EFFECT OF
IGNORANCE
“Tosin.” Ayo called friendly.
“My Oga.” responded Tosin.
“Abeg stop this your oga of a thing.”
Ayo urged. “My name is Ayo.”
“But, you are my oga nah.”
“Oga ko, oga ni.” Ayo disapproved in vernacular.
“Okay ooh!”
“Well,” Ayo rode on. “Abi won ask you
how we go roll today.” he said, paused. “The route we entered yesterday didn’t
make sense at all..” he added.
Ayo
and Tosin operated a commercial L300 bus owned and managed by a transport
investor, in the city of Lagos. The former was the driver of the vehicle whilst
the latter happened to be the conductor. Therein as they leaned on the front
side of the bus in question, at about some minutes past seven O’clock in the
morning on a Tuesday, they were as usual discussing how the day’s operation
would be as well as the actual route(s) they would be plying.
The
32-year-old Ayo who was clad in a casual attire had before now strongly
registered his disappointment over the route they plied in the previous day
being Monday, stating that the revenue generated was very poor compared to
their earlier outings; hence, wanted the 25-year-old Tosin to suggest a way
forward.
“Let’s enter Mile-2.” Tosin suggested.
“From Mile-2 to where?” verified Ayo.
“Oshodi.”
They were already at Oshodi, thus
were meant to be headed for Mile-2 after loading the bus.
“Okay,” concurred Ayo. “Make we try nah.”
In a few seconds time, they drove
off. Some minutes on, they were on the ever-busy road situated between the two
aforementioned localities.
“Mile-2 ooh, Mile-2 ooh, Mile-2 ooh!”
Tosin resumed duty at the top of his voice as he clinched to the bus’ entry
point like a monkey that intended catching banana. “Mile-2 ooo, Mile-2 ooo,
Mile-2 ooo!!” he supplemented in a louder mode.
Intermittently, people kept trouping in
while the vehicle was slightly on motion as he (Tosin) kept alerting
prospective passengers to patronize the 18-seetter bus that wore yellowish
paint as requested by the Lagos transport authority.
“Everybody hold your change ooh..!” Ayo
conscientized as he ebulliently controlled the throttle, letting the passengers
realize the compelling need to enter the bus with low denomination (naira)
notes.
“Mile-2 ooo, Mile-2 ooo, Mile-2 ooo!”
Tosin proceeded with alacrity. “Mile-2 ooh, Mile-2 ooh, Mile-2 ooh!!” he
reiterated.
The exclamation continued unabated till the
vehicle got filled to the conductor’s delight.
“Everybody hold your change oooh…” Ayo
echoed as the tradition demanded.
For those who were already in the bus
when the first message came from the driver, that was meant to serve as a
reminder.
“Everybody hold your change.” he
repeated after some seconds. “We no get change oooh!!”
Having gotten the required number of
passengers, the vehicle zoomed off, and headed towards its destination. Owing
to traffic jam and what have you, it had to move slow and steady. What matters
most was that it would surely arrive at Mile-2 as requested by its passengers.
“O
boy,” Ayo called his assistant who was still standing by the door. “Abeg begin
to collect my moni.” He urged.
Tosin was not too steady in the job, so he
(the driver) needed to continue reminding him of how it was being done.
“No
wahala.” replied the ever-vibrant Tosin.
Few seconds later, unfortunately, the vehicle
broke down to everyone’s utmost surprise. “What could be the problem?” one of
the male passengers thought aloud.
“Na wa ooh!” exclaimed a woman who sat
beside the man.
It seemed the fuel had dried up, and they were
so careless enough that they didn’t bother opening the bus’s bonnet let alone checking
the fuel tank before commencing the day’s outing.
It was about 8.00am. It wasn’t news that
an average passenger on the busy Lagos road was impatient, thus could not
afford to experience any bit of delay while headed for his/her working place,
especially the employees who were more time conscious.
Each occupant in the bus individually stepped
out, hoping that the plight would be fixed soonest or to be transferred to
another vehicle plying the route. Ayo and Tosin equally stepped out, and the latter
hurriedly went to the bus’ booth, picked a fuel gallon and headed for a nearby
filling station.
Minutes on, the bus was refueled,
hence, regained its energy. Consequently, the pathetically-looking passengers
were conscientized to resume their respective seats.
Within a twinkle of an eye, Ayo
reignited the engine and changed the gear immediately. “Abeg, start dey collect
moni.” He reminded his assistant.
“Abeg,” Tosin told the passengers in
accordance with the directive issued by the boss. “Make everybody hold he hundred
naira for hand.” He enjoined in pidgin.
On hearing the instruction, everyone
quickly exposed the naira notes within his or her reach. Without wasting much
time, Tosin began to collect the notes from each of them, starting from those
seated at the row sited beside the driver.
He was shock to his bone barrow when
he got to the turn of a young lady seated very close to him; the said lady who
seemed to be in her early twenties handed a thousand naira note over to him.
“Wetin be this?” Tosin queried.
“Which question be that?” the lady
replied in a more unfriendly mood.
“Shebi we tell una say make una hold una
change?” the driver interrupted.
She got infuriated by the query. “So if I
don’t have change, I should not go to where I want to go?”
“Which kai temptation be this?” quoth Tosin.
“You for tell me say you no get change the time wey you enter motor.”
“Abeg-abeg-abeg,” she boiled. “I don’t
have time to argue with a common conductor like you.”
“Nawa ooh..?” exclaimed Tosin. “We
never reach that side nah.” He said, trying to inform the lady that she was
overreacting.
Rather than calming down, acknowledging the submissiveness
of the conductor as well as the fact that she was faulty, the seeming
troublesome lady became hotter thereby continue to call Tosin names such as
tout, nonentity, and so on. Nevertheless, the abused person never got offended;
instead he chose to laugh over the scenario.
Having been intensely pissed off by
the rate of the abuses, Ayo hastily cleared to the roadside and applied the
brakes. “Come let me tell you,” he said, facing the abusive lady while still
seated in his seat. “The young man you are calling all sorts of names is a
fourth year student of Medicine and Surgery in the University of Ibadan, UI.”
He informed.
On receiving the information, the
passengers unanimously shook their heads in amazement. They – particularly the
lady – looked at Tosin in silent awe. The lady melted in a jiffy and
inadvertently began to weep as she tenderly fixed her gaze on Tosin’s who was
seated by the door-side.
Ayo was also a graduate. He studied
engineering in one of the universities in the West, Nigeria. Due to unemployment
palaver, he chose to settle for his current occupation which he had been into
for over two years now. Tosin who hailed from a poor home usually assisted him
whenever he had a semester break.
Funnily enough, the abusive lady who
had now ostensibly embraced repentance was seeking for admission in the
aforesaid institution (U.I) to study Marketing and her chances of securing
admission was far-fetched.
FDN Nwaozor
Executive
Director, Docfred Resource Hub - Owerri
_____________________________
Twitter:
@mediambassador
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