Road to Ibadan:
Olumayowa Atte: Author
"Remember that every road user is mad," reads a
pamphlet distributed by the Nigerian NGO Volunteers
from Safety Alliance. "You are the only sane one." It is here,
on Nigeria's streets and expressways, that one encounters
the full measure of our people. Nothing separates us on the
road, not money, not education, not what tribe we belong
to or what God(s) we worship. We are all trying to get
somewhere.
Getting somewhere explains why my brother and I are
at Jabi Motor Park in Abuja, Nigeria's capital. It is three
days before Christmas, and Ibadan, a city of five million in
Nigeria's southwest, is our somewhere.
5 a.m. Hundreds of buses, wagons, vans and hatchbacks
from every European and Asian manufacturer are simultaneously
revving their engines, reversing into loading positions,
swerving into traffic, honking, spinning their tires, and
jockeying for position. It is futile to compare this melée to
the right-angled neatness of Roseville, California, where I
live most of the year. I know trying will make me unhappy,
but I can't help it.
OLUMAYOWA ATTE was born and raised in Nigeria. He lives in
Roseville, California.
Funmi Tofowomo
--The art of living and impermanence.
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