Pandemonium of a Standstill Resulted From Impatience and Carelessness of Commuters!
By: SADOH M.S.
It started like a mock hold-up but when we thought it was something that will last for minutes, just like the normal traffic slow movement, we sat still in our bus; until we couldn't hold up after 30 minutes of sitting-still, we decided to ask questions. We stepped down from our bus to do this questions which almost turned rhetorical.
This is all about our ordeal at Koton Karfi, the headquarters of Kogi LGA of Kogi State; a town of about 3 kilometres to the famous Murtala Muhammed Bridge on the Abuja-Lokoja Expressway. Normally, the cause of any traffic jam or traffic slow movement is commonly attributed to either diversion at a junction, or road construction diversion or military or police check-point. But the strange notion about this traffic jam at Koton Karfi that lasted for more than 6 hours on 24th December, 2014, was that: no diversion from any junction; no diversion from any road construction; and the army sentry which is stationed at about 100 metre from the Bridge was not responsible for the traffic jam!
Basically, as the under-construction expressway is now double lane of two single each, the passable route of vehicular movement is 2-single going and 2-single coming, but impatient and carelessness of commuters turned the 2-single lane to 6-single lane going down south alone. Those vehicles coming up north had no route to pass through hence, the whole road was locked and jammed! Nobody knew what to do next because it was a moment of perplexity and obfuscation.
The scene suddenly developed into a trading ground for petty traders and a comfort zone for beggars job. Hundreds of empty plastic cans of bottled water could be seen littered everywhere as consumers/customers turnover was on increase zest. Cellophane materials which were discharged from wrapped edible objects were other objects accompanying the bottled water can. To hammer home the most painful of the ordeal was that there was no suitable food to curb the famished stomach of almost everybody except the Hausa's appetizers like kwilikwili, daukwa, fried groundnut, fried mustard seed etc. This added to our plight because as much as we craved to get food for our biting stomach, so harsh was our hunger as we couldn't get adequate meal to extinguish the burning desire in our stomach. In fact, I almost curse myself for ever engaged on such journey when I had other comfortable alternative of traveling next day.
Just because of commuters impatience and carelessness, we spent well over 3 hours at a spot which ordinarily wouldn't cost more than 2 minutes to the Bridge. It took the combine efforts of both the army, police, Road Safety Corps, Civil Defence Corps, as well as volunteer travelers like me; to create a single lane and pave a route for on-coming vehicles heading northward to make a slow pass. Gradually, the whole scene developed to a go-slow movement of moving on 20km/hr till we got to Murtala Muhammed Bridge...and continued our journey southward towards Lokoja...
By: SADOH M.S.
Traffic jam on Abuja-Lokoja Expressway on 24th Dec. 2014. Pic: Sadoh MS
It started like a mock hold-up but when we thought it was something that will last for minutes, just like the normal traffic slow movement, we sat still in our bus; until we couldn't hold up after 30 minutes of sitting-still, we decided to ask questions. We stepped down from our bus to do this questions which almost turned rhetorical.
This is all about our ordeal at Koton Karfi, the headquarters of Kogi LGA of Kogi State; a town of about 3 kilometres to the famous Murtala Muhammed Bridge on the Abuja-Lokoja Expressway. Normally, the cause of any traffic jam or traffic slow movement is commonly attributed to either diversion at a junction, or road construction diversion or military or police check-point. But the strange notion about this traffic jam at Koton Karfi that lasted for more than 6 hours on 24th December, 2014, was that: no diversion from any junction; no diversion from any road construction; and the army sentry which is stationed at about 100 metre from the Bridge was not responsible for the traffic jam!
Basically, as the under-construction expressway is now double lane of two single each, the passable route of vehicular movement is 2-single going and 2-single coming, but impatient and carelessness of commuters turned the 2-single lane to 6-single lane going down south alone. Those vehicles coming up north had no route to pass through hence, the whole road was locked and jammed! Nobody knew what to do next because it was a moment of perplexity and obfuscation.
The scene suddenly developed into a trading ground for petty traders and a comfort zone for beggars job. Hundreds of empty plastic cans of bottled water could be seen littered everywhere as consumers/customers turnover was on increase zest. Cellophane materials which were discharged from wrapped edible objects were other objects accompanying the bottled water can. To hammer home the most painful of the ordeal was that there was no suitable food to curb the famished stomach of almost everybody except the Hausa's appetizers like kwilikwili, daukwa, fried groundnut, fried mustard seed etc. This added to our plight because as much as we craved to get food for our biting stomach, so harsh was our hunger as we couldn't get adequate meal to extinguish the burning desire in our stomach. In fact, I almost curse myself for ever engaged on such journey when I had other comfortable alternative of traveling next day.
Just because of commuters impatience and carelessness, we spent well over 3 hours at a spot which ordinarily wouldn't cost more than 2 minutes to the Bridge. It took the combine efforts of both the army, police, Road Safety Corps, Civil Defence Corps, as well as volunteer travelers like me; to create a single lane and pave a route for on-coming vehicles heading northward to make a slow pass. Gradually, the whole scene developed to a go-slow movement of moving on 20km/hr till we got to Murtala Muhammed Bridge...and continued our journey southward towards Lokoja...
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