Can You Imagine?

Another strange Nigerian conversational "ism" : "Can you imagine?"

For example:
We're stuck in traffic and another crazy mini-bus driver cuts us off. (This is daily occurance). At this point a Nigerian in the car will undoubtedly gesture to the offending mini-bus and say:
"Can you imagine?"
And I feel like saying "Yes, yes I can imagine...because it just happened....just like it does every single day."
But instead I say nothing.

Another example:
We're at work for 5 hours and the power is off, thus preventing everyone from doing their jobs while simultansously encouraging everyone to sit around and talk about how the lights are all off. As I'm sitting reading a book, waiting for the power to come back on, a Nigerian sits down next to me and says:
"Sorry, the power is off"
And I say "Its ok. That's how it is."
To which the Nigerian replies "Can you imagine?" (in reference to the lights being off)
And I want to say "Uh... yes. I can, in fact, imagine because this happens every single day in Lagos."
But instead I say nothing.

............................................


And, like Forest Gump, "that's just about all I gots to say about that."