You always want to appear tougher than you feel, trust me. I was born in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria but school and other factors saw me living in other states for a long period of time and because of that I didn’t really know what it really meant to travel around the city alone and with public transportation for that matter.
My major means of getting around is using a drop which just means a taxi. It is also the easiest because you can just tell the driver where you’re going, agree to a fee and you will get to your destination and perhaps you’re not really sure where your destination is, you can always use a Bolt which is an alternative to Uber.
However the public transportation I am going to talk about here is more complicated than entering a taxi and definitely not as comfortable as an Uber. This mode of transportation is known simply as along and soon you will understand why. Entering an along requires five strangers (4 at the back seat and 1 in the front with the driver, but some drivers make 2 people sit in front) piling into a car and going to the same or similar destinations. Uber pool if you like. It sometimes requires crossing highways, encountering numerous stops, having to tightly squeeze yourself in between other passengers and having your driver argue about politics or blast radio programs. It is kind of like being in a bus but just more uncomfortable.
So here are some tips I believe you will find helpful from my recent experiences;
Never, ever, wear a flare skirt: I think this one is quite obvious. You usually have to enter an along as fast as you can especially when you stop them by the road side and not at a ‘car-stop’ and the next person is probably entering as fast as you are and the next thing is that you find you can’t really move because someone (or two people if it’s a really cool skirt) are sitting on your skirt and then it becomes this awkward dance to try and get them off you but your safest bet is probably to wait until one of you has to get out of the car.
You never want to be the third person: so as I said, four people sit at the back of the car and if you happen to enter a really tiny car with people who aren’t on the slender side, then you can expect a really interesting ride. This situation can only get worse if you’re the third person because the third person always has to move forward so the fourth/last person entering can fit properly in the car. Basically, everybody gets to rest their back in what is surely an uncomfortable ride except the third person whose kneels has to be in between the space of the driver’s seat and the front passenger’s seat. There is of course an exception to this rule, if you’re a tough looking person or just really stubborn, someone else will end up making the adjustment or the fourth person will refuse to enter the car.
If your skirt is not stretchy, you may not want to climb a bike: alright this does not really have anything to do with entering an along but it is just a way of discussing another mode of transportation in Nigeria’s capital, bikes. No, not power bikes more like the bikes delivery agents/pizza boys use without the compartments on them of course. Bikes as a means of transportation in Abuja are largely banned but they are allowed to operate in some choice areas like Durumi, Karu, Nyanya etc. I entered a bike on a particular day when I was wearing a body-con skirt, which is normally not a problem, but it was not a stretchy material and it felt like a battle getting on and off that bike. I am happy to report no damage was sustained to my skirt or the driver’s poor bike but I don’t recommend it to anyone.
Finally, it’s okay to go off your way if it means protecting yourself, you will eventually arrive at your destination: this particular incident was so stressful but so worth it. Highways in Abuja are usually one-ways in nature and the Durumi area has a barricade between each of the one-ways which makes it difficult/ almost impossible to cross to the other side but people do it anyways. It basically entails you lifting yourself above the barricades to get to the other side. Two issues confronted me on a particular day; 1. The along I needed to enter to get home was on the other side of the barricade and 2. I had promised my mum I wasn’t going to cross to the other side plus I was wearing a skirt again; there was no way I was going to holster myself above an approximately 3-foot barricade made up of concrete.
And so I began my journey going the opposite direction (i.e. Apo, when I wanted to go to Berger junction which is basically saying I was standing in Europe and I needed to go to Asia but it was too dangerous to cross and so I had to take a detour to North America), yeah you get the picture now. Eventually I got home so exhausted that I could not change my clothes for an hour; all I could do was eat the food my sister had lovingly prepared for me. Anyways that was only my first day in a new environment, I figured out a quicker and safer route and I was all the wiser for it.
This concludes my first entry to my Abuja diary, transportation lessons and tips. Along is one of the most cost-friendly mode of transportations and that is why it is so popular despite being most times uncomfortable and requiring you to be in some particular “car-stops” or roadsides before you can find where you’re going. My conclusion is simply, entering along is for the brave and for the street-wise and so I don’t recommend it if you’re a newbie in Abuja unless you are a quick learner and you know where you are going.
