Dressed in a starched white shirt, a blue tie with black stripes and a black Italian suit to match, Abayomi Olusola was all set to leave the house for his meeting in the office that Tuesday morning. He adjusted his tie in front of the mirror in his bedroom, kissed his wife goodbye and gave his two children a high five.
With a 9am meeting in mind, Olusola grabbed his bag and rushed down the stairs, straight to his car. Time was 6:00am, and for someone who was to drive from Sango in Ogun State to Lekki Phase I and still meet up with his meeting, he hit the road as early as he could.
Confident that he would make it to the office before 9am, he maintained the fast lane when he joined the Lagos – Abeokuta expressway, heading towards Lagos Island.
To lighten up his mood and worship his God from the comfort of his car, he switched on his car stereo, slotted in his favourite CD and was enjoying the ride as he sang along, shaking his head in worship.
But, he had barely driven for five minutes when he decided to change lane to avoid queuing behind a spoilt vehicle in front if him. According to him, he had almost swerved to the next lane on his right when he heard a loud bang. His car had been hit on the side by a truck, damaging his front door and side mirror.
Apparently at a loss as to what had just happened, Olusola said he switched off his air conditioning system, lowered the volume of his stereo and came out of his car to assess the damage.
He said, “I thought if it was something minimal, I would ignore it because of my meeting, but it was severe. My turn signal was on but he still ran into me. As I looked up to challenge him, could you believe that this driver spit on my face from where he sat and he called me ‘stupid man driving with this old coffin’. He even threw an empty bottle on my car.
“That was where I lost it because that guy (the driver) was a young boy. I was mad. As if that was not enough, other people in the truck, known as motor boys, came out and started calling me stupid names because the truck’s headlamp broke.
“My brother, I didn’t know when I removed my suit and threw it on the bonnet of my car. I climbed the truck, dragged the driver down and gave him a slap. Of course the other people attacked me; they pushed my head and even threatened to deal with me and I even sustained injury that got my shirt stained. But I was happy I fought back. They made me look stupid.
“We argued until people who had been stuck in the backlog of the traffic came to intervene. People called us names but I wasn’t ready to let go until he agreed to fix my car. But when I checked the time and I saw that I would likely be late for my meeting, I had to leave but I copied his number plate and vowed to have a date with him one day. You can imagine how traumatic that can be in the early hours of the day. That experience ruined my day. I was late to the meeting and I couldn’t even tell my colleagues the things I did for obvious reasons.”
He told our correspondent that it was after he got back into his car that he asked himself what came over him. “As I drove off, I had to ask myself what was wrong with me that I had to turn myself to a tout like them. I’m sure I would have stayed longer if not for my meeting because I was very angry. Sometimes, drivers in Lagos can make you behave like a mad person. I had to fix the car on my own.”
Olusola’s experience might seem like a good movie thriller, but that is the reality of many on Lagos roads daily. It is called road rage, and it happens almost on a daily basis across Lagos metropolis.
Our correspondent’s observation and interaction with motorists showed that most of these road clashes are caused by impatience, reckless driving, refusal to give way to other motorists, lack of remorse from the guilty party and the idea that conceding might be construed to mean foolishness.
A motorist, Mr. Johnson Oloyede, said, “Sometimes, if you give way to one vehicle to pass, many others would have lined up behind it and in that process, they could push you out of the lane. So, you would want to fight your way through so as not to be cheated and in that process, you could hit another vehicle, whose driver is also trying to show you that he or she knows how to drive, and then both of you will calm down and start trading blames.”
Oloyede said given that Lagos residents, both men and women, are usually in a hurry, people hardly want to give way to others “because they are all in a hurry.”
If all that results from this frequent nuisance is argument, perhaps it wouldn’t have been an issue of great concern, but there have been instances where motorists attack themselves and they end up in the police station or even hospitals.
For example, at the popular Road Safety turning in Ojodu, Lagos, two motorists nearly broke each other’s head on one Friday afternoon, but for the intervention of passersby and other motorists.
By the time Saturday PUNCH got to the spot, the two motorists had not only rained curses and abuses on each other, they had also smashed each other’s windscreen whilst trading blames on who was wrong, and they both vowed never to let go.
One of the drivers, who gave his name as Suleiman, said he was coming from Ojodu to make a U-turn at the Road Safety point to turn towards the Oando filling station while “this other guy” identified as John, was coming from Ogba side.
Suleiman said he had reached halfway in turning and instead of John to allow him to pass, he refused him right of way and eventually ran into his (Suleiman) car and broke his headlamp in the process. “I don’t care if his own headlamp was also broken, all I know is that he broke my light and he must fix it. I just fixed this car two weeks ago and I’m not ready to take sorry or any form of excuse. Period!” he exclaimed.
But as the name-calling intensified, John ran to his boot, brought out his wheel spanner and smashed Suleiman’s windscreen. And before anyone could bat an eyelid, Suleiman also dashed to his boot and brought out his jack, which he smashed on John’s windscreen. It then became a free for all, but for the intervention of passers-by and other motorists, the two motorists could have done the worst to themselves. Eventually, people prevailed on them to remove their vehicles from the road, owing to the traffic that (would always) characterise the act.
