The Journey

On Sunday, 23 August, I traveled from Owerri, Imo state to Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State Nigeria. A distance of about 500Km.

Given the nature of the journey (No direct bus to the destination), the poor Nigerian roads, and traffic congestion on the road, the journey expected to take about 7 - 9 hours or even less took more than 11 hours.

I boarded 3 different buses, 2 taxis, and 2 "Okada" to get to my destination. The main vehicle was the 3 buses others were just to convey me to the park and then the apartment. The first bus was from my hometown to the capital city, Owerri. The second was from Owerri to another city, Onitsha which is in a different state. There I boarded the last to my destination Ado-Ekiti.

Hometown to Owerri, Imo State

I left the house a few minutes past 6 am. A motorcyclist, we call them "bike", "Okada" or "Inaga", conveyed me to the first park where I boarded a bus. The bus was a 13-Seater Minibus modified by the drivers to carry about 18 passengers. I met just 8 passengers on the bus, so we waited for more. After a few minutes, only a passenger joined, the driver decided to move with plans of picking more along the way.

There was lots of stop-and-pick on the way, and later stop-and-alight for those that have reached their designation. These were time-wasting and annoying for I that still had a long way to go. A journey that should have taken about 1 hour took close to 2 hours. I got to my first stop, alighted, and entered a taxi to the next park.

Owerri to Onitsha, Anambra State

I arrived at the park at about 8 am. Paid for the transport fare and boarded the bus (which was modified as the previous), and waited for it to get filled. We set out on the journey after a few minutes. There was no stop and pick like the previous, but we stopped at several military checkpoints. We were stopped at about 5 checkpoints, 4 manned by the Nigerian police, and one by the Nigerian Army.

Was there any check or search? No! All they did was collect #50 Naira from the driver. And if the driver says " Oga I no get change" they will ask him to park properly to allow traffic. The driver may give them #1000 naira - the highest denomination of Nigeria currency, they will take it to where they hid their money, get the "change" (the balance after taking #50). While doing this, we will be parked along the road waiting, and they don't care. All they care about is that #50. They only do this to commercial motorists. They have become toll collectors and not security men.

Aside from the stops at the checkpoints and the delay from the toll collectors security officers, this journey was smooth. I got to Onitsha, and fortunately, the next park was close to the bus stop, so I just walked there.

Read more: The Journey part 2

Onitsha to Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State

At the park, they asked for the fair which was hiked from #3000 to #5500, why? No good reason for that. Fuel price was not increased, so... Well, I dipped my hand in my pocket to take out money for the fare, Oh no! There was just #1000+. What! Where is the rest of the money? Oh, I remember, don't worry it wasn't stolen. I didn't leave the house with enough money, I was supposed to make a withdrawal at a bank ATM at Owerri, but I forgot. I asked for the nearest ATM or POS. I was told that the POS merchants don't operate on Sunday's and the nearest bank was not near.

The bus was remaining a passenger and if I leave for the bank, I won't meet the bus - it would have left, and if lucky, it takes close to an hour to get filled. What do I do?

In my distress, the bus driver walked up to me and asked what the problem was. I explained to him, and he said, I shouldn't worry, that I can make a withdrawal when we get to our destination, Ado, to pay him or I can transfer the amount to him. I went for the latter. I made the transfer and within minutes he got the alert.

Phew! Problem solved

It didn't take up to 10minutes for the last passenger to arrive. And we set out on the journey. This was the farthest and most challenging. So many checkpoints, bad roads and we encountered two robbery incidences - we had to turn around in one, and the driver took another route - almost non-motorable path. I will share more about this in my next article.

In all, I got to my destination safely. Though there were delays and challenges on the way, the journey was a memorable one.

I forgot to mention that one of the passengers was a Soldier. I will tell you more about this in the second part of this article.

Thank you for reading.

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