joshua-oluwagbemiga
The general means of transportation are traveling by road, air, water, and rail but in Nigeria, the common means of transportation are air, road, and rail, water transportation are usually for short distances.
Traveling to the east from the southwestern part of Nigeria is only possible by air or by road but a majority of the people go by road while the minority by air. Seeing as traveling by road is cheaper but longer but I guess people prefer longer to more expensive.
namnso-ukpanah
I live in Lagos with my family, iyana ipaja to be precise and my family is part of those who prefer longer to more expensive. It was Christmas break and we decided to spend the holidays in the village which got me and my siblings very happy seeing as all of our cousins would be in the same place at the same time and it would be so much fun.
In preparation for our journey, we went Christmas shopping with our mom to get our Christmas clothes, shoes, and accessories also food items which we would travel with. It was a stressful trip to the market, you can ask any Nigerian teenager if they love going to the market with their mothers and I can assure you the answers you will get will be the same.
The December rush was crazy, the market was filled to the brim, the hike in price was outlandish and the Christmas spirit was up in the air. A lot of children were with their parents shopping for Christmas clothes, the happiness on their faces said it all, Christmas is a season every child loves.
omotayo-tajudeen
We went from shop to shop, from store to store shopping. It was stressful from not finding what we liked to it being too small or too big or the price issue but at the end of a very stressful day we left the market with everything we came for and that alone made the stress worthwhile.
We got home tired ate and slept. Early the next morning after doing our morning chores my siblings and I saw our mom packing the foodstuffs we would be traveling with the next day we wanted to help her but she said to us.
“Go and pack your bags and make sure you don’t pack what you won’t be needing for this journey”.
“Yes ma,” we said in unison.
Who knew packing could be so strenuous,
I used several hours packing my clothes and other stuff and when I was finally done it was evening. My brothers were done packing long ago and I wondered how they did it so fast but the good news was that I was done with mine.
Since we would be leaving very early in the morning the next day, my dad took our packed bags to the park at night so we won’t have to bother moving with our bags early in the morning.
dami-akinbode
Around 5 am the next morning, we were all dressed up and ready to go to the park, we said our morning prayers together as usual in the morning before leaving the house and about an hour later, because of the Lagos traffic we were at the park we boarded our bus and we took off 7 am on the dot.
I love traveling, I love the thrill I get, that's one of the main reasons why I always go on school excursions, and also because I love learning and visiting places I’ve never been before.
The first hour of every journey was the longest so I usually slept.
But to my surprise, when I woke up we were just leaving Lagos. Apparently, there was a huge traffic which I had missed Thank God.
gideon-oladimeji
We entered OGUN state one of the 5 states we would have to pass through while going to the east (IMO state) and it was the longest state we’d have to pass. We had a smooth drive through OGUN state except for the usual frequent police checkpoints. We went through to ONDO state where we saw about 2 trucks and 1 tanker that had accidents. We were at ONDO state at about 12:30 pm so we stopped at ORE a city in ONDO state to eat for about 20 minutes then we continued the journey.
The bad roads in Nigeria are a cause for concern because they made the journey a rather bumpy one, especially in ONDO state. Soon we were out of Ondo state and we were having a smooth journey through EDO state when we saw that there was a commotion at the front.
“What is happening at the front,” my little brother asked my dad.
“Don’t worry yourself about it” my dad said to him.
My dad has always been one to keep us from worrying about things like this, he is all about giving us the best life he can.
When we got closer we learned that a driver who was in a hurry to overtake another bus lost control of the vehicle and drove into the bush. Luckily nobody was injured seriously but the bus would require serious repairs.
When we got to the fourth state DELTA state
There was light traffic down to the NIGER bridge ( River Niger).
[Taken by me]
“Mummy see river niger,” my siblings said happily to my mom for the 100th time.
They always get excited when they see the bridge and it’s normal. The niger bridge is truly a work of art. It was constructed in December 1965 and it's 1,600 m long.
Immediately we passed through the bridge we got to the 5th state we’d need to pass before getting to our state and that's ANAMBRA state. The ride through Anambra state was smooth and without traffic surprisingly, and in no time we finally saw the board that said Welcome to IMO state.
The smile on my face seeing as I would soon see my cousins was a very big one. But the heavy traffic we encountered as soon as we got into IMO state was terrible. We spent over 3 hours on a 40 minutes drive and by the time we got to our house in the village, we were very tired. But you know that energy you get when you see your grandparents who you haven’t seen in a long time, that was the energy I got when I heard my grandfather’s voice.
“Who is that,” my grandfather said in Igbo language.
“It's me ada” I replied while running towards him.
I jumped on him and gave him a warm embrace. my grandfather is a huge strong man and he caught me with ease, he was so happy to see us likewise us.
Some of my cousins who already arrived in the village ran out to meet us and helped us take our bags inside the house.
When we got inside the house, we took our bath and we ate and talked and talked until we went to sleep.
Traveling by road in Nigeria can be very stressful, but also fun. It was a long journey but one I enjoyed.
