So after the wierd and wonderful creation of fur covered helmets last month which was, quite frankly, rather excessive, a group of riders in Nigeria have now taken to wearing pumpkin shells for 
protection. Excessive? No. Necessary? Yes.
The Nigerian taxi riders are obliged by Nigerian law to provide their paying customers with head protection as they travel to their destinations. However, a nasty trend has emerged that means that all too regularly the passengers jump ship close to the destination and take off with the hired helmet as their loot.
Understandably fed up with this, the Nigerian taxi riders took matters into their own hands and replaced their helmets with hollowed out pumpkin shells, or ‘calabashes’. However, all good ideas have their stumbling blocks, and this ingenius idea doesn’t just stumble, it falls flat on its face, because it is 100% illegal.
Nigerian police have stopped several calabash riders already, and impounded over 50 motorcycle taxis. The taxi riders have staged a series of protests, but as of yet pumpkin shells remain unacceptable in the eyes of the Nigerian law.
What ever next? Maybe coconut shells?