By the way, this hold up was caused by a really tiny bad spot on the road between two of Nigerias’ richest states!
While in that hold up, I realized a number of things.
I realized an ingenuity and never say die attitude of our people.
Women immediately whipped out frying pans and started frying yams, meat and other edibles for motorists to buy. Young boys began marketing call cards and even offering commercial phone services for motorists who wanted to make emergency arrangements with family members. The hold up spot became immediately a beehive of business activity.
Nigerians are hard working. Very hardworking people and I was proud of those who made good use of the opportunity – as they say in our special pidgin English, make all no for loss!
I also discovered that Nigerians could be very impatient people. Motorists will drive carelessly and obstruct the lanes of upcoming vehicles or vehicles going the opposite direction. Of course this caused more of a jam and prolonged the amount of time everyone stayed on the road.
I discovered too that Nigerians obey the whip and the whip alone!
Some motorists had tried to stop erring drivers from obstructing the opposite lanes. They earned themselves insults and curses and in some cases, beatings (it was really a crazy scene!)
With the arrival of the Mobile Police van at 6.45pm, amidst a lot of flogging and breaking of side mirrors, we were able to move out of our 3hour spot in only 15minutes.
During our three hours stay, I realized that some Nigerian men have still not gotten the picture that the African woman is no longer a cooking-cleaning-childbearing slave.
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