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When we were little, we used to
regard women's motorcycles (women usually drove the small Qlink-kind of
motorcycles) as harmless because their riders being females were always
careful. Men, on the other hand, were much more dangerous with their big, noisy
'bikes'. So, crossing the road when a female motorcycle was just a few feet
away was something we did with leisure and non-chalance since the woman would
be patient, slow and careful. But if a man was coming on his bike half a
kilometer away, we knew to stay clear off the road completely. Sitting outside
your house which was by the roadside didn't make you any safer than if you were
standing in the middle of the road. We'd never heard of accidents involving
women's bikes, but accidents involving men's bikes was something that occurred
many times a day and the crazy part was that most of the accidents were caused
and suffered by the same bike. But I digress. What I really want to talk about
is cars and female drivers.
Now, in some parts of Lagos, it's
not uncommon to see a woman riding a big car. But I'd like to ask, how many
driving schools do we have in Lagos. In all my time here, I've seen two and
heard of one. Of course, there would surely be others, but certainly not as many
as they should be. And looking at the entire structure and organization of some
of these schools, it's nothing but outright nonsense. By the way, how many
people especially women patronize these schools? A lot of people learn how to
drive from a friend or family member and most likely in an open garage. An
informal, incomplete form of training that teaches you how to change gear,
reverse, brake, accelerate and use the horn among some other things. Most
times, both teacher and student have no idea about many road signs or driving
regulations. It is very normal to see a woman drive very slowly and carefully,
not only because women are naturally calm and careful, but also because she's
not a very good driver. In a car of say three to three and half yards in length,
it could take some women twenty to thirty minutes to actually make a U-turn on
a road of almost 10 yards in width. It can be very funny when you see them
taking the car back and forth like a duck fowl doing a traditional Igbo dance.
Then talk of those women who want to negotiate a curve. That might take some of
them a whole ten minutes. If it's a big car, needing good height and strength
to handle properly, it will be closer to fifteen. They will look left, right,
back, stretch their necks to see ahead and below and then repeat the entire
process before moving a few inches forward and the cycle continues. Reversing
is yet another drama. The funniest happens in a bank's parking space. Some
women will have to undergo a fresh driving lecture from the security men before
they can park their cars. "Go like this. Ehen ehen, hold am like that.
Oya, turn come. Dey come, dey come. No no no, hold am.. No, turn am like
that...."
To be frank, I'm yet to see the
actions of these women directly threaten the safety of pedestrians, but it
certainly is adding to the anger and frustration of every road user when they
block the road with big cars they can't handle. They are also risking their own
lives by being sitting, clueless ducks on ill-constructed roads full of crazy
male drivers of heavy-duty vehicles, insane male motorcycle riders, portholes
and fellow inexperienced or underaged drivers of the opposite sex. I really do
not know why a woman who's not very good at driving, measuring 5ft. 1in. and
weighing 110lb would want to drive a car as large as a Pathfinder jeep. She
cannot see much of the road ahead and when she finds herself in an unfamiliar
or tight situation, she lacks the strength to control the car optimally. It
clearly is a recipe for disaster. Most big cars look like coffins, and believe
me, they can easily land you in one. You can show off with a small car, a
bicycle or even a Keke NAPEP. Why play with your life by showing off with a big
car on Nigerian roads when you cannot even drive very well?
