AZUKA ONWUKA FROM PUNCH
The level of disorganisation in Nigeria is so overwhelming that one wonders if it can ever be surmounted. And it is the root cause of Nigeria’s underdevelopment. A visitor to Nigeria will be shocked at it and wonder how Nigerians navigate through it. When Nigerians travel to an organised society, they feel disorientated for a while.
Take for example the issue of traffic rules. When Nigerians go abroad and do a driving test, they find it very challenging. Many fail once or even twice. It does not matter how long they have been driving in Nigeria. Imagine someone that has been driving in Nigeria for 20 to 30 years failing a driving test in a country where 16-year-olds are allowed to drive. If Nigerians pass it at the first attempt, they celebrate it like someone graduating from a university.
Why is that so? The reason is simple. Most Nigerians learn how to drive without going through a driving school. They don’t learn traffic rules and road signs. Driving in Nigeria is more of the survival of the fittest. Nigerians drive with their brawns instead of according to the rules. The issue of right of way is secondary. The person that has the right of way is the one that is most daring. Especially in cities like Lagos with notorious traffic congestion, there is the belief that gentle drivers stay longer in the traffic. Watching Nigerians drive, anybody who is used to driving in an organised society with laid-down traffic rules would wonder how Nigerians go out every day with their vehicle and come back alive.
Organised societies have their roads well marked. If two roads of equal status run across each other and there are no traffic lights there, there will be a sign stating that it is a four-way stop. On the floor of each of the four ways, there will be a bold stop sign with a line to show where each vehicle must stop. The rule is that if you see a stop sign, you must stop. It does not matter whether you are the only vehicle on the road. If you stop, you count 1,2,3, or look at all sides and proceed if there is nothing that will make you to wait more, like a pedestrian or an animal crossing the road. If there are more than one vehicle approaching the stop sign from different sides of the crossroads, the rule is that the first vehicle to get to the stop sign will be the first to move. All the vehicles move in that order. That is orderliness. That will ensure that no vehicle hits another. A traffic warden does not need to be there to enforce it.
But in Nigeria, there is always an attempt by those who believe they are faster and smarter to usurp the right of others and breach any rule because they believe that there will be no consequence.
It is the same thing that happens at traffic lights. When the red light comes on, all vehicles must stop, including motorbikes. And when the green light comes on, it is time to move. Organised societies believe that only a mentally challenged person or a suicidal person will drive when the red light is on. But it is common practice in Nigeria.
That same orderliness reflects in how people get attended to at public events. If you walk into any shop to buy anything and want to pay to a cashier, you join the queue, if there are many customers, no matter your class, status or position. Nobody even imagines that anybody would beat the line. You won’t even be attended to if you jump the queue. The same thing happens if you visit a walk-in clinic. You join the queue by the door and wait until the clinic opens. It does not matter if it is cold or warm or raining. If you don’t want to wait, then you call your family doctor and book a date, which may be one month away.
