit. They think driving is all about just moving a car from point A to B. Research has shown that many of them from being conductors at the parks, learn the art of driving from within the parks and before you say “Jack”, they are out on the roads/highways endangering lives and sometimes properties as they run into other vehicles or buildings when they lose control.

How about the supposed noncommercial motorists?

What kind of feeling do you get when you are in a slow moving traffic and you allow someone get ahead of you after he/she might have appealed only for the person to get into your lane ahead of you and thereafter gets you out of the original lane? At the end of the day, your lane becomes the illegal line, you then end up being the one begging to get in line again. *laughs*

Arrrrrghhh! I know that feeling. I obliged someone this morning on my way to the office, and guess what! Instead of the driver who was a female to say ‘thank you’, she did not only snort but added “I thought you would not let me in and would also take the road home after you”. To say the least, I was upset. You see, that’s why a lot of people do not oblige drivers get into lines ahead of them. If you asked me, I would say “please don’t criticize such people as they may have learnt from such experiences”.

 

And before I take my leave, let me confess that I lost my cool for a split second as I did not drive off until I had let out a cussing word “Iyalaya” from my mouth even though I immediately said “father please have mercy” even as I drove off feeling a little bad that I just did that. Though I know that some other persons could have done worse after she said that and may eventually have led to a physical fight especially if we had scratched our cars due to a struggle to get in line, I still felt bad that I let out that insult.

These people can really make you mad but then I promise to keep my cool next time. God help me to keep to that promise!