Lagos Traffic

Is there anything more infuriating than being caught in Lagos traffic? Accounts of voyages which should not take more than ten minutes having taken many hours may seem laughable to those who have never experienced the wrath of the Lagos traffic jam. But having endured two in less than 24 hours, I can say this: these accounts are no exaggeration in the slightest. One of the most bizarre things about Lagos traffic, though, is how it creeps up with no explanation whatsoever. As a passenger in distress, frustrated about being in a logjam which prevents you from attending an event on time being hosted no further than a few blocks away, you suddenly become intrigued as to how it happened in the first place. Your taxi turns a corner, smooth sailing, and then all of a sudden you are swarmed by vehicles which are dodging pedestrians and being stopped by police for no logical reason whatsoever.

Lagos road congestion has become the topic of legend. Known locally as ‘go-slows’, Lagos traffic jams have become more frequent in recent years, as its road network, which has not been updated in decades, has been forced to cope with an ever-increasing number of passenger vehicles, trucks and automobiles. The reality is that Lagos, with a population now exceeding 21 million, is set to become Africa’s largest city by 2015. Fuel subsidies have made purchasing a car a relatively inexpensive undertaking, and the main reason why the number of registered vehicles on Lagos roads increased nearly 1000% between 1995 and 2010, from 27,000 to 230,000. Needless to say, the ‘go-slow’ is now a part of everyday life in Nigeria’s commercial capital.

What is perhaps most intriguing about Lagos traffic, however, is how ordinary residents respond to it. Numerous visitors and writers, including the famous Ryszard Kapuściński, have, over the years, marveled at how Nigerians have coped with the country’s lack of infrastructure and problems. But you can only appreciate how when you are caught in a ‘go-slow’ yourself: the small, mini-taxis, whizzing down backstreets which you thought never existed; vendors galvanizing en masse around the traffic, sandwiched within the contours of parked vehicles, selling every product imaginable; and drivers jockeying for the four car lengths of space afforded by the slightest vehicular movement every ten minutes or so during the perpetual traffic jam, unphased by the circumstances. Alongside this, of course, and beyond the traffic jam itself, each resident is forced to acquire and run his/her own generator because of the inconsistency in the supply of electricity.

There is certainly something admirable about the way in which Lagos residents cope with and adapt to perpetual traffic. It is a telling sign of their resilience. But it is also a sign that people have conceded defeat, no longer in possession of the zeal, passion and energy needed to facilitate change. For as long as people continue to tolerate ridiculousness such as the Lagos traffic jam, unchallenged, corrupt African governments will continue to neglect infrastructural needs. Has the African citizenry given up?