The Day I Almost Died

_{Photo by Dami Akinbode}

I've read stories of how people find love in most strangest of places. If it's not on a protest ground, then it's probably in traffic. You see them writing stuff like "I thank God I got stuck in traffic for two hours six months ago because if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have met the love of my life" and then I begin to wonder what kind of traffic do this people get stuck in because ladies and gentlemen, I've been in a lot of traffics, some so long that it takes literally hours for me to get to my destination yet the only thing I end up leaving with is a sweaty and itchy body.

If you're a Nigerian living in lagos then you most definitely know how frustrating lagos traffics can be. Sometimes when it gets so tough and I get out of the commercial vehicle to walk the remaining distance, I see the looks on the faces of all of this drivers faces and I feel sorry for them because I know they all were thinking the same thing "If only I could step out of this car and walk just like this brother is doing" but unfortunately they can't because it's their vehicle and the last thing you want to do in a place like lagos, is leave your vehicle unprotected and walk home. When you get back to your car the next day, you might walk past it at first because you won't even recognise the empty vehicle in front of you.

And this is because some of this guys can be very creative when stealing your car parts. Some of them even remove things you never knew could be removed.

Anyways back to the traffic.

From my experience as a prominent member of the traffic association, I've come to notice that traffics are much more worse on Friday evenings and this is because this is the time when people return back home from all of their various places of work, even those who left for work on Mondays and haven't been home ever since. They all usually come back on Friday evenings so it's usually hell every Friday evening and unfortunately for me, some Friday evenings happen to be the day I go for vigil in my church. So imagine being stuck in traffic and also not being able to curse at reckless drivers because you're going to church.

My worse traffic jam happened one day when I got into one of those long lagos commercial buses known as the Molue Bus. I usually don't enter this kind of bus because of how they always pack it up with way too many people (than the usual amount), but I had to that day because they weren't really any smaller vehicle going my way and it was cheaper. So I got in and then we got stuck in traffic.

How I survived that day should be added to one of the seven wonders of the world because everything in that bus that day was aiming for my life. From the heat, to the body odor, to every other thing. I eventually got down at my station and made a secret vow with myself never to put myself through that ever again.