I no talk am? Barely had her body been lowered into the grave that her erstwhile ‘husband’ who reportedly stormed out of the funeral  ceremony because the sitting arrangements were not to his liking wants to publish a tell all book about Whitney… low-life! Once again, a o ni ba olori buruku pade! Enough said.

Way before the Lekki toll gate brouhaha I had given that axis a wide berth; the construction and the traffic fallout just made the very thought of going there tedious. Then when they started collecting the toll, I said fine! Thankfully, the few friends I have in the area are very understanding, plus we now have Ikeja Shopping Mall so abeg make everybody hold in side. It would have to be serious business that would send me in that direction.

Finally, serious business came calling and it was time to bite the bullet and head up for Lekki. With memories of endless traffic lines I set out at 11am for a 3pm appointment not wanting to leave anything to chance. I was pleasantly surprised.  It was a pretty enjoyable ride; it was great to see what man can work when inspired. I still remember the narrow two lanes that were Lekki express way barely what, three, four years ago? The road was free and wide open, at that time of the day there was very little traffic except those little bottlenecks created by danfos that stop abruptly and park haphazardly anywhere they please. My first encounter with the toll gate itself and its operators wasn’t unpleasant either. They were polite and took my money with a smile. Everything was nice… very ‘suburban’.

What wasn’t suburban and which came as a mild surprise to me though was the attitude of a lot of people as they approached the toll gates.  Believe it or not people were forming double lanes and attempting to shunt their way forward. It didn’t matter that they were mostly SUV’s we could have been in the heart of Mushin or Oshodi (before it was cleared) given the way some were driving.

It just brought home to me again how thoughtless, selfish and disrespectful the average Nigerian is. Nothing captures and exposes these traits like the way we drive on our roads. Transplant these same people to any foreign land and they will follow the rules to the letter. They are polite, soft-spoken, obedient and well mannered. Once they’re back home, all of that just disappears into thin air. Why is our disdain so potent for Nigeria and all things Nigerian?

Back in the day when Nigeria Airways was still in existence, there was this return trip to Nigeria from London that was so surreal I don’t think I’ve been able to properly describe it to this day. This flight had been cancelled twice before so you can imagine the backlog of passengers and how on edge people were. Right from the checking queue at Heathrow you could tell we were Nigerians. It was like an island of madness with people shoving and pushing and yelling at the top of their voices. Even after we shoved and kicked our way on board the madness didn’t stop. I kid you not; it took the pilot the better part of like 10-20minutes to get people in their seats so we could prepare for take-off. What were they doing? They were jisting and simply carrying on like we were in the market square! One man in particular remained standing in the aisle for several minutes leisurely flipping through his newspaper  completely oblivious to voice (getting more frazzled by the minute) demanding- nay begging – us to settle down so we could prepare for take-off. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing… we could have been in a molue in the middle of Idumota for all our carryings on. Did I mention that two people actually came to physical blows while we were airborne? And did I mention how filthy the plane was by the time we landed in Lagos? Totally surreal I tell you.

Seems to me the reason we constantly get stuck with bad leadership is that we ourselves have not come to equity with clean hands. We cannot attempt to hold these people accountable in the big things while we are found wanting in the little things.

I think we all individually and collectively need to reassess what our expectations are concerning this nation and act accordingly.