Standing outside a public hospital in Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, Michelin Hunsa is still "traumatised" from the two-hour wait it took to get an ambulance for her mother, found unconscious by her…

Such waits can be deadly and are not unusual in the mega-city, where notorious traffic jams snarl commutes and only about 100 ambulances serve a population of more than 20 million.

“It’s a serious problem, we waited far too long,” Hunsa, 25, told AFP. Her mother, suffering a cerebral haemorrhage, ultimately survived the ordeal.

Political and business big-wigs regularly bust through traffic in the largest city in west Africa with armed convoys and flashing lights – despite not being in any actual emergency.

Ambulances blast sirens, take shortcuts and speed as fast as they can – but sometimes to no avail.