What Is Happening?

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One of the major issues citizens of Nigeria have been suffering from is Police Harassment. You could do literally nothing at all and still somehow find yourself in a hot pot of mess, simply because a cop looked at you funny. This is something that many people have loads of experience with. And then, when you’re a young person who owns a car, it gets even worse.

It’s not unusual to see illegal roadblocks manned by men in uniform, specifically to extort the citizens. They would hold traffic, just so they could make money from civilians. Normally, defaulters will easily pay off whatever is asked of them, because they’re defaulters and don’t want the heat. But being innocent doesn’t save you from their trap. Because choosing not to pay could get your car impounded.

And many times, it’s not even about doing things wrong. You could provide everything they ask for, and still end up getting taxed. I’ve heard stories of officers cooking up cases of ‘investigations’ that require them to take you to the police station. And sadly, not owning a car doesn’t save you from them because many cab drivers also seem to work with them.

It’s painful, but sadly, it only gets worse. There are a lot of issues wrong with the system that if you don’t own a car or know someone who owns one, you might not really know what exactly is going on. Here in Lagos, I’ve heard of how people get ridiculously extorted for the most ridiculous things.

As a driver, you could be fined for driving above the speed limit. That’s a crime, right? Yeah! But the only issue is that there might not be a sign letting you know the speed limit of that particular road. Without a sign, how then do you know that you shouldn’t drive above a particular speed? This is the same issue that is faced in BRT lanes.

BRT lanes are lanes dedicated specifically for BRT buses in Lagos. Due to the nature of the buses and their routes, they have dedicated lanes on major roads. This way, they don’t have to struggle with traffic like other road users. So, as a private car owner, using these roads is illegal and can get you fined. However, I’ve learned that a number of those lanes are allegedly not even marked. So, if you don’t know that it’s a BRT lane, you could mistakenly get into it. And something as basic as letting your car tyres touch the line would be enough to get you fined.

The same can be said for U-Turns, or One-Way. If these things are illegal in a particular part of the road, there should be signs warning about them. But we don’t have them, however, we do have Police officers waiting down the road to stop anyone helpless enough to fall into their trap. And when you’re caught, the only way to get out of their trap is by parting with your hard-earned money.

There is just so much that’s going on right now, it’s pitiful that in 2025, we still have to deal with issues like this. There are young men who can easily afford to own cars, but the police problems that just come with such an acquisition are the only thing keeping them from doing it. People will come from nowhere and expect you to pay 50k - 100k, just like that. Money that you didn’t even give me!

When you go online, you’ll hear so many stories that’ll make your heart bleed. A lot is really happening, and people who don’t have the money to pay such exorbitant fees always face the risk of losing their vehicles. It’s a scary world indeed.

Sadly, these problems are not unique to Lagos State, they’re everywhere in the country. It’s just frustrating!

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_{Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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_{N.B: All images used in this post are mine. The thumbnail was designed using Canva.}

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