With the take-off of the 820 high capacity buses from the Ikeja Bus Terminal in September, Lagos seems set to alter its transportation landscape. The buses may also become the biggest money spinner for the Akinwunmi Ambode-led administaration, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE.
The picture painted by Planet Projects Limited Managing Director Mr. Biodun Otunola of the public transport system during the inauguration of the Ikeja Bus terminal by President Muhammadu Buhari last Thursday, was, indeed, grim.
Welcoming the President and other top government functionaries both at the federal and state levels to the edifice, Otunola had disclosed that the terminal sets out to address a lacuna which successive governments whether at federal or state have always overlooked.
According to him, the high rate of accidents, unreliable and rickety vehicles as well as the bad road network across the country have made road transportation one of the most risky in the world.
Planet Projects Limited is the contractor that built the Ikeja Bus Terminal. It is also handling others across the state.
A bemused Buhari had applauded his host Akunwunmi Ambode for his ambitious projects that are meant to solve the transportation challenges of his people.
Otunola, while decrying the state of transportation, noted that many factors contributed to making the commuters’ on the roads experience horrific.
Unsafe Roads
“Many leave their homes in the morning, never knowing whether they are going to return, lose their bags or their limbs to thieves or accidents,” Otunola said.
Juxtaposing this with what obtains in the aviation sub-sector, he said though only 21,000 people patronise all the airports in the country daily, the government’s attention is focused on the sector because it serves the middle class, whereas the 80 million Nigerians, who use public transportation daily are left to unattended to.
The time, he said, had come for the government to plan for the masses who use public transport daily. “They deserve to be protected, to have more decent and comfortable means of transportation to their various places of engagements; an end must come to the regime of rickety vehicles, and lawless environment under which they are forced to commute,” Otunola added.
Largely, successive governments have continued to ignore the people as a major component in their road design and utilisation.
Often, roads are built without consideration for pedestrians, thus no provision was made for a walkway, and cycling. It was as if the roads were designed to be used by vehicles only.
Danfo era going
For over 60 years, the masses have been consigned to using rickety vehicles as their means of transportation. From the ubiquitous Bolekaja (come down, let’s slug it out), the wooden mass transit contraption of the 60s, to the Molue, which inherited the urban routes and lasted until the turn of the millennium, to the yellow danfo mini- and midi-buses, commercial operators have been at the forefront of providing public transportation as the government abandoned the space, while the middle class, who can afford a decent alternative, provided their means of transportation.
This led to a surge in private vehicles on the roads, leaving a cosmopolitan state like Lagos with three million private vehicles as at last year, thereby compounding the infrastructural crisis with the roads lacking the carrying capacity for its huge traffic.
As at 2016, the Ministry of Transportation said the Lagos loses about 20 billion man-hour yearly to traffic gridlock. With 12 million people moving on its dilapidating road network, the figure may be a tip of the iceberg.
Floating revenue
With an average transportation spend of N200 per person daily, its 12 million commuting public spend about N2.4 billion daily, about N72 billion monthly and 864 billion yearly. This amount is what has been flowing into private pockets of transport union leaders of an unorganised road transportation sector in Lagos alone.
If it to be properly harnessed, the sector alone can sustain state’s yearly budget, which hit a record N1 trillion mark this year.
That is why changing the narrative becomes critical to the Akinwumi administration.
A former transportation don and Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineers Dr Tajudeen Bawa-Allah said Ambode’s major task should be how to take public transportation users from 12 million it inherited to 15 million.
This, he said, could be achieved by reprioritising the system. “If this is done, Ambode would unlock the huge idle funds floating within the unorganised private transportation sector and move this to the public sector,” he said.
All that he needs to do is give a befitting alternative means of transportation to the people, he insisted.
Bawa-Allah, also a former Managing Director of the defunct Lagos Mass Transit Company Limited (LMTC), believes the bus reform initiative of the government stand a better chance of providing this missing link.
Ambode last Thursday said his admnistration was committed to the bus reform.
According to him, by next September, 820 airconditioned buses fitted with wifi, charging points for passenger’s mobile devices, comfortable seats would replace the rickety buses that still ply the metropolitan city centre.
