When I travel cross-country by road for a journey that will take not less than ten hours, especially to a destination (like Abuja) I am not too familiar with, I prefer to travel by night. Apart from the fact that I wouldn't like to waste precious day hours starring into nothingness while the journey lasts, it is also so that I can arrive at my destination in daylight.
My choice of transportation for these journeys are the huge luxury buses traversing the length and breadth of Nigeria mostly at night, and not any smaller vehicles that though exposed to the same dangers appear to be safer or rather much more successful in bringing passengers to their destinations in one piece most of the time.
When it became imperative that I will be travelling to Abuja as well as other towns and cities in my itinerary, I did what I would normally do- travel by night, by the transport company I had severally tested and trusted. In fact, because of my frequent traveller status I didn't anymore have to divulge much information when buying my ticket as the other details easily come up. They also have e-portals via which one can even book seats for travel.
This journey was very much anticipated by me because of the many things I intend to pursue and accomplish before returning to base in Lagos, mixing business with pleasure when and where I can. The formalities of boarding completed we soon set out of Lagos to what seemed to be the routine, not-out-of-place journey. I had blocked out the world (including the man hawking drugs to passengers while the bus waltzed it's way out of Lagos at reasonable speed) as usual with my earpiece strapped tightly to my ears, listening to the news at six on Inspiration FM, 92.3 Lagos, followed by the news on Classic FM, 97.3 by 6:30 and finally "Kubanji Direct", a current affairs programme on Radio Continental 102.3 FM from 7pm, while downloading a remix of Ini Kamoze's "Worl'A Reggae" before I noticed that the bus wasn't keeping pace with the other vehicles on the road.
The driver eventually parked the bus right beside the gate of "Redeemed Camp", and after a while informed us passengers that the bus had developed a clutch problem and the journey with that bus couldn't continue. We would have to disembark and await the arrival of another bus to come in about an hour or two, reboard before continuing the journey to our destination. I have learnt in situations like this to keep my cool, assess the situation before deciding my next action, so while other passengers raised their voice in attack and insults hurled in the direction of the driver and his assistant, I simply looked out for escape routes I could employ should the night become sorrier than it is already.
The police patrol vehicle that was just a few meters from where our luxury bus was parked was soon moved away by the police in it, and I wondered why and how they could do that seeing that we were distressed passengers, left out there by a freak of happenstance with nowhere else to go but wait for the replacement vehicle, we had been promised will come for us. Those policemen further cemented within me, and I guess with my co-travelers the truth that the Nigerian police have come to represent over time, the opposite of their popular slogan to the effect that "THE NIGERIAN POLICE IS YOUR FRIEND", when they conveniently become inconspicuous when you need them the most.
So, I surveyed the height of the small fence of the Conoil Petrol station, and how easily I could scale it into the expansive compound of the Redeemed Camp, should the unexpectedly unwanted happened, while appreciative of the full moon that provided the much needed illumination on that part of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, while awaiting the "replacement luxury" bus that is to come and relieve us from our state of traveling limbo, now even after two hours.
'kovich
My choice of transportation for these journeys are the huge luxury buses traversing the length and breadth of Nigeria mostly at night, and not any smaller vehicles that though exposed to the same dangers appear to be safer or rather much more successful in bringing passengers to their destinations in one piece most of the time.
When it became imperative that I will be travelling to Abuja as well as other towns and cities in my itinerary, I did what I would normally do- travel by night, by the transport company I had severally tested and trusted. In fact, because of my frequent traveller status I didn't anymore have to divulge much information when buying my ticket as the other details easily come up. They also have e-portals via which one can even book seats for travel.
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| THE LUXURY BUS ABOUT BOARDING TIME |
This journey was very much anticipated by me because of the many things I intend to pursue and accomplish before returning to base in Lagos, mixing business with pleasure when and where I can. The formalities of boarding completed we soon set out of Lagos to what seemed to be the routine, not-out-of-place journey. I had blocked out the world (including the man hawking drugs to passengers while the bus waltzed it's way out of Lagos at reasonable speed) as usual with my earpiece strapped tightly to my ears, listening to the news at six on Inspiration FM, 92.3 Lagos, followed by the news on Classic FM, 97.3 by 6:30 and finally "Kubanji Direct", a current affairs programme on Radio Continental 102.3 FM from 7pm, while downloading a remix of Ini Kamoze's "Worl'A Reggae" before I noticed that the bus wasn't keeping pace with the other vehicles on the road.
The driver eventually parked the bus right beside the gate of "Redeemed Camp", and after a while informed us passengers that the bus had developed a clutch problem and the journey with that bus couldn't continue. We would have to disembark and await the arrival of another bus to come in about an hour or two, reboard before continuing the journey to our destination. I have learnt in situations like this to keep my cool, assess the situation before deciding my next action, so while other passengers raised their voice in attack and insults hurled in the direction of the driver and his assistant, I simply looked out for escape routes I could employ should the night become sorrier than it is already.
The police patrol vehicle that was just a few meters from where our luxury bus was parked was soon moved away by the police in it, and I wondered why and how they could do that seeing that we were distressed passengers, left out there by a freak of happenstance with nowhere else to go but wait for the replacement vehicle, we had been promised will come for us. Those policemen further cemented within me, and I guess with my co-travelers the truth that the Nigerian police have come to represent over time, the opposite of their popular slogan to the effect that "THE NIGERIAN POLICE IS YOUR FRIEND", when they conveniently become inconspicuous when you need them the most.
So, I surveyed the height of the small fence of the Conoil Petrol station, and how easily I could scale it into the expansive compound of the Redeemed Camp, should the unexpectedly unwanted happened, while appreciative of the full moon that provided the much needed illumination on that part of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, while awaiting the "replacement luxury" bus that is to come and relieve us from our state of traveling limbo, now even after two hours.
'kovich
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Travelling of course, has a number of merits including enhancing business opportunities and one can even increase his business contacts in the course.
ReplyDeleteDespite govt warnings against night travels, people can't avoid it. As a typical Nigerian, all I can say is: let God take control.
I doubt if your travel company deliberately put a faulty bus on the road. I'm sure they're more organised than that, unlike several other mostly smaller transport people. But I trust Nigerians, they're never patient.
Most of the journeys made using luxury buses are done at night, and please don't ask me for research result/findings, you'll just know if like me, you travel by night mostly across the ends of Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened with our bus is simply one of those things that could happen to machines but they did send another for us, the events following which you'd find in (2) of NAIJA TOUR.