NAIJA GOOD: “GO SLOW”

NAIJA GOOD: “GO SLOW”

Dedicated to everyone who has had an awful Traffic Jam experience. Especially those in Lagos.^_^

Traffic Jam, Congestion, Blockage, Gridlock, Road Block or Bottle Neck; all these names means being stuck on the road.
But Nigeria, the pride of Africa ditches these names and notoriously calls it “GO SLOW” -It’s not embarrassing, the Americans famously calls it “Snarl Up”; at least ours doesn’t sound like it’s about to bite someone’s ear off.
Our slang for it describes how vehicles move in these situations. Everyone definitely gets tired of going slow including the Americans.

The most spiteful of these situations are the Lagosians, the people who live in Lagos, the people who work in Lagos as it is almost a routine you can’t escape. They say if you have an appointment to catch up in Lagos, you’d better leave your house 4 to 5 hours before the appointed time. It is not a new thing in Lagos and every potential resident of the state and all over the country must have had an awful share of it.

But see, the governments have definitely made attempts to make the roads better and we see this every single day that we get stuck in traffic; the traffic lights, the road constructions, bridges, pedestrian bridges, Federal Road Safety Corps and Policemen navigating safe and easy movements as well as the ‘Chin Chin’ sellers, ‘Gala’ sellers, ‘Pure water’ sellers, yogurt, groundnut, fish roll, biscuit, Coke and underwear sellers that stroll alongside your car windscreen at your service, I think. Even car washers! All these culminate to our main Naija Good focus for today.

Isn’t it amazing, thoughtful and don’t say annoying how they are always there beside your vehicle morning till night, dusk till Dawn, 9 to 5, 24/7, months and years later in that “Go Slow”.
I know you will not die of starvation if you are stuck in traffic and that’s because they have everything, edibles, durables and affordable.
They are hawkers but their legs are fast, Power bikes/The Flash got nothing on them. Speedy delivery.

I mean, is there anything you can’t buy in a traffic jam in Nigeria? Radios, Tomatoes, Books, Bananas, Bottle water, Bedspread, Charger, Yam, Spices, Mirror, Facemasks, Oranges, clothes e.t.c. And they shove it through your car window.

They say: “One man’s food is another man’s poison”. While you are being agitated and furious about the “Go Slow”, they are making sales! You might be on your way home from work but theirs just begun and it’s their means of survival. So, you could be nice and patronize them.

One sweet funny thing is that by the time the road congestion dissolves, you might not need to go for that weekly shopping anymore, just find the nearest ‘U-Turn’ and head back home.

Everything happens for a reason.

Hence! NAIJA GOOD.

Written by -GOODNESS FELIX ADEBAYO @goodtoxin_official

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