By Patrick Omorodion, Abidjan

I thought it was only in Nigeria you have a strong union of road transport workers . They have a stronger one here. Coloured taxis chose Monday August 26, the first day of the working week to pull their cabs off the road.

Reason? They complained that unpainted taxis or what we call kabu kabu operators in Nigeria who don’t pay taxes or union dues have taken over business from them and therefore want the government to intervene and stop them or force them to pay union dues.

Their absence on the road caused the people hardship on Monday and Tuesday. After over a week here and cocooned at the Ibis Hotel in the Plateau area of Abidjan, I decided I must go out to look for Nigerian food to eat. The usual rice, spaghetti and chicken at Hotel Ibis had become monotonous.

To Joe Apu’s hotel in the Marcory area of Abidjan I proceeded but getting a taxi was the problem. I approached one of the motor park boys who helped me to secure a seat in one of the kabu kabu cabs who operated despite the protests.

He dropped me close to the hotel and told me it was a walking distance but I couldn’t find my way and so had to call Joe. He shouted that where I was, was still far from his hotel. A guard standing in front of an eatery helped me get another taxi to Joe’s Pergola hotel.

I was totally disappointed when I got there to find that the Nigerian food I had gone for was not there as Joe told me. I have to go the basketball venue, another distance away to get it. At that point I gave up hope. As I write this, I’m yet to get A Nigerian delicacy, especially the swallow, to eat.

To go back to my hotel became a problem because the taxi strike was biting real hard. A man known by the guard at the hotel offered to take me to my hotel if I cough out CFA5000 for the same trip I had paid CFA1000 earlier. I refused.

A little reprieve came when a mechanic was taking a guest’s car for repairs and I appealed to him to take me to the nearest bus stop which he obliged. As I got there behold, there was a skeletal taxi operation as the strike had been partially lifted.

He dropped me at a place a little bit far from my hotel but because Naija man can’t get lost no matter what, I decided to walk the rest as looking for another taxi in the midst of the crisis could prove another nightmare. With the aid of landmarks I had been recording in my memory, I traced my hotel but at a cost, aching limbs.

A dose of Ivorian trikery for physio Ekundayo

The attached physiotherapist to the Nigerian basketball senior male team, Ekundayo Ogunkunle had a dose of over-smartness of an Ivorian shop attendant a couple of days ago.

As a coffee man, he had gone to a nearby shop unassisted to get himself a can of Nescafe coffee. He got one quite alright but the attendant sold it for him at what seemed double the price after he did a mental calculation of the amount for the same coffee in Nigeria.

When the first one he bought got exhausted he went back to the same shop but this time accompanied by one of the hotel staff whom he gave money to help him do the purchasing while standing close.

To his shock the man sold it to his fellow Ivorian for half the price he sold to him earlier. At this point he accused the shop attendant of cheating him. Ekundayo then told the attendant that he would only add the difference from the first one he bought and the man started arguing with him. He then brought out his phone and told him he wanted to call in the police to tell them how he was cheated but the attendant quickly apologized and even offered to return the money he had paid earlier and still allow him go with the can of coffee so as to avoid trouble with the police.

The physio insisted he was going to pay the balance and gave it to him and worked out of the shop. Two lessons were learnt here. First that you could be cheated once they notice you are a foreigner who has problem with French and secondly, the people feared their police. In Nigeria, the mention of police will never create fear into an offender or law breaker who knows that once he parts with some wads of Naira notes, the police could turn the case against you the complainant.