Lagos, Ogun commuter buses’ operators as nightmare for masses: AN EDITORIAL

But alas! Some haggard looking bus conductors and yellow bus drivers would get to Oshodi bus stop and call Ikeja, a two kilometers distance, and charge N200; Agege not too distant away N300, N400; Iyana Ipaja N500, Egbeda, N500; Toll-Gate (an Ogun/Lagos boundary community on Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway) N700 and Sango, about one and a half kilometers distance away from Toll-Gate, N1000.  This has now become a daily order on that route to the extent that the rate at which commuters trek (for those who cannot beg to support their transport home) along that route is alarming.  And those haggard looking bus operators have no mercy.

We recall that since after the military junta handed the mantle of power to the civilian rule on May 29, 1999, life has not remained the same with the masses of particularly Lagos especially those that have link with Ogun State in the area of transportation.  During the military era, the fear of the soldiers had a way it whipped to order the “rascals” who operated transportation system in the two states and so, they behaved normal.  But the moment civilian rule came in place and these bus operators, realizing they are the machines used by the politicians to access power, they turned monstrous beasts and that they have remained to be as they have made lives very unbearable for the masses in that axis of the Nigerian economy.

As at May 29, 1999 when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo took over from General Abdulsalami Abubakar as elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Sango/Ota where the then President resided as farmer used to cost Nigerians living in that part of Ogun but working in Lagos N20 (Molue) N30 (Federal Mass) to Ikeja/Oshodi; Ikeja to Oshodi cost between N1.50 and N2 just like Oshodi to Mile 2 cost between N3 and N3.50k depending on whether it was Molue or LT bus that was boarded.  Even up till 2005, Sango/Ota, Ogun State to Ikeja/Oshodi in Lagos was still charged for N40.  Okada ride, which became noticeable on Lagos roads in 1994, as at that May 29, 1999 had not been so spectacular to be part of what commuters would call a means of transportation in the former nation’s capital except that it was known as killer or limbs breaker being that its accidents had been generally claimed to be responsible for many of the patients at Igbobi Orthopedic Hospital, Yaba, and many other bone-treatment hospitals in Lagos as at that time.

From then till now, all these commuter bus operators needed to hinge upon to hike their fares is just one strike action by Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) or fuel scarcity.  Worst is that, once those strike actions or fuel scarcity situations subsided, they were never inclined to act accordingly by also dropping their own fares from the high side they had fixed them during the unfortunate period.  Sometimes, they even said their hiking of fares was due to increase in petrol pump price.  Those operators behaved and still behave so unNigerian, unpatriotic against their fellow citizens that even those big vehicles consuming diesel that is not affected by pump price increase are seen to be charging fare higher than those consuming petrol.  It is also not as if they even put the vehicles in good order as most of them get broken down midway and the operators find it difficult to refund fare to the commuters thereby inflicting them with double financial pains without considering whether they even have more left or not.

In that order, commuters in that Lagos/Ogun State roads axis have remained at the mercy of the illiterates operating transportation system in the two economically leading South West states.  What is more worrisome is that none of the governments of the two states was seen to have done anything about this hardship felt not by the rich, elite but only the vulnerable masses until the time of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) in the Centre of Excellence.  Fashola must have been miffed by the way things were working in opposite direction for a state that is supposed to be the largest economy, state that is supposed to be the most well behaved in Nigeria and then, he set up a committee headed by former Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Musiliu Smith, which came up with what is today called Lagos State Traffic Laws 2012.

Apart from the reasons adduced, aforementioned, for hiking transport fare in Lagos and, by extension Ogun State, the activities of Agbero became another reason being adduced by commuter bus operators.  How can Agbero collect N1,500 from a bus that carries 22 passengers at N200 (Oshodi to Sango) for instance?  It means out of N4,400 Agbero take N1,500 to leave the bus operator with N2,200 balance.  He will buy fuel, he will settle traffic policemen on the road.  This is one problem on the road through which electorates that are the masses of Nigerian people in Lagos and Ogun states axis get to and from their working places.  The IGP Musiliu Smith Committee had factored all of that into its workings and the report became so highly inclusive, all encompassing that many had described it as (if not great) near perfection.

With that committee report implemented, normalcy started to be in sight in Lagos as many Agbero boys were seen begging for N20 just to show the extent to which Governor Fashola at that time had solved problems associating with transportation in Lagos metropolis.  Suddenly, the touts called Agbero got empowered by a supposed godfather, with blockage of the Babatunde Raji Fashola Administration’s implementation of that beautiful traffic law and Lagos transportation returned to its former abnormal way where innocent commuters were charged heartlessly and the Agberos were mostly, in conjunction with some unscrupulous traffic police men and women stationed at specific bus stops along the roads, responsible for the traffic jams that make Lagos a Holdup State.

Lately, taking Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway and Berger/Mowe/Ibafo on Lagos/Ibadan Expressway as a case study, if governments of Senator Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun) and Mr. Akinwumi Ambode (Lagos) do not do something fast to rescue from the wicked commuter bus operators, the innocent commuters living in Ogun or outskirts of Lagos but working in the hinterland and Island of Lagos requiring transport services to get to and from their work places, the two performing governors do not need to be told how fast Nigerians can turn a doing-well leader to doing-bad one when they are subjected to hardship situation that they observe such leader seems not to be doing anything to alleviate.

What happened on those two expressways is that, motorists had complained about bad roads to a Federal Government in the past, which not only swindled the tax payers through treasury lootings that became rampant during its time but also refused to work on those roads.  Ironically, while the roads were in that bad shape, commuter bus operators plying the roads could afford to do what many call “suffering and smiling”.  But a new Federal Government came to office and decided to work with Lagos and Ogun states’ governments in fixing those roads and work have been in progress.  Commonsense requires that, since, particularly in Lagos axis, alternative routes have been provided to ease vehicular movements while the road rehabilitations last, commuter bus operators would appreciate and partner with those brilliant efforts of governments both at Federal and state levels in making life bearable for the people.

But alas! Some haggard looking bus conductors and yellow bus drivers would get to Oshodi bus stop and call Ikeja, a two kilometers distance, and charge N200; Agege not too distant away N300, N400; Iyana Ipaja N500, Egbeda, N500; Toll-Gate (an Ogun/Lagos boundary community on Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway) N700 and Sango, about one and a half kilometers distance away from Toll-Gate, N1000.  This has now become a daily order on that route to the extent that the rate at which commuters trek (for those who cannot beg to support their transport home) along that route is alarming.  And those haggard looking bus operators have no mercy.

That was time when the only reason they could adduce was that road construction was in progress.  It therefore makes one to be so puzzling asking himself: “How has an effort by government to make life better for the people now become a means of hardship for them?  Does it mean that government did not make provision for alternative routes for vehicular movements or that these operators of commuter buses along that route do not know that those alternative routes exist?”  Due to their wicked and ignorant displays along the routes, prices of food items have been upwardly affected because food items traders have been overcharged in fares beyond even their profits.  It became worse during the period of artificial fuel scarcity that marketers caused.

Governor Akinwumi Ambode is particularly being called by The DEFENDER to kindly rise to the challenges that people face in the hands of the wicked commuter buses along those routes particularly Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway and Agege Motor Road.  Governor Ibikunle Amosun too should work hand-in-hand with Governor Akinwumi Ambode in instilling sanity in the skulls of Agberos in areas of those routes which link their two states together because, those Agberos have convincingly proved that they are working for the government.