More than just a Taxi lady

So here i was,  standing on the road side for some minutes without any cab in sight, the sun scotching through my skin and me getting more and more tired of waiting. Then low and behold, my savior cab just drove by. As expected i hurried to the cab

Aisha umar, another female cab driver in Abuja. Credit: konnectafrica.net

with excitement and the feeling of great relief then to my shock and Surprise,  the driver was a woman.
A whole lot of feelings went through me all at the same time but i tried my best to hide it.
I was excited too because i have read and heard other people's experiences of this, so here i was with mine, first hand at that.

I hopped in to the front passenger seat and she was quick to ask where i was headed, i told her and the fare was just good so there was no  need for a bargain. As we got moving, that thing in me just kept pushing me to say something (i love to hear people's stories for the sake of learning and encouragement too)....

I wasn't sure what to say because i definitely know she must be tired of people asking her all the time and i wouldn't want to hit a danger button.
Well i went ahead anyway,

Ronke Opemipo, Lagos taxi driver

Credit punchng.com

“madam we need more women like you honestly” i said. And to my surprise, she laughed then she asked me why i felt so?

She asked me why i thought she was strong and said a whole lot of things about how men aren't seen as strong when they do whatever they have to do in other to make ends meet. She was right, but I managed to explain to her that a high percentage of women wont do this when the going gets tough, the easiest thing they would rather do is to open their legs for a price... I said a lot about how it isn't easy for women to grow tough skin and all that, but she corrected me, she said its not easy out there and the whole world is quick to judge when a woman sleeps with a man for money. She said she almost did that at some point but how she didn't go through with it was merely Gods guidance.

I explained to her that  even though i did not know her story, what women like herself are telling young women out there is that no matter how difficult it gets, we always have a choice to say no.

“everything is pretty difficult and tough this days, even the men aren't finding it easy and women too are faced with temptations of either taking the easy way out and earning a living from a man. Social media isn't even helping matter's with different ladies selling the idea as though it isn't  a big deal"

She was in agreement with me and became quiet for a while. Then she said (in pidgin English)
“but women are the problem of women, even in this taxi business hardly do females agree to board my cab when they notice the driver is a woman. In short even what pushed me to where i am today was as a result of a woman. My husband is late, he was a mechanic here in Abuja and we where okay, he just went to Lagos and died on his way back. We went to the village (somewhere in Akwa ibom) for burial, i wanted coming back to Abuja after everything but my sister in-law kept holding me back. I thought it was out of care for me and my kids (2 boys), i never knew she had made arrangements with her kid brother who was my late husbands older brother, they had packed all my belongings out of the house in Abuja and brought it to his house (in akwa ibom). She just told me one day that she would be taking my to my brother in-laws house and from there he would make plans of my going back to Abuja. I never knew they wanted to marry me off to my then brother in-law. When i showed them i was against their plans she threatened to take my kids, and only then would she let me go. I played smart and saved little from people who came to greet me and the kids. After sometime i ran out with my kids. I have done so many things just to make ends meet but 3 years ago i told myself i didn't want to  do just anything that can bring money for my kids up keep, but at list do something that would make my two boys proud of me and my sweat one day"

She said she didn't know how to sew or make hair like other women, she had done zobo business and snacks but how could she send her kids to the same school they where attending when their father was alive,  from such a business?

She said the car was formerly abandoned in her late husbands workshop so she pleaded with the buys there to help her fix it while she paid for it in installments.

She said a lot, but this is the summary of it all. I hope you are able to learn a thing or two from this.

An advice for myself and other young ladies out there, lets not focus so much on pursuing marriage that we forget to develop and improve ourselves along the way. Lets not relax as though we have earned everything there is to life simply because we have found a man. We should always think of the worst possible case and how we would  cope in it.

Remain blessed.

force a Smile and be happy.