By Ahmad L. Muhammad
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| On the road: The author en route to Lagos. |
Life lately took me to Lagos again, to hustle a little against the cost of living as a Nigerian. I am a 300-level Chemistry student at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, currently on my IT, and that hustle to survive is what took me on this nightmare journey - a survival test and a trap.
I had loved to share my Lagos experiences, perhaps some little knowledge one brings back from a journey. But Nigeria happened, and all of that became insignificant.
To begin with, I left Zaria in the evening of Saturday, September 26, 2026, exactly two weeks ago. Hit the road for Lagos, only to meet a go-slow around Dikko Junction, where we were stuck ‘till around 2am, then continued, only to get stuck again in Agaie, Niger State, as early as 6am on Sunday.
And let me say this before I move on: There is no 100km stretch of clear road for a truck anywhere in Niger State.
From Agaie to Bida, from where the road gets worse took us three days. Three days to cover a distance that, under normal circumstances, shouldn't take more than 40mins. After reaching Lagos, we spent two days in Isheri, Ogun State, before returning to Lagos again, where we spent another three days before leaving for home.
We left Lagos late in the evening of the following Monday and branched off in Ogbomosho around 2am. We slept there ‘till around 6am for fear of armed robbers along the Ogbomosho-Ilorin road.
Moving on, we then stopped, fuelled up in Ilorin and continued the journey, reaching Mokwa, Niger State again, around 12:30pm. We had our breakfast there and took away lunch that might sustain us either on the road or during a definite go-slow before Bida.
We had been informed we'd join the go-slow in a remote village about 33km to Bida. We literally joined it about 40km or more before Bida.
And to tell you the truth, this time, it wasn't even a go-slow. We later learnt that truck drivers had gone on strike, blocking the roads into Bida in protest against the deplorable condition of the Bida-Agaie-Lapai road.
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| Stuck in Niger State, on the way to Lagos. |
For that, no one could get into or leave Bida, and we were stuck there at around 2:30pm on Tuesday.
And the worst part? The alternative route was a road leading to Birnin Gwari, where one might either be shot or, if lucky, kidnapped.
Now imagine being trapped on a road for days, not because of an accident, or a natural disaster, but because the road has been left to decay to the point where the people who depend on it have had to block it before anyone would listen. And the people caught in between? Ordinary people like us, fellow truck drivers who can earn when on the move.
While stuck before Bida, I spent four days moving not more than 3km a day. Four days of practically going nowhere, watching time pass while life waited elsewhere. I had some bad experiences with some people there, which I don't feel are necessary to share here. In those villages, it was difficult to find one person who understands Hausa or any other language than theirs (that is not what I keep quite of). The less I say about the lack of compassion I experienced, the better.
On Friday, because I had tasks in school that made it necessary to return to Zaria, I decided to take a private car heading towards Minna, which would stop only in Kaduna. Even on that trip too, I had worse experiences with people there.
I arrived in Kaduna around 3am and caught another ride to Zaria around 6am, arriving in Zaria as early as 7:40am, or even earlier, on Saturday.
At last, you’d wonder what it means to live in a country where something as ordinary as travelling from one place to another can become a test of survival. Where a road can consume days of your life, and the safest alternative can be a threat to your life.
Honestly, there’s lots to say about this trip, all still crowded in my head. Perhaps some other time.