The road was in a terrible state filled with potholes, but despite that, there were trailers on both sides of the road running at nothing less than 120 km/h, and there I was sitting down on a motorcycle, and the rider's rider turned a deaf ear to all my pleas for him to slow down as he tossered with the trailer in his bid to quickly drop me off at my destination so he could carry someone else. Every pothole we rammed into at that top speed was like the bike would slip and we'd get crushed on by the trailers.
Image designed here
My heart was literally in my mouth, waiting for the opportunity to leave my body in such a terrible state. I can bet that had my BP been tested in that state, the pressure would have broken the thermometer due to how high my BP would have been. To tell you the truth, terrified is an understatement of what I felt that day, because with the rate at which the rider was competing at the same speed between those trailers on such a terrible road, I personally thought I had a 0.1 percent chance of surviving that scene without dying or sustaining life-threatening injuries.
That was me in December 2023 last year. I had traveled to honor an invitation to attend the induction of some newly employed staff, and after the program, I set out to go back home. Unfortunately for me, the vehicle that took all of us, the welfare team of the program, who went for the induction, left me behind, and I had to find my way back home on my own since they'd gone far and weren't willing to come back because of me, so I decided to board a popular Lagos Danfo bus to get me half way to my destination.
The agreement was that he drop me off at a particular bus stop, simply known as an underbridge. Things went south when all the passengers in the vehicle highlighted two bus stops before mine, and in light of that, the driver and his conductor refused to take me any further, telling me they couldn't wait for their fuel to carry me alone down to that place, and to compensate for the discomfort, they refunded part of my fare.
Though I wasn't pleased with what was happening, I was too tired to put myself in their shoes. Given the state of the country at that very moment, I let it slide and now have to look for another means of transport that'll take me to the bus stop I ought to stop, because that's the only place I can see a vehicle to my final destination around that vicinity.
After waving down different vehicles for the next 30 minutes and not getting any going my way, I had to resort to meeting the commercial motorcycle rider to take me down to my destination. Though his charges were high, we came to a consensus, and he drove towards my destination. On our way, everything I slated in the first two sentences played out.
Image is my property.
I was pleading for him to stop because I was terrified at the speed he was going between those trailers on that bad road, but he was headbent on his own will. I guess some northerners are usually like that. I even begged him to drop me half way and that I'd still pay him the agreed fee. He just told me not to bother him as he continues with his competition with the trailers and our bike bouncing on several occasions when we rammed into potholes at that pace.
When he refused to listen to my plea, I just gave up, and while praying with one mind to luckily scale through, with the other mind, I was patiently waiting for the fall; in fact, I almost called my mother to bid her farewell in case I didn't make it out of that situation alive. It was that terrifying.
Luckily, he won his self-inflicted competition and left the trailers behind. That was after about 10 minutes of tossing, which seems like forever. Finally, I got to my destination, paid him, and ran away from him as far as my leg could take me. I see no reason for him taking to me or raising more arguments after we've luckily escaped the deathtrap he put us into.
The incident almost made me stop using motorcycles as a means of transportation, because I stopped for a while, but then I later decided to just make sure the rider wasn't someone from the north, or basically one that we wouldn't understand each other well.
Thanks so much for your time. I hope you enjoyed the read. Have a wonderful night's rest.
