Toyota Bus Stop… where an ‘insane’ man brings sanity to incessant gridlock

Self-less service rendered by insanity

GOING by the deftness the young man exhibits in controlling the gridlock, which normally builds up every evening at the Toyota Bus Stop end of Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, Lagos, en route to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, you cannot but mutter under your breath a word of thanks to him for voluntarily trying to savage a bad situation from going worse.


Curiously, many of those who have submitted to the queer traffic controller, who daily marshals errant drivers to order with the use of a short stick, would find it difficult to believe the ‘Mr. No Name’ is a man on the edge of insanity.


Yet, in such an atmosphere of insanity, caused by impatient motorists, who in a bid to outsmart one another, everyone looks up to him for a solution to the incessant gridlock, which has become a daily nightmare to motorists on the road.


Like an orchestra leader, the nameless man, with a short wooden stick in his right hand and the second hand almost demobilised by clutching to a black nylon, has since assumed the role of a defacto traffic warder, who daily stands like a Rock of Gibraltar that even the most rancorous driver cannot disobey, as he performs the unenviable task of reducing a six-lane traffic into a single lane for easy passage.


For visitors to Lagos, it might be completely bizarre to see such a Gestapo display, as the young man jumps in front of vehicles of recalcitrant motorists to enforce compliance. But with agencies of government like policemen and members of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) in short supply to man all critical bottlenecks across the state, this is one self-less service that is commendable.


However, to regular visitors of the Ladipo spare parts market, the man has cut a popular figure and assumed the status of almost a folk hero. A trader at the market, Uche Omenka, said how the man, without uttering a word, has been able to make motorists comply with his direction does not only deserve commendation, but also an understudy.


According to him, the man’s intervention at the bus stop, where there is no pedestrian bridge, has become a saving grace to many traders that cross the express.


But a commercial bus driver, who simply gave his name as Mufu, blamed the man for the intractable traffic at the bus stop. Mufu, who accused the man of collecting money to pass motorists coming from the Ladipo end of the service lane, said the traffic would have been moving slowly but for his meddlesomeness.


But another motorist, who plies the road often, said the man’s presence has helped in no small measure to alleviate what has remained a messy traffic situation at the bus stop and should not be blamed for the gridlock.


He, however, added that government should rather be blamed for not posting traffic warders at the scene. “One should rather be worried for the absence of government officials at such a strategic road that leads to the Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja.


“More so, the attitude of motorists, who form several lanes to access a two-lane flyover bridge that has been reduced to one because of the illegal bus-stop, where commercial buses load passengers, should also be a source of worry.”