True Love Story: The Pretty Banker Who Married A Danfo Driver

Editor’s note: This is a story @Blacknosee shared with me last year but somehow I never got around to publishing it. Today, he is celebrating his wedding anniversary and to celebrate with them, I am putting this out – to encourage someone out there and to, hopefully, send a message to both ladies and gentlemen of this generation and many others to come.

This is more than a love story, it’s a life story of patience, virtues, hard work, trust in God and choosing quality over quantity in relationships.

Chris Ade’s Story: (It’s long but it’s worth the read)

I was an active member of my students union in my days in UNIBEN, from 1988 to 1992, I took a Bsc Economics & statistics degree and then ended up in Elf Petroleum on Kofo Abayomi, Lagos where I worked in the Information Systems and Telecommunications department. This was my invite into postgraduate in Computer Science, which I excelled in with honours.

My good fortune changed in 1994 when my contract was not renewed because Elf Was facing an uncertain future in Nigeria.

I was just 25 years old and just when I started thinking my life was settling into a nice rhythm, it was punctuated by this unfortunate event. Days turned into miserable months as I couldn’t secure another job. Eventually, I lost my flat and had to move in with a friend.

At the time, I had become a committed Christian worshiping in Winners Chapel, Raji Oba, Lagos. I learnt from Bishop Oyedepo that there’s is no food for the lazy so I secured N190,000 loan and got an L 300 Mitsubishi bus (danfo).

I drove my bus and got a conductor but discovered I could control my money if I conducted myself. (Bless ‘Friday’ my conductor when I started, he couldn’t believe I will survive).

It was at this time my girlfriend of 5 years from university ditched me.

Danfo Series: How An Average Nigerian Thinks

Yesterday, something interesting happened while I was on a bus, heading home. 

I had gone to town to sort out some bank issues and on my way home, I boarded one of the popular public buses, called Danfo. Usually, I am the typical passenger; I mind my business, keep to myself and would rarely speak… except for the time when the vehicle approaches my bus-stop and I shout ‘Oremeji wa’ (meaning I’ll alight at Oremeji bus-stop).

So back to the gist, a particular female passenger, older woman, sat in front of me and she was snacking on boiled corn but that was no business of mine… not until she threw the stalk out the window, onto the expressway.

I was irritated but merely shook my head and kept mute.

As our journey progressed, she threw out an empty bottle of pepsi. At this point, I couldn’t keep quiet anymore. I figured that, keeping quiet when people do wrong and doing wrong are one are the same.

I gently tapped her and said it would be better to drop the waste in the vehicle because the bus operators would clean up when they get to the park and dispose the waste properly (hopefully).

Either way, waste dumped at the bus park is better than that left on the highway because no one would clean that up. Eventually, it clogs the drainage and we all suffer floods.

I only gave the older woman a summary of this sermon but for whatever reason, she didn’t appreciate it because she replied saying “abeg, this is Nigeria.”

That, I couldn’t resist responding to.

“That is why Nigeria would not get better, because you continue to make things worse,” I said.

“Don’t curse Nigeria,” she replied. I certainly found this amusing.

Wait a minute: [She dumps waste out the bus window but I shouldn’t curse Nigeria by telling her that her actions do not bode well for the country’s development. Really??!!!]

I wasn’t interested in an argument so I told her not to make an issue out of it and guess what she did… she threw another stalk out the window! Just to prove to me that she can do whatever she wants?

At this point, I can safely assume that 99.5% of Nigerians blame government for everything that goes wrong in the country but they are quick to look over their own wrong doings. This is the country I live in.

I may get into real trouble one day, but that thought would not stop me from saying what I should, when I should.

God bless Nigeria!

[Have you had a similar experience? What is your take on this matter? How can we encourage citizens to do the right thing like dispose waste properly?…. please drop a comment].