Given the country’s natural endowments even in the form of impressive and ‘’sight-beholding’’ topography well illustrated from the ‘’mouth-widening’’ flat savannah plain-lands in the North to the few enduring thick tropical rain forest zones of the South variously dotted with amazing but sometimes ‘’weird-looking ‘’ hills /mountains of shapes and sizes, gullies, rivers all add up to make travelling experience in Nigeria an unforgettable one, even while tourism is still in the infancy in the country!
The 672.92 km journey of Lagos to Abuja by road in the morning of 12th August 2016 promised to be interesting and challenging if not energy sapping due to its distance. However, love they say conquers all more so, I was not prepared to ‘’miss-out-in-action’’ gracing the occasion of the families ‘’introduction ceremony’’ of the two-love birds, (Dappy boy) my very amiable and calm ‘son’ with his delectable, black beauty (Rhoda babe) programmed for the next day! For Dappy boy was ‘due’ by the family rating, tongues had wagged, and taunted him alike especially, coming from an Ijebu culture laced with his deep ‘’blue blood’’, such matter must necessarily attract royal importance. It was gratifying that the search had come to a joyous find; destination place Abuja, and now to God be the glory!
During the intermittent short morning showers, the driver with a conspicuous ‘’Captain’’ tag on him, courteously acknowledged his passengers and as officially required of him, reeled out; his name, the journey destination, maximum speed limit at 110 km/hr and more. With this he drove out of their office premises located near the Iyana Ipaja over-head bridge, manning and manoeuvring the wheels with some perfected skills, to hit the road. Sitting next to the driver, as he was adorned in uniform, a grey top and dark trouser with a tie, in his heavily built stature that failed to conceal a short protruding belly, already I could feel an aura of respectability hovering around him, our revered captain!
Silently, I pondered on what obtains in our public motor garages replete with some ill-mannered drivers whose red eyes easily betray them under high influence of alcohol that are pretentiously consumed as medication concoction with spurious claims to cure ‘’all manners of ailments’’ and known with funny names as ‘’Shekpe’’, ‘’Paraga’’ etc in their local parlance. However, the decency and comportment exhibited by the driver of our Abuja-bound vehicle speaks volume, about the standard of professionalism adhered to by his organisation, and I could readily heave a sigh of relief, that indeed ‘’God is good!’’ (GIG).
The unpredictable nature of Lagos traffic even for us moving ‘’against traffic’’ and out of town, stared us in the face as we meandered our way through. We eventually crawled out of Lagos with much relief, and gathered moderate speed for the journey. Our movement to Ore, Ondo State was without hitch with ‘’the newly re-worked Ore road’’ We met with some construction road works within Edo State which held our movement for some time. It was here that our driver revealed another part of him, as he laughed to scorn the work process of the construction road works, which we observed as the packing of the asphalt (bitumen) on the failed sections (pot-holes) without excavating that failed section, then followed immediately by a roller compaction! I was quick to point to him that he was not a qualified Civil Engineer to adjudge the process, and that it is expected that the officials of government with such responsibility would have done the ‘’due diligence’’ on proper testing and supervision of the construction work.
Again the driver, burst into another round of laughter and in a manner that derides my earlier comment, as he exclaimed, in pidgin, while betraying his high Igbo accent, ‘’Oga, leaf dat tin, EFCC go soon carry all of dem’’. I could feel this guy’s pre-conceived very hard-stance, and I was not ready to take him up on such ‘’sweeping statement! ’’. I only chuckled in response, because I believed, he was just a clown on the road to stardom. Yet, what I find apparent in his statement is that, the township roads of those towns we travelled through namely; Obadan, Erua, Expoma, Auchi , Iddo Okpella, and Okenne as later observed , amongst others all need urgent and serious road construction works, whether as efforts of Edo and Kogi State governments severally, or that of the Federal government where a Federal road concept applies.
Such prompt efforts to repair, construct new roads, or expand the existing ones as applicable, will save lots of lives, properties and precious man-hour from being wasted with ease of movement guaranteed by adequate and good roads with proper drainages. These observable very bad portions as noticed between Edo and Kogi State, all the way bursting out at Lokoja-Abuja road junction has added in no small measure to the stress experienced on the road, slowing down movement while it was also affirmed to be the ‘’hot-bed’’ of some clandestine activities of the ‘’people of the under-world’’ save, for the efforts of the security personnel on patrol and manning check-points. There is no gain-saying, that the area in general deserves adequate government attention without further ado.
The driver’s anticipatory swerves and turns to avert pot-holes on the road and his ‘’calculated stoppages’’ of the vehicle at designated points/ towns, coinciding timely with the urge for refreshments and to answer the ‘’call of nature’’ by the passengers, confirm to me the wealth of experience and his versatile knowledge of the route.
Then we met with a long queue on the stretch of Lokoja bridge, perpetuated by the security check-point that looked like an endless trail of trailers and trucks with most of them observed fully loaded all on a single lane, following each other bumper-to-bumper numbering over thirty, parked stationary on the bridge! Though, smaller vehicles were given preference to go through the traffic with little disturbance on the other lane, while these trucks were perhaps,’ isolated’ for further ‘’security checks’’ with the Army personnel on duty fully operational at ‘’their game’’ with their stern looks, arms displayed ‘’combat-ready’’, everybody dutifully complied. The high patriotic zeal of these security personnel, displayed day and night, on duty, is very commendable. However, it is just imperative to point out an ‘’over-sight’’ along the line of duty here. The lining up a very large numbers of trucks loaded most times beyond capacity for whatever reason, on a constructed bridge, is in itself a safety threat! We should know that the bridge technically, has a weight-limit, and this should be noted in its usage. Heavy trucks or heavy articulated vehicles should not be left stationary or Idly on the bridge.
From there, and as we moved further on, I could see and appreciate the common sights of some rocky hills/mountains sometimes in an undulating manner, some spreading out and forming like a fortification walls, around some towns which we passed through. This had taken my thoughts ‘away’ as we swept along in the journey. Thoughts on how the thick vegetation noticeable in the South ‘’thin out magically’’ as one moves into the Savannah belt of the North with its own unique and different type of vegetation, peculiar to the North welcoming one’s arrival to the Northern part of the country, swayed the better part of me, with the hope that some key elements in government are thinking in the same direction, to fully explore the unimaginably massive potentials of this country in the tourism industry!
All this were still the under-current of my thoughts, when we hit Abaji in the outskirts of Abuja. In spite of the dark that was gradually and ’mischievously creeping’ into an ‘’adventurous day’’, I could not but notice the ‘’smoother turf’’ on which we were now moving. Our vehicle’s movement had suddenly changed to a cruise! And the sprawling development observable on both sides of the road, were worth contemplating in thoughts too. As we ‘inched’ further into Abuja the development got more detailed and colourfully illuminating, and more sophisticated that I felt I was in a foreign land.
Deep in thought as I tried to juxtapose the level of development here within ten years that I last visited Abuja to now, with that of where I was coming from, it just didn’t match! Some person(s), somewhere in the place I am coming from, is not doing his/her job, and no one seems to care about it! Then as I saw another beautiful edifice, while I exclaimed ‘wao!’ The driver still referring to our earlier discuss, said ‘’Oga I mean am o, EFCC go soon carry all of dem, I swear!’’. Our thoughts were different, but in a way he was right. Damn right! Some one’s got to be held accountable at where I was coming from. This guy is somewhat a character, he is just incurable! I chuckled as I alighted from the vehicle into the warm embrace of Otunba and Mum Dee, my chief hosts in the cold late night. ‘An adventurous and eventful day it had been’, as I was wondering into the night.