This, analysts said, might be the precursor to taking over the ownership of the sector and lead gradually to the phasing out of transport unions who have been a thorn in the flesh of commuters, making transportation cost in the state not only unpredictable, but one of the highest, not only in the country but arguably in the continent.
Otunola, who said the day the first bus rolls out of the terminus with its load of passengers would be the hapiest in his life, said the opening of the Ikeja Bus Terminal brings a bouquet of offerings that seek to standardise road transportation.
With terminal comes a robust Intelligent Transport System (ITS) that controls the buses and helps the people plan their journey time. Arrivals and destinations are displayed and 13 ticketing booths would be providing to service 23 various routes across the mainland and Island, with an ATM plaza, shopping and office arcade and food court to cater for commuters’gourmet.
The IBT would be serviced by 100 buses to be used by 200,000 passengers daily. This is outside the various transport transport Apps that would be available for Lagosians to download on Google play or Apple Store to help improve travel experience of the people.
Other offerings, according to the Commissioner for Works Mr Akinsanya, are the introduction of online ticketing and travel card system, and the introduction of drivers’ uniform and identification cards to remove anonymity and assure passenger’s safety and reliability.
What this means is when the new buses are deployed at the IBT, the beautiful edifice, which would serve 200,000 passengers, would be raking in about N40 million daily, N1.2 billion monthly and N14.4 billion yearly.
The governor said 10 other world- class bus terminals that would have facilities, such as a loading bay, a taxi ramp, and waiting areas, among others, were springing up at Oworonsoki, Agege, Maryland, Oshodi, Ojota, NAHCO, Ilupeju, Yaba, Oyingbo, and TBS.
While the last, like Ikeja, has been delivered, others would be ready in September. This is apart from another 300 bus shelters, three bus depots and an ITS system that would synchronise all transportation modes in the first phase alone. These, according to the governor, are scalable interventions.
Ambode disclosed that the second phase of the reform is the injection of 5,000 new high-capacity and environmental-friendly buses, over the next three years into the state’s economy. The buses, which would be managed by members of the transport unions as franchised fleet operators, will redefine transportation service available to all Lagosians.
“Our intention is to build a transportation infrastructure that will inspire Lagosians to put their trust in our planned public transport system,” the governor stressed.
He said though the government would import the first set of buses, for which he disclosed the Federal Government had given the state a waiver, the masterstroke would be to assemble the vehicles within the next 20 months.
“Our goal is to build an assembly plant within the next 20 months,” the governor added.
Though the strides on road transport seems ambitious, Ambode told his guests that he was determined to put in place an integrative transport system that would include the waterways, while the light rail projects were also on stream.
“Our concentration is not solely on the roads, we are equally promoting non-motorised transportation, such as walking and cycling, to promote healthy living of the people, while the 27-km blue light rail from Okokomaiko, west of Lagos, to Marina in Central Lagos, is on. While discussions are in top gear with various investors and stakeholders on the second major trunk called the red line which according to him is the state’s major urban rail project,’’ he said.
Analysts agreed that the way to go was to ensure that modern structures were in place to encourage public sector transportation.
“Government needs to encourage the middle class to start patronising public transportation. If more comfortable vehicles are introduced across the state for this purpose, attention would shift away from the need to provide alternative means of transportation and with less vehicles on the road, there would be a reduction in the emission of green house gasses and deflation of pressures that takes a toll of the health of the people.
Conclusion
A thickly-populated and highly- cosmopolitan city state like Lagos requires efficient transport system that would maximise the modes in which it has comparative advantage.
A transportation consultant, Charles Odimegwu, said a state like Lagos ought to have a vibrant water transportation system. He said with the state about 50 nautical miles away from Warri, Delta State, Lagos ought to make its waterways attractive to ensure that travellers were encouraged to patronise its waterways for interstate shuttle service just like the road mode is witnessing a boom.
For Odimegwu and others, who might want the state to develop more vibrant presence across all sectors of the transport system, Ambode said his administration is strongly committed to such dream.
“We are convinced in our commitment to providing a functional, efficient and integrated transportation system which will support our population and facilitate commerce. We will continually work to achieve this objective and leave no stone unturned to make Lagos work for all,” he added