Congestion—who isn’t aware and who isn’t involved!
Last time, we laid bare the jam in our corridors of power. But the truth runs deeper.
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The congestion is not only political, it is cultural, habitual and disturbingly accepted.
It’s in the ordinary, in the everyday, in the things we all do and pretend not to notice.
At the trotro station, when the rains come or the sun burns too hard, the mate quickly adjusts the fare.
No receipt, no warning, just congestion of conscience.
The logic? “We’re suffering too.” And so, we trap each other in a cycle of justified exploitation.
We do it at fuel stations too. There’s a sudden shortage and just like that, prices climb. Pumps slow down. Queues form.
Then the whispers: “there’s fuel, but you have to know someone.” Congestion is no longer on the road, but in the truth.
And what of those trying to travel or register a business?
The line is long but someone who “knows someone” walks in, gets what they need, and leaves.
The rest? They wait or pay or return tomorrow. Another system choked not with people but with bribes and shortcuts.
Even the media, once a channel of clarity, is congested with bias. A politician can pay for silence or a smear campaign.
Truth now negotiates airtime. Integrity competes with patronage. Public trust is stuck in a jam of paid headlines and filtered stories.
Let’s not forget the government offices; passport, license, permit, you name it.
The congestion is not just from demand but from the gatekeepers who slow things down to create black markets.
A signature that should take minutes can take weeks unless money clears the way.
Congestion is no longer about movement; it’s about mentality.
We are a nation gridlocked by favour, by fear and by greed. From high offices to household levels, we have normalized the traffic of injustice.
And yet, we shout when hawkers crowd the road.
We send task forces to remove them, as if they are the only disorder we can see. We act like congestion is an urban problem and not a national one. We blindfold ourselves to the truth that the real chaos is in our conduct not our kiosks.
It’s a shame! Everyone is aware, yet we act honourable.
So what is the way forward?
We must begin with repentance, not just reform. Policies without principles are like roads without direction; they may be paved but they go nowhere.
Let those who control transportation stop taking advantage of struggle. Let the passengers who fuel the corruption by offering “top-up” to skip queues, stop justifying it with “everybody does it.”
Let the fuel station managers know that manipulating supply is not smart business, it’s national sabotage.
Let the public officers know that every delayed document is a denied dream.
Let the journalists know that every twisted story is another jam on the road to truth.
Let the influencers, social commentators, artists, and spiritual leaders stop entertaining dysfunction and start confronting it.
Decongestion is not just about clearing the streets. It is about clearing the excuses.
It is about unclogging our values. About removing the unseen blockages in our ethics and expectations. About realising that the system is slow, not because it’s large but because it’s clogged with complicity.
This is a call to self-purging.
You don’t need a title to clear your lane. You just need truth.
You don’t need a badge to stop corruption. You just need to stop feeding it.
You don’t need a revolution to change the nation. You just need to refuse to participate in the congestion.
If we all stop bribing, stop skipping lines, stop cheating, stop praising those who cheat, the system will move.
So before we send another taskforce to remove market women, let us send truth to remove the rot in our ranks.
While we chase hawkers off the sidewalk, let us chase dishonesty from our systems.
Because until the people decongest themselves, the nation cannot breathe.
Decongestion starts with you. Right where you are.
Not on the road but in your role.
