₦airaland Forum

Ilekokonit:
This is one of the reasons why Uber or Mini Cab driving remains a very dangerous job. In the UK I heard about the case of an Uber driver who was stabbed to death while driving by a customer who was sitting directly behind him.

You no know wetin your customer carry for bag. It could be a hammer, a knife or a gun.

I used to do part time Mini cab driving many years ago as a student in London and I've been robbed by 4 customers who were obviously armed and they still forced me to drop them at home one by one for free. Those were the days when someone could stab you to death on Friday in London, escape to Jamaica the same night and come back to London on Monday on another passport before the UK Govt banned visa on arrivals for Jamaica.

I also remember carrying 3 oyinbo guys another night and as I stopped the car to drop them off they got out and all ran away without paying. Normally, I just smile and let them go but this night around 3am, I just got out of the car on impulse and started chasing after them. 2 of them kept running into a block of flats and the third one turned around to fight me and at this point I knew I had to act fast and get out of the cul de sack dead end road before the other 2 would get a weapon from their flat and come back for me. I somehow managed to shake the guy off and quickly reverse my car and get out of the culde sac.

The final straw that made me hang my driving gloves permanently was when I was earning peanuts as a then Trainee Accountant and I had just imported my then wife and baby boy from Naija and my salary was not enough for 3 and so every Friday night, I would go to night clubs at night and ask people leaving if they wanted a cab like many immigrants did in those days. Unknown to me, one particular night, the first passengers I picked were undercover cops (male and female in mufti).

The minute they entered my car and I moved, na police siren I hear for my back and before I could say Jack Robinson, handcuffs don enter baba hand and they started reading me my rights. I spent the next 4 hours for cell and I was charged to court for an offence called "touting" (as no cab driver is allowed to approach a customer for a job in the streets of the UK).For cabs and Uber, it has to be pre-booked by the customer and for black cabs, they are the only ones that customers can wave at and they will stop and pick them due to their special status. Their knowledge exams of the streets in their patch takes around 2 years or more to pass.

Before the court date, my fellow Naija "touts" advised me to lie to the judge that I did not approach the customers in the street but my cab office sent me to pick them. Thank God I did not listen to them and i told the judge the truth that I was struggling to survive on my £700 a month accountant salary especially since I just brought my then wife and baby boy from Nigeria and all i was looking for by doing the "touting" was just a few pounds to use in buying food for my family over the weekend.

The judge said he thought I was going to lie and he had made up his mind that if I lied to him, he would have fined me £800 and given me penalty points on my license but because I told him the truth, I should go and sin no more and just pay £25 court costs BUT he warned me to desist from it for 2 years 'cos if I was nabbed doing the same thing within 2 years, he would then fine me £800 and given me penalty points on my license.

The judge also told my lawyer to write to my then Accounting firm employer that if they sacked me, he was going to be cross with them because all in all, i was just trying to feed my young family. But I later told my lawyer not to bother writing to my employer.

Another danger faced in my student days of mini cabbing was when I had just brought my 7 month old son and my Ex from Naija to London and to make extra money, I borrowed my brothers extra car and went on a long mini cab shift lasting 60 hours (2 and a half days) without sleep (in those days you had to put in the hours to make anything from mini cabbing) and on the way home after the 60 hour shift I started feeling sleepy and I wound down my windows so that the winter cold will keep me awake as I was only 20 minutes or so from home.

What saved my life was that the Met police stopped me just as I was approaching the entrance to Rotherhite tunnel and asked me to put on my seat belt which I did.
As I exited the East London end of the tunnel and turned right towards Stratford, I dozed off for a split second and crashed the "borrowed" car into the central road divider. I was not injured but the car was a write off (although UK write off is not as serious as Naija one). The police came and called an ambulance and I was certified fine at the hospital.

The police later charged me to court for "driving without due care and attention" 'cos in their summation, the minute I started feeling sleepy, I should have pulled over, reclined my seat and slept for a while instead of carrying on driving. I was fined £250 at the court and had 6 penalty points docked from my license.

Today's London is now so dangerous with stabbings almost every day that Uber or mini cab driving is not a job for the faint hearted.

Talking of the so called wife I imported from Naija and was trying to feed with those mini cab jobs that either landed me in hospital or in court, she has now turned my 2 children against me as we speak although they are no longer kids but young adults but you know say for UK, pikin no too get sense like Naija pikin 'cos for the latter, its hard to turn their minds against their father but for UK, its the easiest thing for a woman to do.

But then again, shit happens and you just learn to live with it 'cos for UK, it is pointless dragging kids with a woman although they are no longer kids now BUT the relationship has been damaged beyond repair and I see them as strangers and I suppose they see me as a stranger too as we have lived apart for quite a while now. Although I still lend a financial helping hand to the younger one whenever its needed although a friend says that I am wasting my money.

