Afro INTELIUS

I saw a story about someone who got help on Third Mainland Bridge, and I thought I should share this story. I really want us to build a culture of caring for our neighbours in Nigeria and checking on people we don’t know when their cars break down by the roadside. On September 6, @SamuelOtigba and @Tunde_OD called and said we should meet up at Mako Lagos. Nice night. A couple of my friends said they were at VI, and I was like, I haven’t seen y’all in years, let me pull up. I got to VI, and we decided to drive around a little. My radiator had been punctured, although I didn’t know it at the time, and my car broke down in VI. Midnight. On a one-way road. In a convertible. Around 2AM🤦🏽‍♂️ Not only did the car break down, it was also obstructing the road. I had to keep apologising to people while helping to direct traffic around the car. Fair enough, most of the people driving past were understanding. Everyone could see that it wasn’t intentional. The two ladies who drove past were hostile, but it is what it is. The car was starting, but it wasn’t switching into gear. At that point, I didn’t even know where to start. Then one guy driving a Nissan sedan parked his car. He had already passed us, so it wasn’t like my car was blocking him. He came down, showed a lot of empathy, and encouraged us to keep trying to start the car so we could move it out of the road. He stayed with us for over 10 minutes, helping us direct traffic and trying to figure things out. Eventually, the gear switched and we were able to move the car off the road. The guy sighed, looked genuinely happy that we were okay, and left. No “Chief, anything for us?” No “Show love ooo.” Nothing. He genuinely parked his car in the middle of the night to check on complete strangers. He stayed until he was sure we were safe and had moved the car somewhere safer, and then he simply left. I’m not blaming anyone for not stopping in the middle of the night to check why a stranger’s car has broken down. I understand the safety concerns, especially at that time of the night. But I really want us to build a culture of offering help to strangers when we safely can. Especially in Nigeria, where it’s not like everyone has roadside assistance on speed dial. If you see someone with a broken-down car and you’re in a position where you can safely help, please consider stopping to offer assistance. Sometimes they don’t even need you to fix the car. They might just need another person there while they figure things out. Tunde pulled up a few minutes later and we all left. I left the car there overnight. By the next day, it was working perfectly. I just had to replace the coolant. I don’t know the guy who stopped to help us, and I’ll probably never see him again. But I remember what he did. We need more of that. Thanks.