I was born and bred in Lagos, and amongst many other things, traffic jam is no strange phenomenon to such a one as me just as much as I am sure it isn’t to you as well; anyway, we can just say it is the order of the day. And so it was on this fateful day on the notorious Lagos–Ibadan expressway, as I journeyed back to Lagos, after a somewhat eventful tour of the city of brown roofs; the ancient city of Ibadan, that I experienced one of the craziest ‘hold ups’ of my over two decades long life so far. Okay, I really can’t say which is the worst traffic jam I have been in, but I surely have been in myriads of them, many of them very annoying, and would of course have been in even much more if not for the ubiquitous time saving ‘Okada’.
But on this particular occasion, unlike many others, it was a worthwhile, exhilarating, eventful but quite dangerous experience as the bus driver, Sefiu, taught me a lesson that: where there is a wheel, there is a way! It would interest you to know that our bus did not spend up to three minutes held up in the about thirty minutes we spent to meander through a traffic jam that some other vehicles must have spent not less than two hours in. It’s not like I encourage rough driving or so, but our dear Sefiu was just one in a kind – such that every single person in the bus had to exclaim how skilled they think he is. Crazy as it may seem, this guy did not at any time spend up to thirty seconds on the lane before jostling for the next available space to overtake. And when one driver refuses to allow him into the main lane, he would instead continue the crazy meander on the side lines thus overtaking at least ten vehicles ahead.
The drive was rough, the road bumpy and gruel some, and the other drivers on the road were equally not that nice as everyone was on the edge, all trying to force their way through the thick, to their choice destinations. But in all of these, the exploits of Sefiu on the road simply epitomizes to us that indeed where there is a will, there is a way.
This is exactly the picture life presents to us – a world of immense opportunities, yet countless limitations and intense competition, thus making it a Darwinism’s survival of the fittest story. Life is not a bed of roses or another Cinderella story; just like the traffic popular with Lagos roads, life has got its challenges and holdups. But you must remember; there is nothing as important as your singular desire to succeed regardless of all the odds. The power of your will is so immense that you are actually the only one that can prevent yourself from ultimately achieving what set your heart on achieving. Life’s obstacles nonetheless, set out to meander as much as you need, overtake when need be, apply caution when absolutely necessary and never forget that patience is a virtue. Remember, where there is a will there is a way.
Dare's Journal 