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PLEASANTLY RARE

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Today I met one of the rare model conductors. Mature-looking, calm, collected and cool. His polite mien catches my attention. I'm mesmerized as such character in our Lagos bus boys is very uncommon. His calm spirit is infectious. No angry call for change. A comment in that regard illicit friendly simple response. 'E jo e ma binu' A pass of his fares from angles on the bus is met with a thank you. After a usual detour to avoid a near standstill traffic, model guy calls for one passenger to fill the last space. A middle-aged woman enters with comment as to the fare. She was good-natured in her delivery. This meets an equally pleasant response from the conductor. They chatter about that for a few minutes. It is a sight to behold. I kept smiling like a sheep as I take notes. Now there's a tradition that the conductor perches as the fifth person on the seat nearest to the door. This usually causes a stir even a quarrel. This day the bus boy didn't have to
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MY BRAND OF CRAZY

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Is this an irony? I don't know. Moment of madness. Maybe. So what happened? The bus I took to Ikeja decided to take a detour which will make it bypass about 5 stops. Passengers for the next stop after point of detour began to protest, the usual Lagos way. They were very vocal in the face of exorbitant transport fare. A particular set of passengers, 2 women one of them pregnant stated they were ready for war if the bus boy (that's the posh way of naming a conductor) refuses to foot the bill for onward movement. To move the story faster, a scuffle occurred. The women wanted more refund than he gave. They tried to grab him. One of them grab him and tore his cloth in the process. He reacted with pushing and punching. All these was happening at a spot beside a waterway (what we call gutter). The bus boy – that’s the one we call conductor- got pushed into the gutter. Alarm! That infuriated me. It irked me. By the time the bus zoomed off I see the 2 women weren&#
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