THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT CHRONICLES

Public transportation is something prevalent around the world, in my state there are three types; free transportation, cheap transportation, and what I would call VIP transportation. Although it's VIP, it's Also for the public. I take public transportation not because I like it, but because I need to get to wherever I'm going. Well it's what I have to endure being that I don't have a car yet. I don't think there's ever a time I enjoy public transportation, if it isn't the noise from the crowd, it is the body odor from only God knows where the hell they came from. If it isn't that, it is the fact that the taxi or bus driver has to stop every two minutes to carry a passenger and when you decide to take VIP public transportation, you will have to pay at least 10 times the amount you would have paid for the normal transportation.

UNSPLASH

There are people that see to it that the public transportation drivers pay their taxes and those people are referred to as Agbero. This is my major issue with public transportation. These people are mostly lazy unlearned youths whose job is to smoke weed and other hard drugs, fight and destroy properties of drivers who do not pay them. They are using woods and rods to damage vehicles of drivers that do not pay them. To be honest I find this attitude very disgusting because they ask for money as though they worked for it. Imagine going to the public park to carry passengers five times a day and giving them the transportation of one passenger as tax. And sometimes you might have to settle more than three of them as a driver before leaving the park which might sum up to the transportation of two to three passengers.

I sometimes feel for these drivers especially when I'm in the vehicle and I see them beating up a driver or damaging his vehicle because he refuses to give them money. How much do these public drivers even make at the end of the day seeing that the cost of living is very high, they would have to fuel their vehicles, maintain it, give these Agbero’s part of their earnings and still care for their families. It's indeed a wicked world but what can we do about it. I look at the people who decide that they wouldn't get involved in criminal activities even with how hard the economy is, and I look at other lazy people eating from them as though it's their right and I feel bad that the Nigerian government let this happen.

UNSPLASH

Most of these Agbero's are thieves and pickpockets in disguise. Especially when there's trouble and they see someone who looks vulnerable to them. Places like Lagos, warri and Port Harcourt (I have been to) are states where you must be very careful at the park and ensure you don't let your guard down else you will go home wishing you never came out of your house that day. Now the government of Nigeria has endorsed these thieves in the name of tax collectors and given them the full power to carry out their activities without fear. In some places in Port Harcourt, even private car owners have to pay tax for parking or dropping off someone at the public park which can be very annoying but then what can we do…

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 128 EPISODE 1