Are you traveling this Christmas? Naijadriva lists some tips you could follow to have a better travel from major cities in Nigeria to your villages by road. You may find this important, especially if you are traveling with your personal/official vehicle.

Please note that there are some ongoing road constructions, but roads are bad and you have to exercise patience while driving.

Here are those things you can do to save you time,money, while being safe at the same time:

1. Get your vehicle serviced. If you have traveled recently, you would know that the roads are bad. You do not want your car to break down thereby increasing your travel time and other risks, such as highway robbery and kidnappings that has been reported recently.

2. Get all your Vehicle documents (Drivers’ License, Road Worthiness, CMR for Lagos registered vehicle, Proof of Ownership etc and make sure the VIN match in all your documents) renewed, except you want security agents to delay or collect a bribe or fine you. Ensure that Custom duty was paid on your vehicle except if it has been registered since 7 years now. Give photocopies (and keep originals in the car except it is really necessary to present same) of the vehicle document in case it is required by security agents. Be smart, they are ready to catch offenders.

3. Make sure you have Tinted Glass Permit. Make sure it is from source and has your photograph or your driver’s photograph on it. In Port Harcourt for example, SARS can impound your tinted vehicle if you don’t have permit, while many cars tinted in Abuja do not have permits but don’t always get disturbed by security agents.

4. Leave early. Due to bad roads, your travel time would prolonged and for you not to be tempted to speed up, while endangering lives, depart on early. For example, if you depart Lagos at 6am, you might get to Onitsha at 6pm, unlike 4pm when the roads were better.

5. Drive at speeds recommended – 100km/hr for highway and 80km/hr or less for cities, road construction areas. It is recommended you install a Speed limiting device in your car. It is easy to accelerate at 180km/hr without knowing, especially if you drive a car with good build or when driving with the A/C on.

Remember, the roads are bad. The best journey is the one you are welcomed at your destination, not “gone forever”.

6. Make sure a Fire extinguisher – right size and not expired, C – Caution, First Aid Kit, Good Spare tyre, Jack and Wheel Spanner.
7. Do not carry any bag of foreign RICE unless you have a receipt from an Abakaliki rice farm where you bought it from. Remember that Nigerian government border closure is still in force.

8. For those coming in from ‘ABROAD’ be careful of kidnappers. Hide your dollars, no needless shows offs. Never show anyone your foreign Passport or Driver’s Licence as a means of identification. Just show your Nigerian Passport on demand.

9. Be sure to give security agents Plastic Smile when they stop you to check your documents or asking you to ” bless them”. Naijadriva does not support the bribing security agencies but you may ‘dash dem something’ for being on the road for without them, the roads may have been more dangerous and accidents (because stop-check-and-go helps drivers to release boredom of driving long hours) from all manner of kidnappers, highway robbers. Also remember that trigger-happy policemen have killed users for not bribing them.

If this is too much for you to handle and you are well to do, simply drive those cars you are less likely to be harassed or stopped by security agents and/or pay for Armed Mobile Police Escort.

10. Always use seat belt. No matter where you seat in a vehicle, buckle up as this can save your life in event of a crash. This cannot be overemphasised.

https://naijadriva./2019/12/05/10-travel-tips-for-travelers-this-christmas/

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