The Dangers of Night Travelling in Nigeria
The road badly tarred, the night fallen, curvy highway that makes only about fifty metres in front visible; and yet a speeding driver. Such is the menace experienced by night travellers of the so called luxurious buses in Nigeria. Many have described Nigerian motor highways as death traps, while some prefer to call it highway to the grave. Most of these roads are not properly tarred which on its own is a big risk for your life. Imagine roads like that coupled with the different kinds of drivers whom many people have described to be insane. In fact, a Governor once ordered that reckless commercial bus drivers within his state be tested at Psychiatrist hospitals after which they are made to pay the hospital bills and then the fine of their recklessness.
I was in Nigeria recently; I had come to spend my holidays with my parents. Somehow there was no internet in the place I lived and since I urgently wanted internet to apply for UK teaching jobs, hoping to have a job as soon as I come back to the UK, I used one of the local buses to make it to a friend’s place to use the internet. All I can say is that I was totally terrified sitting in the bus and I had to ask my friend to drop me back home.
The luxurious bus drivers usually convey travellers between long distance journeys. They are usually big, so they have quite a large number of passengers who risk their lives to travel the night with them. Passengers also have limited choice as plane fares are quite high. The drivers have also pointed out the unpredictability of late night road robberies as their reason for driving at such speed. People must travel, and the drivers must as well feed their family, but many have lost their lives to road accidents due to bad roads and reckless driving. What then do we do? Government should increase road security and improve the condition of the highway. The truth however is that all this is easier said than done.
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