In contrast to the way Suleiman and John fought in public, Ayoola, a banker said he almost cried the way a commercial driver treated him on his way to work one morning. Ayoola told our correspondent that he had just come out of his street off Glover Road in Ikoyi, Lagos, when a white commercial bus, in a bid to outsmart another bus to pick a passenger, suddenly applied his brakes and veered from the fast lane to the service lane, hitting him in the process.
“I had expected him to pull over and apologise but he didn’t bother, his conductor called me names and said I was a “stupid poor man.” He even came down from the bus and punched my car and by the time I came down to confront him, they were long gone. I pursued them for some time but I couldn’t meet them more so that I had an important appointment and I wouldn’t let those miscreants delay me. I left them and fixed the car later.”
For Mrs. Eugene Okafor, she said the lingering fuel scarcity in the country brought out the anger in her about two weeks ago, and she told our correspondent that she apologetically “showed the man that being a woman does not mean weakness.”
She recalled that she was in a queue at a filling station in Lekki but that she left the car to take a walk around the premises. She said she had barely stepped away from the car when she heard a cracking sound.
“Out of reflex, I looked back but I was shocked to see that the man who parked in front of me had just hit my car,” she said.
Okafor explained that she was furious and she had to challenge the man but in turn, she heard the most shocking statement of her life.
She continued, “When I challenged him for hitting my car, he said why did I park behind him. I became mad and almost tore his clothes. How can anybody be that insensitive? He even threatened to pull my own clothes, calling me a lazy housewife. We fought o. I wish I was able to bite his ear but people came to separate us.”
The 45-year-old woman also recalled how a woman hit her at Ikeja Along Bus Stop and even broke her side mirror. “I had pulled over to drop a colleague and as I took off to join the service lane, her mirror brushed mine and all the person sitting beside could do was to punch my car and even rained abuses on me. I wish I could lay my hands on her but that place was too busy, so I had to let go. It’s crazy what we Lagos residents do to ourselves on the road,” she added.
It appears the road rage in Lagos cuts across as even religious people are sometimes tempted to throw caution to the wind when their right of way is trampled upon by other road users.
That was exactly what happened on a Sunday afternoon at the popular Gate Bus Stop, on Ipaja-Ayobo Road, when a woman, supposedly a pastor coming from church, gave a commercial driver a hot slap for hitting her vehicle.
The incident drew the attention of passers-by who had to beg the woman as she said she was ready to deal with the driver “such that he will never forget in his life.” She said she had warned the driver to be careful so as not to hit her, but he still hit her car and scratched her bumper.
Immediately the bus hit her car, she removed her hat and placed it on her bonnet, removed her wristwatch and gave it to one of the occupants in the car, reached for the driver and gave him a hot slap.
“I kept warning you but you didn’t listen. I’m old enough to be your mother. I’ll show you pepper. You think because I’m a woman or a pastor, I would let go or because I’m just coming from church. You are sick. I will show you something today,” were the words that came out of her mouth.
As the driver raised his voice to argue, she gave him another slap, but surprisingly, the driver became sober and opted to apologise, saying, “Mummy wa le je (You are our mother after all).”
In another interesting episode at the Alagomeji Bus Stop at Yaba, two members of the same church nearly slapped each other for hitting each other’s car. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, when a man driving a Nissan Pathfinder was reversing and he mistakenly hit the car behind him.
The driver at fault had quickly alighted from his car and when he saw the sticker on the other person’s car that they belonged to the same church, he quickly said the church’s slogan to show familiarity, but the other man dismissed him, saying, “don’t bring that one here o. What sort of thing is that? My friend, you better forget all those ones and let’s talk reality here.” At a point, they began shouting at each other.
Findings and interactions with motorists on the issue showed that many motorists in Lagos have had to exhibit their anger while in traffic, usually to avoid being cheated by the other driver.
In some cases, the motorists or the driver guilty of the offence could apologise and the parties would resolve their issues amicably, but in many instances, people resort to physical assaults and verbal wars, just like the case of Mr. Yomi Adeogo, who pursued a driver from Mowe in Ogun State to Ojodu Berger, where they met and exchanged slaps before the issue degenerated into fisticuffs.
And it is equally worthy of note that this happens mostly in Lagos and few other states.
Men in uniform as worst bullies
If there is any one place Lagosians are wont to show their anger, it is in traffic. But while citizens display their anger freely on the road, it is worthy of note that the officers of the law whom citizens should take solace in to resolve such issues for them seem to be at the forefront of the act.
Just few weeks ago in Benin, Edo State, some soldiers assaulted a woman, Joy Agboghide, at Forestry Lane for not reversing her vehicle when they told her to do so. Apart from the fact that she was thoroughly beaten, which landed her in the hospital, one of the soldiers used the butt of his gun to break her windscreen while the wife of the said soldier also sprayed tear gas into her eyes, leaving her with a damaged vehicle, sore eyes and bruises on her body as she was also whipped along the line.
