today was... a lot.

I don’t think I’ve had such a frustrating day in a long while.

Woke up this morning, did 30 pushups out of my daily 50, put on a crisp outfit, and went to work using the convenient transport scheme called Shuttlers, with AC and comfort.

Reached my office and started making some changes to the website I was redesigning. Got some pretty good comments from my coworkers.

I needed my supervisor to sign some of my documents, but he was in Victoria Island (V.I) and I was in Lekki. So, I took a bus there.

The route cost 1000 naira, but I shouldn’t have paid yet since I was only going part of the way. Big mistake. It was when I got to the man’s office, after 9 minutes, that I realized it really wasn’t that far.

The supervisor signed the documents though and sent me on my way.

Then a thought that caught my mind earlier in the day resurfaced - can’t I just submit the required documents in the V.I branch of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF)? Instead of going back to the Lekki office?

Everything went downhill from there. Walked for like 10 minutes, got tired and hailed a korope to get to the route bus stop Google Maps showed me. 300 gone.

Got to the bus stop and started following the route... until I got to the doorsteps of a bank. It was then I knew that I might just be cooked.
I asked two of the security guards there and they were all too happy to help - God bless them.

After close to an hour of wandering, I got to the place directed to me by a gate man. And I just stood there; I was genuinely confused.
Where was this ITF office??
I looked at my phone; Maps was still telling me I should walk straight for 9 minutes but I knew it was lying. It had been lying all day.

I then prayed to God because honestly, I was tired. I moved forward and found another gate man, who assured me that the building I was standing by was the place.

SEE MY JOYYY

Until he told me, they’ve closed 15 minutes ago. At this point, I was like 🙂

I then asked how to get a bus back to Lekki, where my office was and got dragged into their conversation for 5 minutes where they were comparing which route to take was better. They later decided on one, and I started walking.... the walk of shame.

I reached the spot where the first two gate men who were kind to me were, so I went to thank them again and then I got a drink to just calm down. 500 naira gone.

After that, I walked for close to 10 minutes before I saw the main road so that I could take a bus.

“Lekki, how much”, I said. 500 naira, the driver answered. I entered and thinking all of my problems were now over, I opened my phone, began to reply to messages, check out LinkedIn, Substack, etc. By the time I look up, we were in God knows where. The driver then said “Everybody come down o, last bus stop”.

I was so confused, I went to meet the driver personally,
“Affa, I dey go Lekki o!”
He then grudgingly directed me to take a bus after crossing the road. It was a woman beside me that informed me that I should’ve dropped since that I’m going to have to go back through the holdup the first guy went through. I just weak.

Anyhow, took the returning bus back to Lekki, the driver was calling extravagant prices and people didn’t want to enter but I was extremely desperate.
Why? Because I’ve booked a ride on Shuttler for 5:30pm to go back to my house and I desperately needed to enter that bus because of how comfortable it was. The driver was shouting 1000 for Lekki, I entered but I kept quiet and didn’t pay yet. I noticed the driver was changing the price for every route frequently, so I figured he didn’t tell me the actual price. Once another Lekki person entered the bus along the road, I asked him how much it was and I ended up paying 800 naira. Thank God! I could save my last 200 naira.

The journey back to Lekki was long and grueling, the (un)trustworthy Google Maps was showing me 41 minutes to reach my destination and it was around 5:15 then if that were true, I’d miss my bus.

Ah!

You can’t believe what was going through my mind at this point, I’d faced so many things leading up to this and I wasn’t sure I was surprised. I just prayed that God should make a fast way for me back to Lekki.

For reasons best known to Him, he didn’t heed my request. But God is sovereign, and I knew it was for a good reason even if I didn’t know the reason yet.

At about 5:25, I called the Shuttlers man and told him that given the traffic, I might most likely not make it in 5 minutes time. He told me he’d give me an extra five minutes and leave by 5:35.

Of course, I couldn’t make it so when he called me back at 5:35, I just told him to mark me as No Show… painfully.

After that, I called my Dad to inform him of the situation, how I was stuck in traffic, wouldn’t make it for Shuttlers and how I was still ending back to Lekki, this late. I’m sure you can guess how that went...

After all that time on the road, in an uncountable and rickety korope, I reached Lekki by 6.

Before then, during the ride in the korope, I’d withdrawn 10k out of my Piggyvest to use as transport money to get back home and for emergencies. I went to a POS woman immediately I came down to withdraw the money, and what did I see? Insufficient funds!

I was so shocked, I didn’t have words to show, I told the woman to try again. And I tried it 3 times, it didn’t work.

To avoid further embarrassment, I left the woman and started heading back to the office. (I later discovered that Piggyvest had reversed the money back to my wallet. As how!!)
To save time, I wanted to use a korope to get to my office street and the only cash I knew I had on me then was the 200 naira previously for the cunning driver that was dynamically pricing.

I entered the korope, and told the man that it was just Blackbell I was going, and the only 200 naira I had on me would suffice, that it was already late and the journey was a freaking 1 minute drive. This guy didn’t even answer me, still shouting “300 naira to ANYWHERE”.

I was at my wit’s end, utterly disgusted by the character of Lagos bus drivers, I turned to leave the bus and then God came through.

A guy at the back offered to pay my fare. I was so happy 😭

I couldn’t believe it or even fathom why. We got to Blackbell, and I thanked him again and left for my office. God had made a way for me.

Went back to the Lekki office and got the bag I’d left before I went to meet my supervisor.

Then I discovered I had another 200 naira in my pocket. I tried to think back, I remember the Victoria Island bus I took was 300 naira and they gave me a change of 200 naira. I was like, Yesss.

I took it, crossed the road and used it to take another korope back to the Lekki gate. Then began the hunt for a bus that’ll take me to Oshodi, where I’ll see another bus to take me to Jakande Gate, where I could trek home from.

By 7:15, I still couldn’t find a bus as buses were scarce and people in corporate wear were jumping into them like antelopes. I then saw a bus saying Oshodi, and I wondered why people weren’t rushing it, then I heard the price 1800.
My heart sank.
I’d been out for too long, so of course I paid the money and sat in the bus waiting for it to fill up. That took a long time.

It was when we eventually started our trip, that I knew the public transport life was surely not for me. Not even mentally speaking, I mean physically. I was too tall to squeeze into that bus. My legs suffered. I was honestly so tired of everything at this point. Then my phone died, so I just sat there, looking...

After a while, someone left and the driver forgot to fill up the space close to me so I could sit on the two seats and widen my legs properly. Thank God for that, if not, I would surely have had an injury then.

We got to Oshodi, and since I didn’t really take public transport, I had to ask a girl for directions. The girl was really rude, so I moved on to ask another person. I got the information of the next bus stop and kept going.

I got a new bus to my place (thankfully this bus was a little bit more spacious vertically than the former one). It cost 1000 naira and throughout the ride, I was just trying to find a lesson in all these. Like WHY did I have to go through this today of all days!

I couldn’t find anything (maybe you can), but I decided right there and then that I’d try my absolute best to never get used to that kind of life.

I got home eventually, finished the last 20 of my daily pushups, and completed my remaining tasks. Overall, today was a very very stressful day (and one of my most expensive too), but I was still grateful to God for seeing me through the day. I know He still helped me, in ways I could see (like the passenger offering to pay my transport, or the woman offering directions without me even asking) and in ways I couldn’t too.

I couldn’t find a way to say what I felt about this, but this song spoke to me.

May your struggles keep you near the cross
And may your troubles show that you need God
And may your battles end the way they should
And may your bad days prove that God is good
And may your whole life prove that God is good

-“God Is Good” by Jonathan McReynolds