Be smart before the okada rider ride on you. A personal experience.

I have been in this life for many years now and no one should take me as a child or a fool when it comes to some situations that I know are common among my people here. If you must live in some part of my country especially Lagos, you must be ready to be smart or else, they will ride on you and even spit on you. Just don't give that soft face when you should be hard on them.

I have always been taking rides on bikes to so many places and I can tell the amount to be charged so that these people won't take advantage of you. Something common with public bike riders is that once they know or can detect you are new to an environment, they will bill you so high and when you realize it, it would be too late. This is one reason I used to ask people of the amount I would be charged when visiting a place for the first time and I would act as if I had been there many times. A place that could be charged with #100 (0.1 Hbd) if care isn't taken, they will call it for you at #500 (0.5 Hbd) and you will be at a loss completely. Well, it happens and that should teach you a lesson in case of another time.

Just last week, I almost fought with a few of these bike riders when they were trying to take advantage of my sister and me. Thank God I knew those places and how much they are charged, that helped me to be wise and never give room for being taken advantage of or being cheated. My sister saw my drama too and kept laughing and hailing me for putting up those actions. They would easily scan how buoyant you are or how loaded you are through your dressing and would charge you as if that is the normal fixed price to carry a passenger.

We mostly took bikes during our vacation this week, don't worry, I am still finding time to compile those videos and pictures, and then sit down to write an article about the amazing places we visited. Stay tuned for it 😉

On this day, we arrived from one of our trips and getting to the junction where the cab dropped us down, we needed to take a bike to an eatery before going to the hotel we lodged in. I called a bike man and told him where we were going and suddenly, he charged us high. The distance isn't far at all and it would be fair enough for him if he had collected #250 (0.25 Hbd) guess how much he called it for us? #600 (0.6 Hbd). I didn't know when I started laughing because it was a crazy billing. How come? Where am I going? I had to point towards the direction for him to know I knew the place very well. Perhaps the way my sister was acting since it was her first time visiting the state made the bike man billed us high. Oh, he made a big mistake with someone familiar with the area.

I squeezed my face and told my sister to move while we walked some steps to the front to find another bikeman who was ready to be reasonable. The bike man said, "Aunty come na. How much do you want to pay?" I angrily told him that was unfair of him. Why would he call such an amount to a place not that far? Other bike riders started putting mouths and begging us to come and patronise them because it was the fixed price. I refused! My sister was already tired and told me that we should not bother. I said "Never, we would find another one. These ones are still playing around and not ready for business."

We found another bike that collected #200 (0.2 HBD) from us. My sister burst into laughter and hailed me. She said next time I should be gentle with them. I told her when it comes to money and knowing something, no one can cheat me unless I decided not to give a damn. We alighted at the eatery and bought what we came for. We decided to take another bike. The eatery to the hotel we were going to was just a 3 mins trek but we couldn't go on foot because of how tired we were. I assumed that the bike wouldn't charge us anything less than #150 (0.15 HBD) but lo and behold, we stopped one and he said we should pay #400 (0.4 HBD) Haha....why na? Why are bike riders this cruel? I got angry and vented my anger on the bike man. He kept saying we should spend this money as we were just coming out of the eatery. Can you imagine? Some people are just so inconsiderate.

I assured my sister we would find another bike. As we crossed the first road, we got another bike that collected #150 from us. I looked back towards the garage where the other bike man was and raised my two middle fingers with the caption "fuck you" 😀😀 My sister couldn't stop laughing at my action till we got to the hotel. I wouldn't allow anyone to cheat me at all. Whenever someone is visiting me for the first time, I give such a person the assumed amount that would be charged for him or her not to be cheated. Even if you don't know the particular area, you must act as one who knows the place when taking a public bike if you don't want to pay ×5 or ×10 of the normal price.

Thanks for your time on my blog.