The story is slightly different for one Dr. Theresa, a Senior Registrar in the Department of Psychiatry, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital in Ile-Ife, Osun State, as she was battered severely by her neighbour, a Wing Commander in the Nigerian Air Force, identified as Dr. Okpara, right inside their compound.
After doling out several punches to her face for not removing her car so he could have his way in the same parking lot they all share as tenants, Okpara reportedly left his victim, a sickle cell carrier, with bone fracture, disfigured face, and cerebrospinal fluid was reportedly found to be leaking from her brain, which made her to be in need of urgent help.
The dust raised when the convoy of a top Naval officer, Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade, severely assaulted a young lady, Uzoma Okeke, on Victoria Island for not vacating the road for the officer in traffic has yet to completely settle as it remains a point of reference when matters like this come up.
The naval ratings did not only beat her, they hit her with gun butts and horsewhip, dragged her until her blouse pulled off and she was left with only her brassieres as they dragged her into their van in public glare. In fact, Okeke reportedly said Arogundade told her she could have been killed in that process. The incident happened in November 2008.
Also, at the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, a soldier was seen around 9pm harassing a commercial driver for “attempting to chase him out of the road” with the way he was driving. Apart from giving the driver a hot slap, he ordered him to do frog jump for several minutes. It took the intervention of other road users for the driver to be released.
Apparently, it is also as a result of this that many men in uniform now put their beret or horsewhip on the dashboard of their vehicles to warn other vehicles to beware.
Why then do people engage in road rage? A psychiatrist, Dr. Adeoye Oyewole, said road rage is an immature act that is “always” caused by transfer of aggression, noting that it happens when something unpalatable had happened previously and people try to hold anybody who comes their way accountable.
He noted that even though there are instances people deliberately hit other people’s vehicle, out of anger, it is not a psychiatric problem, neither are such people mad, but that it is an abnormal coping mechanism that stems out of anger. “It is an immature act because it is an immature defence mechanism,” he said.
He continued, “Someone could be fighting with his wife or have an unresolved issue in the office and if that person is on the road and somebody comes in his or her way, the most natural thing to do is to hold the person responsible. We call it transferred aggression and it’s an abnormal use of defence mechanism.
“If you are mature and self integrated, you should be able to separate the previous situation from the one at hand; be considerate, be calm and handle it wisely, even if the other person is a bad driver.”
Also, a psychologist, Prof. Oni Fagboungbe, described road rage as a psychological problem, saying it could be an expression of frustration. He said most of the time, people tend to regret such actions, especially the ridicule they would have subjected themselves to in public, except “sociopaths who do not regret their actions.”
“We have a theory that explains that; it is called Frustration-Aggression Theory. When you set a goal and an obstacle comes in, you become frustrated and the frustration provokes an aggressive behaviour,” he said.
He explained, “For example, if you are almost late for work and you are stuck in traffic, frustration could set in and when frustrated, most people express it through aggressive behaviour.
“Such behaviour is even more rampant with economic situation, like fuel scarcity. For instance, in this scarcity, you spend six hours to buy fuel and then on your way back, you are held in traffic. If anyone tries to enter your lane suddenly, you find yourself driving furiously to block the person.
“And you find that many people do regret what they did by violating social norms, but in the open, they may act as if nothing had happened, but in their sober moments, they usually have regrets. The only exceptional cases are sociopaths or psychopaths who do not regret any action they take. In fact, it is when they commit things that negate the norms of the society that they feel happy but people who are not under the influence of that psychological disorder normally regret such violation of social norm.”
On his part, the Lagos State Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Hyginus Omeje, hinged the menace of road rage on bottled-up emotions, literacy level, lawlessness and population, saying the issue is independent of ethnic or regional sentiments.
He explained that the traffic situation in a place like Lagos had made the situation worse such that it happens almost every day, adding that such situations do not imply that such people have mental disorder but that their reaction is merely an offshoot of their situation.
He said, “There are many factors responsible and it starts with bottled-up emotions that people release while driving, especially with the traffic situation. It is also the same reason why people want to clear law enforcement agents off the road simply because of transfer of aggression.
“The second factor is the literacy level of the individual. People who have nothing to lose will readily throw caution to the wind and some even alight from their vehicle to fight. We have seen cases where people go naked in expression of their anger or frustration, so how do you talk to that person. However, there is a level you would be in life that you know there are certain things you can no longer do. You can’t be dragging with someone who has nothing to lose.”
He added that the situation in Lagos tend to be more because of the population. “For example, in Onitsha, you would also get another level of road fury, reminiscent of what you have in Lagos, but you know population is more in Lagos. So, if you take the statistics, you would see that the more densely populated a city is, the more likely for you to have people that would exhibit road rage at one point or the other and it has nothing to do with tribe,” he added.
Source: Punchng.com
