The day a car bearing an ‘L’ sign rammed into David Adams’ vehicle, he fought hard to control his growing anger. It wasn’t the first time drivers brushed his car. And this particular driver, a distracted lady making a phone call, kept shouting after the deed was done. She totally lost control and was unable to take charge of her car afterwards.
“Somebody come and take me to the hospital,” she shouted. But she was unhurt, Adams narrated.
Now Adams has concluded there aren’t drivers in Abuja. His notion of learning is, they get drilled in a driving school before they begin to use the ‘L’ sign, and when they get better at driving, they take it off.
“But the problem is that, generally, Abuja drivers are not good,” Adams, who has been driving for nine years in the city said.
Ike Okechukwu has also been driving for years. He believes there’s a spirit behind driving. There’s the learner spirit, which makes beginners drive very well because they are careful. At this stage, driving is a big deal to them and this reflects on the way they do it. Then there’s fear that keeps them alert, always wide-eyes, anxious even, but very much aware nevertheless.
But the second spirit changes everything. With it is the confidence after driving for a good period of time. The once, almost timid driver, a learner, drives differently now. The hand is casual on the wheel, methods applied while on the road, a bit aggressive, while speed becomes a die-hard habit.
“At this stage, some of the safety precautions they have imbibed may disappear,” Okechukwu explained.
At a tender age, Okechukwu had his very first experience as a learner behind the wheel, after observing the way his father’s driver handled the gear stick and pushed the clutch of their pick-up van. His was a case of dedicated observation.
The day Okechukwu dared to move his father’s car out of its parking space, there was no teacher in sight and he drove at gear one to a field where he taught himself.
Somewhat soft on learners because she is yet to be one, Zainab Azeez said they are after all not perfect and still in the learning process.
Adewale Beke, however has a series of questions. He wonders if the learning permits issued are genuine because many people tend to put up the learning sign. “But I don’t really know if there’s a law backing that,” he said, adding “how sure are we they are not people with driver’s license already? Some of them drive like professionals and yet pretend they are still learning.”
Perhaps Beke’s uncertainty isn’t peculiar to him. In Abuja, a vehicle bearing the ‘L’ sign sometimes speed past another car without the sign, negotiating turns in a way only an old hand can.
“And yet they pretend they are still learning,” Beke complained and added that he is unaware of the duration of a learner’s permit before it is discarded. “The permit, in my understanding, is for those in or out of driving school, but some have not even been to a driving school. From the first day they start driving, they put it on their vehicle and that’s the way it remains until they get better at driving. Unfortunately, many of them are rough on the road,” he said.
Like some drivers, when Beke sees any car bearing the learner’s sign, he drives as far away from them as possible.
