My sojourn from a turbulent mega city to a sedate country side
And Lagos saw war. Ditto Abuja. And other major cities across the country. Certainly not the type of war that Warsaw saw. Not the conventional war where soldiers in armoured tanks deploy weapons of death and destruction.
It was the war of fuel. Or rather the absence of the precious golden liquid. Specifically for Lagos, the war of standstill and gridlock started much earlier. Roads leading to and around the nation’s sea ports at Apapa had degenerated from bad condition to almost total collapse. The palliative from the authorities had come rather too late and pretty little.
Trucks and other articulated vehicles forming endless queues dotting the bridges and roads leading to the ports had become a permanent feature of the mega city. Access to the nation’s critical economic axis had been effectively truncated. Before long, the whole city started grinding to a halt. Crisis of crossing from one point of the city to the other had taken roots.
In the next few weeks, it would become compounded and complicated. The usual year end storming of the mega city by traders and shoppers from all parts of the country would ensure that. As this horde of of buyers arrived the city in their rickety and not so rickety automobiles, Lagos roads wore the look of a vast vehicles’ park lot at peak period. Lagos was on standstill. Movements in and around the city had become the equivalent of a war.
But the actual war was still days ahead. Even at the best of times, when fuel supply had not been disrupted, Lagos, days before the end of year celebrations, was usually lamentably chaotic. Perhaps, six out of every 10 residents plan to travel out of the city for revelry and reunion with their loved ones.
Lagos, this yuletide, graduated from a chaotic zone to a war zone, no thanks to the unenvisaged and unpardonable fuel crisis visited upon the long suffering citizens by the inept and visionless administrators of the nation’s oil sector, particularly the fat cats at the nation’s key oil conglomerate, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. This round of fuel crisis crept in like a cruel joke. Very few bookmakers saw it coming. Given the promises embedded in the Change Agenda and the hot air by the top echelons of the nation’s top shots at the NNPC, citizens never envisaged, let alone prepared themselves for the possibility of any likely disruption in the fuel supply chain at such sensitive period as witnessed in the days preceding the end of year festive period. Lagos was thrown into chaos. No, turmoil captures it better. The famed mega city became a vast battle ground, a war zone where all gas stations became a theatre of verbal and physical assaults. Vehicular queues awaiting fuel that was not forthcoming took over the entire stretch of major roads, ensuring total blockage and making access to most parts of the city almost impossible. Economic activities were held in abeyance; social activities were suspended and where they held witnessed low turn out. The city was locked down. Citizens were locked in. An otherwise vibrant city was gasping for breath and a festive season was turned into season of severe shortage and serious suffering.
The war was unrelenting and virulent. Apparently the fuel war had complicated issues and ensured the eruption of battles at other fronts. Ordinary day to day transaction became a tough endeavour. Banks overflowed with frustrated citizens intent on withdrawing cash for last minute shopping; automated teller machines, ATM, failed to dispense cash, Point of Sale, POS, machines malfunctioned, making purchases impossible, even as a trip to the market was the equivalent of a trip to the war front.
Yours sincerely and Rotimi, the hardworking Chauffeur invested close to three days searching for fuel to make the trip to the countryside possible. The battle, which began last Thursday and which took Rotimi to a number of gas stations around Ikeja, did not yield the desired results until late Saturday morning, the day of the trip.
Navigating the war zone which the Lagos roads had assumed that Saturday was truly traumatic. The short distance between GRA Ikeja and Berger, a journey of less than 15 minutes on a normal day took all of three hours and 20 minutes to accomplish. Hitting the long bridge to commence the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway stretch of the journey was a great relief. It was a great escape from a war ravaged city.
Okeya-Ipo, Kwara State, the land of my birth, the sedate countryside where I was nurtured from infancy to adulthood, my small London, was the destination.
By 8:45pm, we made it to my country home, a journey of about 5 hours on a good day, had taken all of nine hours and 15 minutes.
Welcome to haven of tranquillity. Every thing around here spells peace. The placidity of the place is pleasing . You were welcome home by the soothing, clean and cool harmattan breeze. It hits you pleasantly hard, welcoming you to days of clean and unpolluted air that truly refreshes and energises.
In this sedate settlement reputed for its abundant and uniquely tasty slim sugar cane, Babatunde Fashola, the Minister in charge of Power and Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, must have done some extra commendable task to ensure the wellbeing of the townsfolk. I’m posting this in the morning after our sixth night here, in all, power outage wouldn’t have added up to three hours. And we were informed that power had been uninterrupted at least for four days before our arrival.
Truly life is on the slow lane here, but contentment is written on nearly all faces. Yes, folks here also talk about fuel scarcity, but certainly it hasn’t caused major disruption to their daily living. They are up and and doing, going about their economic and social activities within the limit of the resources available to them. No rat race, no tension, no desperation of any kind.
For the village boy visitor from Lagos and family members on the trip, the setting here is a sharp contrast from the mega city situation where a non shooting war had taken roots before their departure.
The celebrations here are hearty, truly joyous, down to earth and devoid of tension. The victuals are natural, mostly organic and tasted real and better.
Here you feel safe, secure and at peace. You move around visiting friends in neighbouring towns and villages, in an atmosphere devoid of tension and uncertainty. Your visitors are relaxed and had no worries about been trapped in endless traffic logjam on their way back home.
You waited eagerly for nightfall, because it is truly peaceful and restful. The nature’s cooling system is super efficient here so you need no man made air conditioners. Your sleep is deep and you wake up to the chirping of the birds and beautiful, cloudy morning sky. Here the nature’s work is total and complete.
How one wishes this nature’s beautiful work can be replicated in the city so that one can enjoy it ad ifinitum. But then, the reality is that if that happens, city will stop being a city and we cannot afford to forgo the city. City must continue to be and the country side must also continue to exist. It is what makes the world an interesting place.
– Ademola Adedoyin,
Ada Adeoti Castle,
Okeya-Ipo
