By Adeoye Falade<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What have I gotten myself into this time?<\/em><\/p>\n My thoughts trailed off as the motorcycle I sat on missed a car by sheer luck; not more than two inches. It was like that heart-stopping moment when you pull off the \u2018near miss\u2019 stunt in the game Need <\/em>f<\/em>or Speed<\/em>, only that this was not exhilarating. (Video games can be deceptive.)<\/p>\n I was freaking scared, angry and everything in-between. The fact that my bones weren\u2019t yet broken, or I that I wasn\u2019t sprawled on the floor, surrounded by wailing women and arguing men was a mystery.<\/p>\n A few hours earlier, I had gone to make a transaction at the Skye Bank branch in Ogba. There was a new traffic law in Lagos and a ban on commercial motorcycles at the time, so I had to get a keke<\/em> ride from where I was to Omole Phase 1.<\/p>\n No biggie, right?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, I wanted to get some groceries at Oasis bakery on WEMPCO road, so again, a bike was the perfect means of transport.<\/p>\n I took the gamble and settled for a tricycle which cost three times the amount because I had to pay for the remaining seats and we were going off the normal route. So, you see, after the tricycle incidence, I decided to avoid traffic on my way home.<\/p>\n Turns out that was my biggest mistake of the day.<\/p>\n Fast-forward to almost being hit by a car. I was almost thrown off when the okada rider sped over a speed bump like he was executing a stunt with a mountain bike.<\/p>\n \u201cOga easy now,\u201d I said, and he apologised. And with that apology came the strong smell of alcohol, made possible by the wind blowing towards me.<\/p>\n I almost freaked out. Drunk driving had taken its toll on some people I know, and I wasn\u2019t about to join them because of one drunk cyclist. Still, I calmed down and hoped that I would make it home in one piece. I tried appealing to his better self, hoping to get him to be a bit more careful.<\/p>\n Big mistake.<\/p>\n \u201cOga, when I said you should take me home, I meant the earthly one o. Why are you riding like you want to drop me off in Heaven?\u201d I gently reprimanded him.<\/p>\n \u201cBros, home na home o,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n That was when I finally realised I was in trouble.<\/p>\n Not too long after, he recklessly rounded a bend and we almost had another accident. It began to feel like I was paying the dude to get me killed. I was so annoyed that I landed the rider a knock that would have made my primary school headmaster proud.<\/p>\n Hell was let loose – we screamed, argued, traded insults and the bike became a drama series on wheels. People stopped to look at two men, rider and \u2018ridee\u2019 shouting at the top of their voices. I threatened not to pay, he threatened to beat me up and I threatened to strangle him from where I sat. He stopped, and we argued some more, people came to watch and settle the issue after we screamed ourselves hoarse.<\/p>\n Thankfully, I got home safely, and I couldn\u2019t believe I went through all that madness in the space of fifteen minutes.<\/p>\n As I walked through the door, my family asked how my day was and I simply said,<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I buy a car, I\u2019ll tell you how it went\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Adeoye Falade What have I gotten myself into this time? My thoughts trailed off as the motorcycle I sat on missed a car by sheer luck; not more than two inches. It was like that heart-stopping moment when you pull off the \u2018near miss\u2019 stunt in the game Need for Speed, only that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3543"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3570,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543\/revisions\/3570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}