Two states, two stories

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photo by Jake Blucker

I grew up in Lagos state, Nigeria, arguably one of the busiest state in the country with two times (if not more than that) the population than it can handle. So doing anything in Lagos has always been a struggle, chaotic, from standing on a very long queue to vote, to trying to get into a public transport vehicle.

The same thing applies to the traffic too. Lagos traffic has always been a nightmare, you could spend more than five hours on the same spot in a vehicle and when you eventually drive to the cause of the traffic, you find absolutely nothing there.. So yeah, get ready to spend hours and hours in traffic for absolutely no reason at all.

But you see, although all of this might seem like a bad thing (and it is), it kinda prepared me for the worse wherever I found myself, and I used to think that was a good thing until I traveled to an entirely different state and found out that where I used to live in Lagos state was nothing but a zoo, compared to other states in the country.

You see in Lagos state, whenever it was time for you to go out, you have to prepare for the worse, especially during the rush hours (which is mostly on weekends). You have to prepare to struggle or fight to get into a commercial bus, while also guarding your bags and valuable possessions.

I remember this one time where I got my phone stolen while I was trying to get into a bus to go to a church vigil. What was crazy was the fact that my earpiece was plugged into that phone and I was listening to a song. Yet I didn't find out that it was missing until I was done struggling with the other guys for a spot in that vehicle. And guess what, I ended up not even getting into the damn bus because it got filled up quick.

But unlike Lagos, it's a complete different thing over here. Here, you have buses queuing up and basically pleading with you to come get in, and this probably due to the fact that here isn't as populated as Lagos state, so there really isn't that much customers here, as there is over there.

Also, over here, the roads are far more better than that of Lagos state where you have pot holes everywhere and have to hold on to something or risk hitting your head on the roof of the vehicle whenever the bus runs into one of those pot holes. I and my brothers used to make this joke that if you can drive in Lagos, you can drive anywhere else in the world.

But you see, it's not always rosey on this side of the country, because the one thing this place do have in common with Lagos state, is the prices of transportation. Although I don't think it's as high as that of Lagos state (I haven't been there in a while), it is high nevertheless, most especially during the festive seasons where people have to travel down here from various part of the world to come celebrate..

Although I don't really blame the drivers for the hike in prices, because these drivers tend to increase their prices based on how much they get petrol.. So the more expensive petrol gets, the more expensive it is to pay for transportation.

But aside from that, it's all good here.



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15 comments
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Lagos traffic has always been a nightmare, you could spend more than five hours on the same spot in a vehicle and when you eventually drive to the cause of the traffic, you find absolutely nothing there.

I talked about this exact thing in my post 😩 people who haven't been to Lagos will think this is a joke. I did my IT in Lagos two years ago and it was a daily dose of crazy traffic, and at one point I was stuck in traffic for over 5 hours. And yes, you will get to the front and see nothing causing the traffic, but you will look behind and still see vehicles stuck in traffic. Either you see nothing causing it or you see two idiots fighting and blocking the entire road. And I totally agree that the transport fare in Lagos is very expensive, the same place I will use N150 to go to in Benin, in Lagos it will be between N600 to N800. That state is a very chaotic place

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Honestly, I feel too much hype is the cause of this whole thing happening over there, because now everyone wants to travel down to Lagos because they feel that's where everything is happening.

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The day, I saw a very long queue by cars at the petrol station that was the day I stopped blaming most drivers for increasing the price of transport fares. The fuel scarcity made it that way.

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True, but the drivers are not entirely innocent too. People like to seize every opportunity they get to milk every penny that they can out of someone.. So while the price of fuel has increased, some of these drivers purposely make their prices extremely high (than they normally should) and still blame it all on the price of petrol.

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(Edited)

All who live here in Lagos can testify to all you have said above. The traffic, the bad roads, the rate of theft and the cost of living is terrible. The price of everything is so annoying such that I wonder how families of 8 or 10 survive it. The cost of a plate of rice will make you to lose appetite no matter how hungry you might have been.

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That's true friend
Lagos is so busy with lots of activities to earn money

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I also experienced the chaos of a busy city, I totally get how tough it can be to navigate through all the hustle and bustle. It’s interesting to hear about how different other places can be. I guess every place has its own set of challenges and unique aspects

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Yeah.. Every place has its pros and cons.

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Hehe. I can understand the difference you mentioned here although I didn't notice the difference in my place any time. But I can guess because, in the capital of my country, people used to spend a lot of time in traffic when we only lose a little time in traffic in my place.

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Over here, traffic isn't as bad as it is in Lagos state, Nigeria.. That place is something else entirely.

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