An alarm rings and by 5am latest and you should be at least awake, then you remember the day before yesterday was Saturday meaning yesterday was Sunday then surely today is that day of the week: Monday when anyone one going to work with public transport in Lagos should start preparing his/her mind for whatever the journey holds. So, what does the journey hold? please hold my Panadol sachet so I can type then all out
1. The most expensive transport system in the whole of Nigeria: for people who started this writeup and reasoned to themselves; ‘well I am safe, I can totally and easily avoid all this stress by using any of the modern cab/ride services like uber, bolt, in driver and the likes. I just opened my app and it is showing a price range of N4500-N5500 to go from here: LBS to Nigerian brew
which is an average case home to work distance. Now, let say you do that twice a day, 5 times a week, what would you have? Nothing so affordable I can guaranty you. Think about it: an average of 200 thousand naira a month on transportation. That’s ridiculous when you consider other expenses related to working on site every weekday and if one doesn’t work a high paying job, then his transport is almost his salary. So, do you still think that’s an easy option? I am guessing not.
2. Boarding chaos: this by far is the clearest view for a counsellor/therapist to understand where some of the issues their clients are dealing with comes from and this is not me being funny. You may have heard some doctors tell someone that they are not sick rather they are stressed from commuting to and from work here in Lagos and then they just prescribe rest. I have seen people boarding buses through the windows and some pushing each other so hard and rough as to tear one’s clothes; its just crazy some even fall down in this whole struggle and hence injury even though mild in many cases are very normal occurrence in Lagos commuting. So, why are these guys struggling so much? That would be the next concern
3 Traffic: if Lagos was a person and had tribal marks, the tribal marks would traffic because that in a nutshell is the trade mark of Lagos commuting. Whether you consider the state of major roads or the number of vehicles on the road on a Monday morning, the outcome is the same: road congestion and sometimes blockage. In Lagos, the majority of people that work far from home leave their house by 5:30 am latest. Can you imagine? Many people leaving outside Lagos see this as being absurd. Take Abuja for example, some people wake up by 6am and leave home by 7am and still get to work before 8am. The same distance in Lagos can take twice the time or in some cases, thrice the time. This is what leads to the boarding chaos: by the time buses go and come back to a bus top, there are more people than seats and they know so they result to survival of the fittest which leads to the boarding chaos.
So, are there any psychological effects from this Lagos commuting issues? Yes or no, I will share my findings in another post.
HOMECOMING