By Adekunle ALIYU
THE way situations are presently many Nigerians live in anger and trepidations. This is inspite of  a report that says we are the happiest people in the world. This I dare say is subject to debate.

I was in a bus from Ikotun, my normal route daily to Cele express.What happened this faithful day gave birth to he above headline.  For the average commuter, commuting in a city like Lagos can be hellish with the indiscriminate  and incessant increase of transport fares by bus conductors.

As that is not bad enough, they ‘load’ passengers into the buses as goods on their way to the market. So, either way,  it is a no win situation for the Lagos commuter.

As I boarded this nearly decapitated bus, in fact, boarding  these buses are better imagined than experienced.

As I sat there wondering when the hellish ride would be over, my eyes drifted in the direction of a passengers whom I assumed  was sick.

The passenger was carrying an X-ray with the inscription Chest X-ray and I quickly remembered my late boss, who died of chest complications wrongfully diagnosed by doctors and hoped the man has not been wrongfully diagnosed also.

The ‘Owa! Owa!! Owa !!! Jakande waooo!!!’ interrupted my thoughts. The man with the chest X-ray made way for some of the passengers alighting from the bus he was on the phone speaking in one of the eastern dialect and after some seconds  at Jakande busstop the bus moved on. We passed the Jakande gate making our downward turn to Pako then  the X-rayed man shouted ‘I wan to go down I wan to go down I wan to go down’

Everybody in the bus and I wondered why he did not get down before now.

The conductor asked; Why you no go down for the there now you like wahala oh?

The X-rayed man shouted : ‘You no go drop me you no go drop me I go show you’

All these was happening as the bus was moving through the sharp bend after Jakande Gate

Suddenly the man moved from the third row of the bus straight to the door of the bus and before anyone would bat an eyelid the door went off.

It was only a stroke of faith that the Okada riders coming by the side did not run into the falling door.

“Yee yeee yee”, everybody in the bus yelled.

“This man is looking for who to  kill”, someone said.   “No he wants to die,” a woman responded.

“I go kill am”, shouted  the conductor chasing after the X-rayed man who had alighted from the moving bus.

The conductor caught up with the X-rayed man. And a fight enschewed. We all alighted from the bus to help bring about peace but the man will not help matters insisting he was right . ‘Didn’t you all see that the driver refused to stop me at the right bus stop. I  told him and he kept  going.

By now a small crowd had gathered. And a   passenger looked at the sick man and  asked: Which do you want to kill you, your anger or the conductor?

Another said :You put everybody’s lives in danger just because the driver didn’t  stop at your busstop. What would have happened as you banged the door, it flew and hit an okader man and its passenger, do you think even before you brandish such foolish anger?

By this time, the sick man was beginning to regret his rash behaviour but was still too angry to apologise.

At this point I had to intervene: “Abeg let this man go this man na person wey wan die if not him no go do wetin him do abeg no kill am because if you do na another wahala.”

At this juncture the sick man was showing signs of tiredness whether he was pretending, we could not tell but it was better to let him go and vent his anger at home and die there since we had spent about 45 fruitless minutes.

Since both driver and conductor were not interested in getting the police involved, we moved on.