The audacity of Borno’s killer trucks

The Bolori Stores, an international goods depot situated along Baga Road in the capital city is the departure point for such trucks and trailers. One singular trait of “giwa-giwa” as they are commonly called is their tendency to overload. As I watch them from the window of my office on Sir Kashim Ibrahim Road at […]

The Bolori Stores, an international goods depot situated along Baga Road in the capital city is the departure point for such trucks and trailers. One singular trait of “giwa-giwa” as they are commonly called is their tendency to overload. As I watch them from the window of my office on Sir Kashim Ibrahim Road at Galadima Junction, they passed by, with engine roaring as if in protest, intermittently stopping to allow paid agents raise electricity wires a little bit higher to allow them pass using improvised bamboo poles. They look monstrous with the way they meander their ways through tight traffic hold ups on their way out of town. They often have street kids or area boys to contend with whenever they bring electricity poles or wires down as they often do thereby cutting electricity supply to some areas along their path. More often than not, they are kind of held hostage until they make the necessary amends, that is to get the wires back and doll out stipends to the protesting youths.

But lately I observed that such rowdy scenes between the drivers and the area boys have abated owing perhaps to the fact that the giwa-giwa trucks have become wise to it. They no longer knock any electricity pole or wire down as they have found a way around it. And if they do not break poles or cut wires, they are free from the usual harassment and intimidation of the area boys.

I have however noticed a more disturbing and dangerous trend that has become common place involving these giwa-giwa trucks. The frequency with which they maim and kill people is becoming worrisome. In the last couple of months I have personally witnessed accidents involving giwa-giwa trucks on more than five occasions each of which, but one, claimed lives. Ironically, on each occasion, brake failure was the culprit. They overload the trucks with very heavy items almost double the normal capacity and when they approach junctions where they are by law suppose to apply brakes, you often see them shouting on top of their voice, from a negligible distance to people ahead of them to clear saying “ba birki, ba birki”, meaning “no brake, no brake” in Hausa. The commotion they usually caused can only be imagined. In January this year, a brake failed and the motorcyclist that was trampled on had his bones, trunk and head smashed beyond recognition. The truck made an omelette of him… a tragic and frightening sight to behold indeed. Till today I have been unable to gather myself. Two other very gory incidents happened and in both lives were lost.

The only incident in which life was not lost took place a forthright ago at the same Galadima junction when as usual a giwa-giwa truck filled to the brim lost its brake and rammed into a stationary rickety township commuter bus filled up with passengers, dragged it by the side for upward of ten metres before mercifully falling into a gutter where it stopped but still glued to the bus. As God will have it no one in both the bus and the truck was injured, not even a scratch. It was simply miraculous.

 My decision to write this piece was informed by two nasty accidents involving the same giwa-giwa trucks both of which I witnessed. On Tuesday, March 23 at the popular West End roundabout at about 8 O’clock in the morning, a commercial motorcyclist was mutilated with his brains splattered on the tar as the truck drove on him, dragging the body under it for a few metres before coming to a halt; brake failure again. Barely two hours after, a distance away at the notorious Galadima junction near my office, another giwa-giwa truck, pounced on another motorcyclist who managed to escape with a broken leg. The boy’s mother that was at the back was however killed in the same gory mutilation manner. These kinds of incidents are becoming the rule now and it behoves on government to take stern measures to halt the killing spree.  When a truck is overloaded, common sense should alert you that it is near impossible for the brake to work well. They kill people at will, damage our roads and make them un-motorable through overloading driven purely by greed. Those of them who kill as a result of brake failure should be charged with murder to serve as deterrent to others. They are becoming too reckless and irresponsible. They should be called to order.

Ahmed, a public relations consultant, wrote from 114 Kashim Ibrahim Road Maiduguri ([email protected])