MY TUESDAY MORNING ON A BIKE

Photo credit: Getty images

Written by Amarachi Ogbonnaya.

Imagine my horror when the bike man served dangerously past a danfo, I was mortified. This began my journey on a bike to a meeting this fateful Tuesday morning.

Let me state emphatically here that I have never ridden on a bike on a busy highway before, but this morning, I thought it was different and was kinda in a haste, or so I thought and decided to explore what seems to be the norm amongst Lagosians using the fastest way to beat traffic...bikes, aka okada.

My fellow passenger, a lady, who was no doubt, a faithful customer of the okada man, was as calm as a Dove on the bike, I was obviously the worrier among the trio (myself, the lady and the bike man) that ploughed the ever busy Egbeda-Ikeja-oshodi road, fated to have the longest traffic in Lagos mainland.

The okada man was just being rough; taking sharp turns and engaging in road squabbles with his other okada riders.

We had already formed another line at the side of the road and a human line at one corner sef, hmmm, at some places were we couldn't all pass, the passengers of the,"Fast guys" would come down, form a line and cross over first, before our okada riders would pass and we would quickly locate our bikes and veer off, it was a sight to behold.

Not forgetting our vehicular neighbors (danfos and private cars), would swerve dangerously and we would jerk or stop. I had never  been so scared my  whole life, FAM, I practically weighed both the Pros and con's of the trip in my subconscious mind, which became my best friend on this trip, unconsciously and I tried to understand why I didn't follow "Normal Lagosians" to sweat out the traffic, after all, what's the worst that could happen right? Yeah right.

The Pros:
Faster mode of transportation; I got to Ikeja along pretty fast, like a gun went off somewhere and kaBoooooooooooooom, I was in my destination already.
The cons:
More expensive; while Ikeja bus was collecting 250 naira per passenger, the bike man collected 300 naira per person from the both of us.

The Pros:
The fresh air though, very stimulating.

The cons:
Not comfortable at all, I practically had to squeeze myself, plus the body odor coming out from the okada rider was something else.

The cons :

Damn, all the rough play the bike man was doing on the road was something else, I almost felt like I had a near-death experience.

So, basically, the con's outweighed the pros.

Resolve: I am never taking that option again. I will wake up super early and plan to beat the traffic next time or simply sit pretty in traffic and wait... I finally got to the meeting venue earlier than the security man, pheeeeeeeeew. 

That's how my morning went, how did yours go? How is your day going lovelies?

Ciao.