My trip to Ilorin

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by / 02 Dec 2014

I was travelling from Ibadan to Ilorin far back in August 1999. I boarded a commercial bus at Ojoo Garage Ibadan. The bus took off and had  journeyed for about 15 min. when the driver stopped to ease himself. When he returned to driving a passenger (young woman) said to the driver who is an elderly man “Baba you’ve started again, this is what you did the last time I boarded your vehicle, stopping the vehicle to urinate every now and then pls don’t waste our precious time on this journey”. There was laughter from almost everyone in the bus. In another 20 min. of driving, the driver stopped the vehicle and excuse himself that he wanted to check the back tires of the bus. We realised that he actually went to urinate again. Passengers were reeling with laughter as he resume driving. This spur different level of conversations in the bus. A particular young man started making jibes and comedy on the issue. While this went on Baba stopped again, this time he rushed out of the bus to do his thing. I realised that Baba has a health problem and I didn’t like the way some passengers were turning it to entertainment especially our young man that talks so much about it and made fun of the Baba. Baba maintained his silence. This went on and I lost count of how many times Baba stopped the bus to urinate. It was a very frustrating journey and I wondered why the NURTW (the local body that controls commercial transportation) allowed someone like Baba to engage in this business.

We finally got to our destination and we alighted at the Ilorin garage as each and every one of us congratulate one another. Our young volunteer comedian got down from the bus and started gisting and laughing away with other young men and saying all sort about the driver as they go away. I called Baba’s attention that I have my luggage in the boot of the bus. Baba came to open the boot for me to offload my luggage. Baba then asked me “Who is the owner of this other big bag”? I repplied ‘I don’t know’.  I quickly called out to some of the other  passengers already at the other side of the garage. We later realised that the luggage belongs to the young man who had made jest of the driver almost throughout the journey. He had totally forgotten that he had his luggage in the bus! I learnt later that he rushed back looking for Baba to claim his luggage. It seem to me that the young man had memory problem.
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