6 THINGS YOU WILL LEARN FROM LAGOS TRAFFIC. You don’t need anyone to tell you that Lagos, Nigeria’s smallest city and most populated state is the home of hectic traffic congestion in the country. While people in Europe point at Moscow as a city with severe traffic deadlocks, in Africa we point at Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. But, while Lagos’ traffic deserves all the hatred it has gathered over the years, below are 6 things you can learn and benefit from it. 1. Increase your vocabulary (lol) – Have you ever been so vexed at someone that you didn’t know the right words to use in either expressing your anger or qualifying the person’s stupidity? If yes, then I recommend you spend at least 15 mins in Lagos’ traffic (preferably in the evening when motorists are exhausted) and your inadequacies will be a thing of the past. At accident spots in the traffic you will hear words like: You are a nincompoop; Shut up! You this idiotic fool; Hold on a minute, do you know who I am? You this clumsy homo-neanderthalensis and the list goes on. 2. Mobile shopping – Every traffic location in Lagos is a Point of Sale terminal. Traders hawk all manner of goods and motorists patronize them as an alternative to regular mall shopping. What is it you are contemplating to buy from that shop or supermarket when you get home? Save yourself the disappointment of not meeting the seller when you get home and buy it from the mobile shop. In Lagos traffics, you can get anything. From snacks to fresh meats; fresh pepper to cooking oil; cooking utensils to even workshop tools; mind you, you don’t pay for the goods until you have collected both the goods and your change else… you can find out yourself. 3. Nothing causes Traffic – Whoever it was that told you there was a reason for everything certainly didn’t consider the causes of traffic in Lagos before making such a conclusion. Traffic in Lagos is set at auto-run; congestions automatically build-up at different locations without a cause and most times even LASTMA officials onsite. 4. Some Races are a Merry-go-round – It will amaze you to see how people drive in Lagos. Everybody drives in a random manner as if the roads were zigzag. The fact is everybody wants to get home on time but the reality is, when two vehicles collide, the drivers will come out of their cars and start arguing for so long that vehicles that were way behind will eventually catch up with them and leave them behind thereby making their haste all in vain. 5. Traffic kills creativity and reduces efficiency – Lagosians are night-crawlers and early-risers and by now I believe you should know why. Indeed, it is normal to see people sleeping in buses on their way to and from work daily. On getting to the office after spending hours in traffic, people tend to be tired, loose creativity and efficiency. 6. Traffic adds to unemployment rate – I will leave you to imagine the number of people that show up late at their respective places of work daily due to gridlocks. What’s the number? Whatever it is you answered to that question is correct provided the number is outrageous. Employers are aware of the terrible traffic situation in Lagos but seldom do care and I don’t blame them because they didn’t create the situation. Their dissatisfaction with employee’s lateness to work always results first in dock and eventually getting fired. Apparently, since no traffic control strategy in Lagos seem to have worked so far including more bridges and more traffic regulating agencies then, Lagosians just have to keep getting the best out of this problem. By Emmanue Essien
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 08:43:50 +0000
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