Enforcement of One-Way Rules in Lagos Tests Motorists' Sanity; 'A Lot of Cannabis'
LAGOS, Nigeria—You'd have to be crazy to drive the wrong way down a one-way street here. At least, that's what cops in the local Anti-One-Way Squad say.
Seeking to stem an epidemic of wrong-way driving, Lagos authorities have ratcheted up the standard $160 fine. Scofflaws now also face psychiatric evaluations. Contesting the charge can jack up the fine to $1,600—and you still get sent to a shrink. (click below to read more)
The legal logic is simple, says Sina Thorpe, spokesman for the Lagos state ministry of transportation: If you violate one-way rules, "you should have your head examined."
Threatening errant drivers with psychiatric exams, which locals deem more bureaucratic than medical, is a twist in the rough road of Nigerian traffic. Lagos bigwigs have long paid on-duty local cops to speed them through jams by riding shotgun with machine guns and menacing other drivers with bullwhips. Cut-price motorcycle taxis use thunderous horns that sound like 18-wheelers to frighten others out of the way.
And ordinary Lagosians routinely bribe security guards to let them cut across parking lots and construction sites.
Traffic, long a scourge of the rich and privileged, is now globally inescapable. China last year suffered a 60-mile-long jam that lasted for days. Across Africa, urban driving can take some unusual turns.
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, drivers must cede to large herds of cattle or sheep. In Nairobi, thieves rob traffic-stalled drivers by threatening to throw bags of feces at them. In West African coastal cities, months of summer rain can flood entire roadways.
Lagos authorities have resorted to draconian punishments because citizens aren't easily intimidated. A traffic cop recently pulled over a woman, berated her and said all women drive badly. She replied by reversing her SUV over his motorcycle, crushing it.
A street in Lagos, Nigeria, where driving the wrong direction on one-way streets is punished with fines and day-long mental exams.
Olajide Bello, a Lagos-based lawyer, was stopped in traffic by a convoy of five police cars escorting a private Range Rover. When the policemen started hitting Mr. Bello's car with their assault rifles and trying to let the air out of his tires, he says he got out and confronted them. One policeman whipped Mr. Bello on the ear. Mr. Bello says he grabbed the whip, called a koboko, and didn't let go. He now keeps the whip under the seat of his car.
"It's an outrage" that police are used for private security, Mr. Bello says.
Locals say the mental exams are less about health than wealth, because they give cops leverage to exact bribes.
Lagos state officials declined to comment on police corruption and say the tests, first introduced in 2003, have proven an effective deterrent.
The enforcement effort is now part of the state government's revamped master plan to improve this megalopolis of impassable streets, ramshackle buildings, fetid waterways and an estimated 15 million people.
The wider project involves beautification campaigns, mass-transit schemes and a crackdown on crimes from robbery to tax evasion. Residents now face jail time for urinating in public.
A one-way drive sign in Lagos. Lagos's epic traffic remains a roadblock, so some seek short-cuts by heading the wrong direction down one-way streets.
But Lagos's epic traffic remains a roadblock. Jams can last up to five hours, and many commuters leave home as early as 4 a.m. to get to work on time.
To avoid what Lagosians euphemistically call "go-slows," some seek short-cuts by heading the wrong direction down one-way streets.
Others miss "Do Not Enter" signs that are hidden, either by lush foliage or intentionally. Minibus drivers, who get paid by the trip, are particularly egregious offenders, authorities say.
In 2009, the latest year for such data, more than 2,600 Lagosians were forced to take a psychiatric exam at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital because of wrong-way driving, according to the state transportation commissioner.
Officials at the hospital say that the number was slightly lower and that they couldn't recall the last person to fail the test. Failure would trigger more outpatient tests—and mean continued impoundment for the offending car, officials say.
Oluwayemi Cecilia Ogun, acting director of the hospital, concedes that most drivers are fairly sane, but says snagging even one driver with psychiatric problems is "a service to the public."
Locals say the mental exams are less about health than wealth, because they give cops leverage to exact bribes.
The definition of those problems can be as loose as driving standards. Dr. Ogun says that minibus drivers "may not be starkly mad, but they have some mental health issues." Among those issues: "They smoke a lot of cannabis."
Many drivers who get erroneously snagged aren't just sane—they are law-abiding, too. One morning last summer, Ikechukwu Ozoh was stopped by the special Anti-One-Way Squad. Mr. Ozoh pointed out that the one-way sign was hidden by a tree, and the cops agreed.
But Mr. Ozoh says he refused to pay a bribe on the spot. The police impounded his car and said he couldn't retrieve it until he passed a psychiatric evaluation.
Mr. Ozoh hired a lawyer to contest the charges, but eventually gave up and took the test, which included questions about his parents' mental history. He was given an IQ test and asked for blood and urine samples to boot.
"It took the whole day," says Mr. Ozoh, 33, an oil industry engineer. He passed and was given a certificate of sanity, which his boss framed and mounted in his office to tease Mr. Ozoh.
Some Lagos drivers simply try to escape the confrontations altogether. One driver, who gave only his first name, Femi, says that after he drove the wrong way down a one-way street, traffic police stopped him and tried to impound his car. His wife, realizing their predicament, got out of the car to distract the officers and signaled Femi to speed off.
Femi later met up with his wife and says she didn't mind being abandoned. It was worth helping her husband avoid a day at the psychiatric hospital.
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