I almost went to the police station....

TAKEN FROM MY JOURNAL.......

To call on a client 2 miles away took us two hours to get to because of so much traffic. I’m not sure but I think the temperature is over 100f.

In Lagos the citizens jump between their native language and English often and effortlessly so I can usually understand about 25% out on the street.


Yewande was in the passenger seat to her Toyota and her salesperson Akin was driving. I was sitting behind Yewande in the back seat. Yewande told me to sit there so we would draw less attention as we drove. The traffic was crazy. Hundreds of motorbikes and cars intertwined at all times. There are no traffic lights. Everyone seems in a hurry. Everyone seems busy. There are ten times as many people on foot, in the streets. There are no sidewalks. No one was overly aggressive. On the contrary, they were respectful to me when I would say no or wave them away. There were just so many of them! It was a bit overwhelming.

At one point late in the afternoon Akin tried to make a left turn on a very busy street. He was stopped by three men in white uniforms who surrounded our car. Yewande was on the phone talking to client. She is on the phone to the store or to one of her clients non stop. Very impressive. Two of the officers were probably thirty five, one was young, maybe twenty five. They were banging on the driver’s window of Yewande’s car, and motioning for Akin to roll down the window. At first he wouldn’t. They were all yelling. I took a picture.
That really made them mad.

One of the older men pulled out of his pocket a shiny round metal object that was maybe one inch long and round. He gave it to the young officer. I didn’t recognize what it was at first but quickly, when he bent down by the rear of the car I figured out that it was a tire deflator!!

Yewande sprang into action. She threw her phone down and started yelling at the men. So powerful she was! I heard her say between her native language and English things like, “This is against our law!” and “I will not let you do this to my car!”

Akin rolled down the window. The young officer noticed this and stood up and put his hand in the car and reached around to unlock the back passenger seat of the car. The opposite door from where I was sitting.

Instinctively I made and fist and smashed his hand against the inside of the car door thinking that I wasn’t going to let him in under any circumstances.

Yewande was outside of the car by now and everyone was yelling at each other. For about twenty minutes I sat in the car, because Yewande told me “not to move” and watched in horror as the young officer held his hand, almost in tears and the officers yelled.

How did it end?

We paid the officers money and got to leave.
to sit in the car to take us to the police station to force us to get money and I did the right thing by not letting him in. Yewande also explained that she had to promise that I would delete the photos because the officers were so angry that I took them. They didn’t want their faces on record!