Omo ur story long o, assuming you were in Nigeria you will still have your family by your side maybe doing a business or career to keep body and soul together, I don’t know why this divorce/ separation cases are common abroad, even the same happened to my uncle in germany, its well man, keep the hope alive

Arafat1:
Funny talk coming from someone who can't even afford transport to a work interview... Pesin wey no get even 2500 dey talk of 25m

I just hope say no be only your parents born.. Because e better make pesin get Ekuke dog than to get you as pikin

Well im now an executive tech trainee, making more dan ur dead papa, you can go to hell

EbizNazy:
This one no know wetin God do for am. Wey we dey operation the beg to move to marketing. My dear take up the offer joor

Please why do you want to move to marketing

Wen u take am your body go cool like say you dey canada me sef one time i take am for PH snow dey fall inside my house, i dey find the loud i dey smoke for 30 mins i come see am for my hand omo i jonez

Divoc19:
May we not see evil or cross path with evil as we seek our daily bread.
My fellow female colleague told me that "She is evil and she will give me pains".
The only mistakes I do occasionally that I am aware of is typo. Because am a typist and editor.
I have never had any issue with her on the job from what I know.
She reported a mistake another colleague of ours made few minutes later.
Claiming I made that mistake.
Well, I have prove to show I didn't type that document scheduled to be submitted outside our office.
And every morning she dey on Youtube prayers very loud on her phone

NB: I wonder why Nigerian work environment is normally hostile. How productive can we...

Those people that listen to that YouTube nsspd or whatever most of them have very bad character and use the prayers to cover up. I had one neighbor that always shout amen every morning disturbing my ears yet shes very envious and has bad mouth

Toto bad

fyzaila:
Don't go to any bank, ask for where bureau de change ( a place where different currency is changed) is in your town. Go there and first ask of the conversion rate from euro to naira, before changing. You have to be careful don't give the euro to anybody to go and verify if its authentic somewhere. Everything should be done in your presence.

Why not change in the bank? Wats the difference? Bank rates are better

finegirl233:
I'm coming.

Let me close my shop and rush home first. This shiit wants to get real. 60k? God abeg

But u have to open an euro account in the bank first

finegirl233:
Lucky you that time.

Can one just enter a bank to change it or there is something i will have to do first. I read somewhere that i can get more than 50k if i change it, me that is looking for urgent 10k for the past one week.

Sure u can change it in bank, for abt 67k
Share pics of d note

Gift96:
That's 180k

Its gone down to abt 135k now

Will euro rise to 1800 again?

qtguru:
is this still the case I have an idea for you

Share please

Rikidony:
Masturbation is evil, flee from it, This is my day 100 since I make a vow not to engage in that act again nor watch porn, and the benefit has been tremendous

Tell us ur benefits bro

This is all shades of wrong, that station should be burnt down, the officers should be stripped naked and flogged with bull whips, that is what they deserve

With that 25m i can get 2018 rx350 from a dealer close to me

NoSmoking:
In 4 5 weeks
It might become unnoticeable

Depends on if u were using heavily and for how long...

Have you done a test before? How long did it take you

.

When you are doing the right thing even the devil will obey you, trust me

Play cut one, thats wat I’ve learnt

Bleep

Wat of honda accord 2014? Can someone tell me why Range Rovers are known to be unreliable? Its the most good looking car after the gle suv

Wahala for who no get bitcoin, make i chop first

Cash out

Ah me dat was shouting it is 500 last week it is now 800? Tinubu why

Saviola86:
One day your angel will find you

I pray o, show some love man, u fit be my angel
Make i drop aza?

Saviola86:
I am living the best part of my life this period all because of I refused to fight

Friend used to mock me that I am too gentle and don't know how to shout at people owing me but that attitude I learnt from both parents of mine.

I worked with a firm that refused to give me a pay rise even though I was diligent at my job.

Many of my colleagues left with a fight but I choose to leave in a peaceful manner by giving them prior notice and ensuring I cleared my desk.

Even after resigning, they rejected my resignation letter but to leave I had to find a replacement and thought him the job for 3 months.

I got another job but was still finding time to report at my former office just to coach my replacement very well.

In total, I spent 6 months coaching and monitoring my replacement and fully left when I was convinced she was good to go.

After leaving I didn't communicate any senior management staff in the company not until a month ago.

I made a proposal which they accepted and I got the deal worth over 10million.

I delivered and they came back again for more.

I see my life change and now I understand why it is good to be good.

I am same as u, i take life calmly and not gra gra like my father, people have looked down on me thinking im not serious and i don’t have fighting spirit

I didn’t get a mail why

The manager saw my cv, removed his glasses and started laughing, I followed him to laugh, laughing outside but crying inside, till today I have not gotten feedback

Following

Na this kind place i dey like, ur neighbors go think say u dey d same level with them, but unknowingly to them you have gone far and left them in d dust