Traffic is a challenge

This week Rob and I had some special experiences in Lagos traffic.

I'll tell my story first:

Tuesday morning we, Yinka my driver and I, came back from the Brewery and ended up in a traffic jam, as almost every day. So nothing special here, but suddenly there was a crowd fighting, screaming and making a lot of noice only a few cars away from us. Yinka, calm as ever, waited patiently to be able to drive a bit again. Traffic was stuck, the reason was three cars were in a pile-up collision. The car in front of us wanted to continue on the opposite lane, therefore a with little van should move a bit to the right to give way to us. But he refused, he did not move his van in any direction. This made more people again yelling, they had their hands in the air, body language told me they were anything but pleased with the situation. Instead of going to interfere with the accident they went as flies to the guy in the white van.

I don't know but a lot of things was happening in front of us. I said to Yinka that it was very entertaining to see. Then he started too, he said the guy in the white van was an idiot, in Austria we would have called the guy a "Voll Trottl"! Anyway police came at the spot, military police after the normal police and they ordered the young man in the white van to pull over his car, first he didn't but at a certain moment he had no other option then just do what they've commanded. He had to step out if his vehicle and the next thing I saw I won't forget quickly, he was publicly beaten with a leather whip hitting his back. My mouth dropped! I asked Yinka, why they were doing this and not just giving this guy a fine, well Yinka replied that he would get a fine too. Poor man, but I must say I didn't get why he stayed where he stayed, he was so stubborn, instead he should have pulled over to the right side and let everyone from the opposite direction pass. I do think he learned a valuable lesson that morning, a hard one.

Rob's story;

Rob came back from the office in the evening and surprise surprise he ended up in a traffic jam. Many lanes were waiting to drive again. A motorcycle with two passengers decided not to be patient but crossed the lanes diagonally, they drove in front of the cars to the left. I hope you can picture this. But just as Ali wanted to pull up, they came in front of Rob's car and had to make a move to avoid hitting them. Ali only said;" Yaaaaa- Yaaaa-Yaaaa....". Ali missed them with one millimetre. They were driving with too much speed and they hit a pillar next to the road, they were on the ground, papers were flying through the air, the seat was gone. Rob asked Ali to go to them and see if they were alright. They don't do this, the drivers are not allowed to leave the car. That is just too dangerous, you never know with whom you are dealing with. Awkward isn't it?