Iridescent Hope

Excerpts...

Olawunmi herself had had a grueling ordeal commuting to work that morning. There were fewer commuter buses plying the roads at this point of the fuel crisis. She had ambled to the bus stop this time taking the longer route in order to avoid having to encounter the body which she had heard from people who had walked down the road in recent days was still lying languidly on the side road where she had last seen it. Unlike previous days when she waited for her staff bus at a side of the makeshift bus stop that was far from the madness of the crowd, she had had to mingle with the throngs of people who waited for the commercial vehicles that would take them to their various destinations. The word chaos took on another meaning and dimension of its own. It became clear the extent to which the fuel crisis had reached when the familiar danfo buses were a rare sight as most of them ran on the fuel which had become a precious commodity in town. The only form of transportation that was visible that morning was the black and yellowed-hued mammoth-shaped bus which had been given the incomparable name – Molue.

There was nothing else like it in Lagos and for many commuters that morning it was a godsend because it ran on diesel. Although at that point of the fuel crisis, diesel had not fallen into the ranks of what was considered essential but scarce commodities, many cynics were quick to point out that it was just a question of time since word on the street was the scarcity was about to extend to diesel.