You got stuck in an obnoxious traffic jam for over 30 minutes between the First Bank/Hayin Banki Junction in Kawo, Kaduna to the flyover. As you gofurther, you notice that all of the cars, I mean all of the driversare on a different lane.
The cars on the slow lane will be signaling to go back to the highspeed lane the moment they get to the foot of the flyover, meaningthey were supposed to be on the fast lane all along as they are going out of Kaduna not inside Kawo in the first place while the ones onthe high speed lane are signaling to veer unto the slow lane becausethey are actually going into Kawo not outside Kaduna. Then you start wondering, did these drivers go through a driving school? If they didnot, do they get to acquire any knowledge about the dos and don’ts ofdriving and the rules and regulations of road use?
At the filling station at the foot of the Kawo bridge is a long fuel queue. You suppose that is what caused the havoc in thefirst place, but then the foot of the Kawo Bridge has always been amad house. It was then it dawned on you that the filling station isnot supposed to be there in the first place, everything about the location is completely wrong. You wondered who gave the owner thelicense to open a filling station at a junction as tight as that of Kawo, very close to residence and a general hospital.
Back to the queue; it could be best described as a gathering of mad people because of the unruly manner exhibited. There were two fuel queues, one from the First Bank Junction, and the other from inside Kawo, leading into the fillingstation.
Despite the fact that the exit from Kawo is a one way road, no one bothers to use that road unless those going to Mando or the Express way. Imagine the JAM! Motorists coming into town from the outskirts just wait at the foot of the flyover, seeking the slightest opportunity to enter Kawo without having to go through the long lane and making a u-turn at the First Bank Junction as they should; therebycausing more confusion.
Meanwhile, there is a boy and two men excreting at the foot of the bridge amidst the chaos; at 7.20pm! As the gridlock enabled you to get to the intersection where you will enter Kawo, you encounter another gridlock; a lane oftraffic from and into Kawo and a fuel queue all on the same tiny one lane road. Determined to be careful and not getyour car smashed, you decided to wait for the jeeps and bigger cars coming from Kawo to pass before you go, as there is no way two cars can pass without a scratch. Yourpatience attracts insults from the men on the fuel queue, calling you names.
You ignored them, pretending not to hear, feeling nothing butdisdain and pity for the bunch of confused people called Nigerians. When the road became clear, you passed and went home thinking thereare no worse species of dumb people in the world.
Nigeria is one of the world’s largest producers of oil, yet someimbeciles just get up one day and decide to create artificial scarcity. They hoard the commodity for a day or two, then bring it out and double the price. And Nigerians will rush it as thoughtheir lives depended on it. No comments, no questions, no protest.
Just meekly queue up and buy the commodity. That is the period somepeople actually pray for, the period to enrichthemselves.We are still smarting from the wounds inflicted by Boko Haram in FGC Buni Yadi. We are still smarting from several other places in Borno state. The $20 billion oil money is still missing.They sacked the best CBN Governor Nigeria has ever had in thelast 20 years. All these are fresh wounds that have not yet start to heal, yet, there are no protests! We just keep swallowing everything in like tuwo miyar kuka!
Last week, when the Abuja group mobilized Nigerians for the proteston insecurity, majority of the protesters were not even of Northernextraction; yet we are the victims. A group of ex-FGC students staged a protest in Lagos and even met with the governor, expressing their dismay and condolence, while our Northern youth are watching football, face booking, pinging andtweeting.
It seems more like our people prefer to waste their energies on fuelqueues and watching football to making an attempt, no matter howfeeble, in righting the many wrongs in our society. As an online commentator rightly said, “the death of the students of FGC Buni Yadi, will go in vain and Nigerians will continue togather at football houses and hailing Arsenal and Man U”. That is our sad reality – a really dumb and daft society.
