About ThrottleHolic Auto DIY

If you’ve never visited or been to Nigeria (my country of residence at the moment), the tale of woes I’m going to narrate below won’t make any sense to you. However, try and follow up; very few things make sense here.

If you’re familiar with how things work in Nigeria, then, grab your beer and enjoy the epistle…

A Brief History of How the Nigerian Society Works

On a typical career day in a private or Nigerian elementary or high school, the displays are colorful and a sight to behold. Unfortunately, all that is featured are white-collar careers: lawyers, doctors, nursing, engineering and of late, politics.

The brave of heart may occasionally elect to dress up and present themselves as teachers, civil servants or writers. But, that is about the limit.

Mechanics, plumbers, electricians etc usually are either conspicuously missing or grouped as some insignificant ‘artisans’.

The net results? No child grows up with the desire to actively pursue a career in say, vehicle repair, no matter how gifted such a child may be with his hands and the general reality of figuring out how machines work, their interconnectivity and fixing them when they go wrong.

Unfortunately, life happens, in radically dynamic ways…

How Folks Wind Up as Mechanics in Nigeria

For some kids, the ‘life’ that happens to them is the loss of their parents, or the primary breadwinner of the family. For others, it is the inability of their parents to pay for their tuition and the subsequent handing them over to relatives to help. For others, it is a simple case of their brain not simply supporting their lofty childhood dreams.

Irrespective of how this ‘life’ happens to these kids, the net result is always same: they are usually pushed to do things they have no passion for, under less than ideal circumstances, usually under ‘masters’ that have absolutely no clue what they are doing themselves, having suffered the same fate as the kids now under their care, years earlier.

The result? The apprentices who are sent to learn under these often frustrated ‘masters’ start ‘learning’ on the wrong foot; administered by a master who is often not qualified to open the hood of anyone.

Such ‘masters’, for instance, teach these lads that the first thing to do in the event of an overheating engine is to check for the presence of the thermostat and cooling fans; if the thermostat is present, it MUST be removed; if the cooling fans are routed to a relay as they should be, that must be bypassed and they must be set to run non-stop, tapping power directly from the battery!

A special breed of ‘mechanics’, called ‘Kazeems’ locally are born. For these folks, it is usual to fix a problem and cause three (3) more. These unique folks also see to it that no matter their crude ways, once a vehicle under their care starts and drives, they have ‘repaired’ it. It matters not the damage caused by the so-called ‘repair’ or the impending doom just waiting to happen after the ‘fix’.

This was the rot I found myself in…

How I Became a DIY Mechanic and Throttleholic Was Born

I’ve always had a knack for fixing things and researching. Unfortunately, I never bothered to develop that gift beyond the occasion minor plumbing or electrical fix at home. I had a regular mechanic (who was formally trained in a technical school and loved his job). He handled all vehicle repairs for me and did things as simple as oil changes!

Unfortunately, he feel sick after a while and I needed to have some mechanical issues resolved with my vehicle.

The first folk I visited had no clue what I was talking about. Ironically, he was eager to start working on a project he did not even fully appreciate its details!

The second one started on the wrong foot and when I drew his attention to the fact, politely. This fellow snapped and asked me why I took the vehicle to him if I knew how to fix the challenge.

I was challenged! I asked him to stop work, drove the vehicle away, ordered for the repair manual of my vehicle’s model same say and the rest, they say, is HISTORY 😍

Are There No Properly Trained Mechanics in Nigeria?

There are.

However, because of the proliferation of these quacks called Kazeems, the fact that they charge a fraction of the cost a properly trained mechanic does, the endemic poverty in Nigeria and the fact that an average Nigerian thinks he is being ripped by the prices of a professionally trained mechanic, the professionals simply stick to Lagos and Abuja – the economic and political capitals of Nigeria – where those who can afford their services are likely to the domiciled.

This leaves those of us who do not live in the capitals effectively mechanicless.

For those of us who are brave enough to take matters squarely into our hands and hold things firmly by the jugular, what better reality than one of sharing and helping to give back to the DIY community that helped me immensely, especially during my darkest auto DIY moments?

This was how ThorttleHolic Auto DIY was born.