Doctor Freaks Journal - A Lesson Learned On The Road..

"There Is A Limit To Being Nice. When You Fail To Set A Limit, The Beneficiary Of Your Niceness Would Ascribe His Woes To You At Some Point". (Please note that this is literal translation of a Yoruba proverb).

2012:


It was the first time I was embarking on "annual leave" in my entire life. You know what? It wasn't won or earned on a silver platter like the Nigerian independence. It was systemically fought for and won!


I had looked forward to the trip for months and the great opportunity presented itself. Wifey was away and I was alone in the house so the destination was my dear home-state.

 The itinerary was not so complicated. Take a trip to Ekiti State and tour over 50 Ekiti towns and villages starting from my own dear Jerusalem, then proceed to Ikogosi Ekiti to visit the "confluence" of the famous hot and cold water, and later visit other places of interest. New and great friends were made in the process.

 New towns and villages were discovered too. Ekiti cuisines also explored. When it comes to food, I'm not that adventurous though. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. Would I like to make that trip again? Why not? I would love to. But not anytime soon. Ekiti road trip is "no longer at ease." (Credits to Chinua Achebe).


I toured the hills and valleys of Ekiti (Òkìtì kete- an array of undulating hills) in 14 days and it was time to return to my adopted home- Las Gidi! Let me digress a bit. Lagos is full of stress. The traffic is horrible. The city is dirty and rough, even the Ikoyis and VIs of this world are not left out. However, the city is more addictive than cigarette! East or West; North or South, Plan B or Plan Z; oh Lagos sweet home, Lagos is home any day. "Èkó ò ní bàję o".


The return journey commenced quite late because I spent quality time with friends in my home town and I was even tempted to spend a day longer but I later shelved the idea. About 45 minutes into the journey just before Ilesa, I noticed that there was this motorbike ahead of me. It couldn't have gone unnoticed though as it was conveying 4 reckless beings on those two tiny legs. I pitied the folks though and I was like how can life mean so little to these hapless citizens like this? 

Few minutes later as I was approaching a visibly bad ditch, I slowed down. The car was almost new, in fact, the nylons were still intact at the time so the brake lights were intact and any reasonable road user ought to have seen that. Did I just say reasonable? Yes. The bike rider who had three passengers on his bike failed to slow down and boom, he rammed into my blind side and that was how he swerved away from the road. The rest they say is history. 

The four of them- the rider, a two-year-old boy, a grand-mother and a grand-daughter were now sprawling on the pavement. Initially, I was tempted to zoom off since I was in no way at fault, but I perished the thought and opted to assist since there were three of us inside my own car and after all, I had witnesses. 

I pulled up and and helped the three wounded passengers into my "tear-nylon" car. The comic relief for me came when the grandma alighted from the car as if she was going to "wee" or something. She went back to the pavement to pack the "fallen rice". She and her grandchildren were returning from a party and had enough supply to last them a lifetime inside that "Bagco super sack" and Mama could not afford to leave same at the mercy of lizards and birds. By the time the bleeding woman would return to my waiting vehicle, I could see the mischievous smile of satisfaction on her face. Oh, "poor" citizen!


Fast forward, I conveyed the accident victims to a hospital in Ilesa. As God would have it, I ran into an old senior of mine in the neighbourhood and I quickly shared my ordeal with him, just in case.

The hospital was in a sorry state. I was made to part with funds for fuel for their generator first. They later took money for some ridiculous stuff like syringe and drips later. All I could insist on at that point was a proper bill and not all this "sir can I have two thousand Naira for petrol and two thousand Naira for band-aid, etc". The proper deposit request came and I paid.


The meat of my piece came after some minutes. Grandma made some calls in her mother tongue- Ijèşà dialect. My saving grace was the high level of mutual intelligibility between Ijèşà and my native dialect. She was actually misinforming her kinsmen! 

Can you beat that! 

She told them that a "reckless driver" knocked them down but that he stopped and conveyed them to a named hospital and implored them to come to her rescue before the driver could run away. At that point I was not thinking but thank God my friend was a faster thinker. He simply asked me to accompany him to the nearest ATM and I obliged him. On our way out, he enquired if I did not hear the garbage that woman was spewing out. Of course I heard and he was like "guy are you normal?" Do you want these liars to come and eat you raw here? 

At that point it dawned on me that I had crossed my limit. I approached one of the nurses, dropped more funds and boom, I was back on the road enroute Lagos.


Days after, I called my senior to confirm if he heard anything about their state of health and he assured me that they were fine. It was better and safer to monitor their state of health from a safe distance.


The moral of my story is this: be nice, but set limits for yourself, always!

Its Kunle!