Misplaced priorities

Tony sighed loudly and looked behind him to see his daughter sleeping and his son was frowning non-stop while his wife was fanning herself for an hour now.

To avoid overheat, the car was switched off so, there was no AC.

He brooded, he doesn’t want to add to their discomfort by apportioning blame for their predicament to his wife for the anger might be carried over to next week.

He decided that they being stuck in the traffic jam only 30 minutes away from their family house after being on the road since morning is too annoying. The whole blame should go to the Nigerian police and the officers of road safety commission for having made it their culture to suffer Nigerian road users any time there is mass return.

What is surprising to him most is that the road users don’t even consider the money being forced out of them as abnormal anymore. They are even right in a way. It can’t be referred to as bribery for no one even demanded for the car particulars let alone checking them.

Had it been that the wife woke around 4am as agreed, they would have beaten the traffic.

He sighed loudly again and eyed the wife who was lost in her own thoughts. She knew how festive period usually is on Nigerian roads, yet he lay there sleeping.

The police would block the road here, 30 minutes away, the road safety guys would block theirs and none is interested in your papers but money. The journey of 5 hours from Lagos to Onitsha city takes the whole day due to corruption.

“I can’t just understand this nation, how can bribery be made open affair, these officers, don’t they have shame?”

“Who would talk, the leaders are corrupt too. How can you as a leader be embezzling millions from the comfort of your office and asked the officers endangering themselves in the open not to take bribed. They won’t listen and you can’t do anything”

“ Could you believe we have been sitting still for an hour now, don’t they pass vehicle on anymore? “

“ Some drivers are stubborn or wise, I don’t know which is which anymore. They won’t drop any penny, if the officers like, they can take them to the station. Their papers are in order”

“Then, for goodness sake, let them move them and their cars aside”

“Both the officers and the drivers are stubborn, if they seize your complete papers and ask you to pack aside, would you obey? Once you move out of the line, to be able rejoin might be tomorrow”

“ This is exactly what I wanted to avoid, had it been that you woke up by 4am as agreed, we would have been at home by now”.

“ I would woke up by 4 because I want to celebrate Christmas in my village, do you think it is only officers that control Nigerian roads, don’t you ever think of criminals? The country don’t have security. I rather sleep on the road than mortuary”

“ How many dead bodies have you seen since we left Lagos?”

“ You have not stopped to enquire. I don’t know how many people you have called to tell them that the traffic is heavy, that is how no one is telling you what they have encountered. Better late than late”

“Yeah, that is always the excuse, security, not over sleeping. How are we to sleep on the road 30 minutes to our destination due to your unfounded fear?”

“ It is still 5:30pm, we can still make home in living day light if you can fly over this cars and officers, I am not the one causing the traffic”

Tony eyed her with annoyance and changed topic.

“What of the Email you sent to your sister in Canada, have you gotten reply?”

“Yeah, she said that her husband have contacted his friends to know if there is another way of entering there.”

“When did she sent this reply?”

“About three days ago”

Tony eyed the wife with annoyance again and wonders what else he was keeping from him. Why must she wait for him to ask before telling him. He spent thousands for her to take the visa lottery exam at the Canadian embassy and failed. The whole money wasted and he was told it was based on luck, that they play lots to choose the number of people they wanted. The exams are just for formalities.

“Your sister luck seems to be shinning far brighter than your in all things”

“How do you mean?”

“She stopped education at year three secondary school, married a poor man, that improved immediately she entered his life, sat for Canadian visa lottery, passed and took the whole family to Canada. You finished senior secondary, I was performing okay and since you entered, I have been scrapping. You sat for the lottery exam and failed, even if it was on luck, what happened to yours”

“You have been scrapping since I came into your life, right?”

“Yeah, I have been calculating for long now, since you entered my life, there have not been sunlight in it anymore”

“ And this your lack of sunlight, does it includes these kids inside here?”

Tony remembered that his son was awake and following their discussions, he eyed the wife with annoyance and turned to their predicament once more.

“We have been static for close to two hours now, and these officers are not doing anything, are these people under curse or what?”

The wife ignored him and the rate of her fanning increased. Tony tried once more.

“I think it was due to the proximity of the police to the road safety guys that caused this lock jam. These guys can’t be sound in the heads. Look at the line of cars in front of us and behind, yet they don’t care”

The wife threw her face to the other side and her fanning wasn’t showing any sign of slowing down. She was frowning and shifting on her seat nosily. No sign she even notice her husband was there.

Tony suddenly remembered that they were on top of bridge. He was trying to recall the history of the bridge. It was colonial bridge and maintenance culture don’t exist in Nigeria. He have heard in two occasions that the bridge was caving in. His fears increased. He wondered whether the illiterate officers even knew that it is dangerous to cause traffic on the old bridge. 

  “Don’t they even realize that they can die too” he queried himself.

When the light suddenly came on the bridge, he found an empty bottle, tore a sheet of paper and started writing seriously on it and when he had been through, he put it in the bottle and closed the lid tightly.

He eyed his watch and was surprised to learn that they had been standing on top of the bridge built in 1948. He eyed his kids and the wife, did sign of the cross and resigned to fate.

  “ What if this bridge gave in” he eyed his wife again and murmured something about luck.