Traveling By Road in Nigeria.....A Crazy Experience!

One thing about traveling by road in Nigeria is the great discomfort and terror as road trips are characterized by bad roads, robbers, and kidnappers. A journey to meet your family can lead to them paying ransom in six zeroes. I traveled today from Port Harcourt to Aba for my grandmother's burial and I had the worst experience and I'll tell you why. I could have travelled by air but my destination has no Airport.

The issue of flooding in the country is no longer news. Out of Nigeria's 36 States, 29 are currently flooded. Although it is not extreme in all 29, States like Bayelsa, Anambra, Kogi, Gombe, and Delta are submerged in water. According to a report by Aljazeera, the death toll tops 600 and almost 1.3 million people are displaced. Yes, it is that bad. And yet, the federal government hasn't recognized this as a national emergency. The President is yet to give an official speech on it and pay a visit to affected places or at least show condolences. But it is not surprising one bit.

Floods happen in Nigeria often whenever Cameron opens their dam. We shouldn't be affected by this but Nigeria failed to carry out her own part in the deal made with Cameron 40 years ago. No flooding has ever been as bad as the one the country is currently facing. People are now homeless, properties lost and farms destroyed. Water has blocked the road causing terrible traffic jams, the kind where there are no movements whatsoever. This is the main reason why my trip was a terrible experience.

Normally, a trip from Port Harcourt to Abia takes about an hour but today I spent 4 hours on the road. Everywhere was muddy and divided; drivers were trying to maneuver the mud to avoid getting stuck. As a result of this, there was complete disarray. I could have avoided this stress but there's no airport in Abia state so I had no other option. On days like this, I wish I could fly.

Sad Reality

Travel experience isn't the only thing the flooding has made worse. Due to blocked roads, trailers carrying food and petrol tankers are stuck on the road. Farms have also been destroyed which means there would be a shortage of food. Abuja, the capital is already suffering fuel scarcity because petrol tankers can't come into the city. According to one of my friends who made a trip from Abuja to lokoja, there are hundreds of trailers and tankers on the road. She spent over six hours on a trip that normally wouldn't last more q than 2hours and 30 minutes. Traveling by air is not an easier option for two main reasons. Firstly, several states in Nigeria don't have airports. Secondly, the price of flights has become ridiculously expensive. Not everybody could afford to travel by air before now but with the recent increase in price, people who could afford it before can not anymore. Another catastrophe that can be caused by the flood is the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera. For these reasons, the government has to intervene as soon as possible and save the lives of innocent citizens.

There's fear and speculations that this crisis would lead to a hike in the price of food items and scarcity. With the festive period around the corner, this is such a wrong time for something of this nature to happen. It is advisable to purchase food in bulk now if you can to avoid spending way more in the coming months. My heart goes out to Nigerians who can't afford to buy food in bulk. People in this country are really poor. The minimum wage is N30,000 and a bag of rice is N40,000. A lot of people don't even earn up to the minimum wage yet they have to battle with never-ending inflation. If you come across donations for people to get relief items for the people affected by the flood, please help out if you can. Nothing is too small.

In Other News,

In other news, I've spent the past few days trying to figure out my life. This is my least favorite part of adulthood. One minute, it looks like you have it all figured out, the next minute you're confused as hell. I'm finding it hard to concentrate and write these days because of this. After three years since graduation from university, I'm considering going for my NYSC. I never saw it as a necessity but as a waste of one year hence my delay. But now, I think I might just get it done and over with. It weird how for the first time I've stayed over a week without publishing a post. I wrote about my Hivechess performance but failed to hit the publish button, I did also write about my "Lucky 600 odds win" but I didn't still publish it. I'm hitting this one certainly because I'm so fed up and I want everyone to know.

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