Experiencing chaotic Canaanland
Some of the most exciting news that members of living Faith Church Worldwide (Winners Chapel International) is excited to hear is the date of the annual Shiloh gathering whereby worshipers gather in one place from various nations. Amongst Botswana Delegates in December 2022 was a journalist who fellowships in Winners Chapel International Gaborone. She was so determined to attend Shilloh physically at Canaanland, Ogun State Nigeria. With other seven delegates from Botswana they departed via O.R Tambo International airport, Johannesburg boarding the Asky Airways on December 3, at 4 am and arrived at Murtala Muhammed International Airport at 9:20 am.
The six hour journey seemed like 12 hours as the sister was so anxious to see the nation of Nigeria. Her curiosity was about the hot humid climate, the vegetation and the people. Upon arrival at the Airport she was surprised to hear one of her colleagues commending the Nigeria aviation for refurbishing and expanding the airport. It was so neat and spacious. After check-in, all the delegates’ mood was nearly ruined by their missing luggage. That was the complaint for almost 30 percent of Asky passengers for that time. However that was the least of the concern for the sister, she was so eager to arrive at Canaan land, offload the bags and get into the city centre to see the way of life for the people.
Moving to the exit, the sister’s curiosity and anxiety turned to shock, she had mixed emotions of insecurity, shock and anxiety to arrive at Canaanland. She could not deal with how citizens were trying to get money from visitors. There was a dedicated transport organized by the Church from Canaanland to carry all visitors.
While still trying to locate the team from Canaanland Protocol team members, local taxi drivers flocked to Botswana delegates advertising their transport services, the shock was about the prices. One was saying 40 000 naira while the lowest was N35 000 for a distance of 30 kilometers. I was shocked by the value of the currency. While speaking they were already pulling our bags from our hands and trying to direct us to their cars. It was so chaotic, noisy and very hot.
While trying to avoid them another group wearing military uniform branded Salvation Army also came with high energy shouting, and asking for monetary donations. The sister told them visitors have not yet arrived so they don’t have money to give, but they could not accept the response. Three young ladies surrounded us, one shouted; “We take any currency, please aunty, the money is for the organization. We want to feed the needy and orphans”.
They were so aggressive in the way they want money, even the most financially disciplined person would not resist their persuasion. I had to take out 20 Rands from my purse and gave the middle aged woman who couldn’t stop tapping my shoulder while talking.
Little did I know that I was attracting more attention, I thought they would leave, two more others came to demand some shares and they couldn’t take no for an answer, we gave them some few Rands and Pula’s. Their gratitude was of the highest level I had ever seen; they thanked and declared God’s blessings on us.
These people are very spiritual yet very aggressive and violent. I wondered how they balanced their emotions. Finally, we got on the church combi and headed to Canaanland, joining the main road is what now raised the sister’s adrenaline, the combis looked very old and were so torn, people were overcrowded in mangled combis which had no doors. The risk of passengers falling off was so high. I wondered how the Department of roads in the nation was addressing these issues. That was the least of my wonders.
The worst and most traumatizing one was the traffic jam on the road with dysfunctional traffic control lights; drivers did not bother about road safety. That was the worst experience of a girl from Botswana. She started to battle with headache as she was suffocating from engine smoke. Almost 80 percent of the cars she saw could have been classified as non-roadworthy because they were so torn, unclean at least to her eyes. The atmosphere was filled with grey gas from car exhausts and motor bikes.
The high humidity of the zone contributed further in addition to high temperature of 38 degrees celcius. The air was so thick that inhalation was hard for someone wearing a mask. The distance that was supposed to be 1 hour 30 minutes took 6 hours due to traffic jam. We arrived on the day when schools were closing and students were travelling to their homes from boarding schools. That was the normal life of people there. Coming to peace with the traffic situation, she began to see dramatic scenes on the road.
Drivers were shouting at each other from inside their cars, some could even get out of cars in the middle of the road and hurled insults at others. It was like watching fiction drama, one car hit another from the side, the highest peak of this movie started. From that moment those two drivers got outside their cars and started quarrelling to a point of fighting, others came out of their cars also to intervene, it was so noisy, all of them were shouting at the same time.
To my surprise when the cars in front moved further all these drivers quickly got in their cars and continued with the journey. No police was called to assess the accident neither was there any agreement between the two drivers, everyone continued with their journey, that was so strange. Just when I thought I have seen it all, another chaotic scene happened at the crossroads. At that point there were three Police Officers controlling the traffic but it was so hard for them because drivers and motorbike riders were not compliant.
They just proceeded even when they were told to stop, everyone was just squeezing himself into every space they could find. Then one gentleman came out of the car, took off his tshirt, stood behind the Police Officer and took over the job of the police officer, facing the other direction. When other officers realised what he was doing, all three of them came to quarrel with him, then all the cars started moving almost hitting each other, hooting and drivers shouting. The noise from car horns, motorbike engines, and people shouting was unbearable. Our driver finally found a way to proceed. We arrived at 7:15 pm at Canaanland........To be continued next week.