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  • In Geneva, Mr. Danfo produce sartistic signs on road safety

    In Geneva, Mr. Danfo produce sartistic signs on road safety

    Seidougha Eyimiegha is an artist, well known as Mr Danfo and in love with yellow colours of Lagos State. Now, he has gone to Geneva, Switzerland, where he was compelled to research on various road signs and signals for the safety of humanity. He also produced a couple of wonderful art works on his experience during his three months stay as an artist in residence. He shares his experiences with Edozie Udeze in this conversation.

    Seidougha Eyimiegha popularly known as Mr. Danfo is a young Nigerian Fine Artist. He started out as a lover of yellow colours and the funny life of danfo buses and their drivers in Lagos. He started by painting those colours to the amazement of art lovers, patrons and enthusiasts. Today he has gone beyond that to involve himself with the next level of artistic experiments.

    He has just returned from Geneva, Switzerland, where he spent a few months in an artist residency programme. His primary assignment was to research on highway and road signs, taking his time to understudy the rules and regulations that guide and guard road signs, driving styles and how to keep the highways safe. He speaks on what he saw and did and discovered in the process.

    “I have been working on street and safe sign series for a number of years now. I have been broadening the work by engaging on research and the research has made me to realize and recognize the work of the United Nations in Geneva office where some of the key conventions on road traffic or road safety were held. So you know that Geneva is a city of all international headquarters of world bodies. In the cause of that research, I realized that Geneva is key to the issue of the standardization of road signals and signs.

    So I applied for the grant by the Swiss Art Council. And my project was selected among many other applications. I had a three month trip there where I was able to research on the UN collection on the archives on road safety. And also I researched on the Swiss railway system. Their transport system is named in all the three major languages and so it is easier for one to understand.

    I also went to the Swiss transport museum which has all the data on traffic and regular transport. All these I gathered together to enable me do a broad based and comprehensive research. It was for me to know how road signs and signals are applied in public spaces and for the good of humanity. It was for me also to know how people react to or apply them, with all relating to how the city operates. I really wanted to know the story, the history of road signals. So I went deep into it. I stayed away from every other thing and concentrated on it for three months.

    I expanded the project and in the process of that I discovered quite a lot about the history of traffic rules. This is so because my research spanned from 1926 to 1968, involving lots and lots of issues that opened my eyes to the history of road safety. I made sure I gathered quite enough information therefrom. I was able however to cover some of the pages. They are hundreds of pages, deep, long and well detailed. For the ones that are in English, it was for me to realize how the issue of road signs evolved over the years. It was worth it indeed.

    A lot of new things have been introduced from the League of Nations days to the current United Nations. This includes the conventions over the years especially the Vienna convention of 1968. So I was able to create some art works that reflected the signs and signals, fantastic art pieces that dwell on signs of road safety and caution. My conclusion from what I observed in the cities also informed my works and all that.

    The sponsorship came from Swiss Art Council. I did an exhibition at the end of the residency. It was titled prototype. Prototype because Geneva for me, is a city where the conversations or conclusions and implementations of these policies are made. I should say that Geneva should be the city of the United Nations prototype, a city for the whole world. Yes, it deserves it. It has all the signs and signals for it to be regarded as such. Ideas are discussed in Geneva and then implemented in parts of the world. I cannot say it is hundred percent correct. But I have this conversation with one of the ladies that works at Geneva public transport and she said yeah, this is an international city for the whole world.

    We have to adhere to the United Nations policies that are decided upon here in the city. Currently, we are on the second UN code on road crashes. It is to reduce road crashes at least by half. I think they are working on some of the latest policies in Switzerland to ensure that they implement some of these policies to make public transportation and so on safer for the people”.

    Read Also: Akpabio, Kalu, others in Geneva for IPU meeting

    Mr. Danfo confessed that the three months was not enough for him to accomplish to the fullest what he went there to achieve. Left for him he would have stayed longer to study more, to know more and to do more art pieces. Even though he was able to produce about seven art pieces on the signs and signals on road safety, putting into consideration the latest signs, he did not sell any of the works when they were exhibited. “There is so much to recover if one has the time. However, my earlier experience in |Nigeria helped me to be involved in this project. I had earlier survived a road accident here in Nigeria. It was in October 2020. It was when I was on a trip to Abuja and there was an accident. The youngest person in the vehicle died on the spot. Well, it then downed on me the futility of life because I was unconscious after the accident. If I died I never knew. So when I came awake I was in serious pain, serious agony.

    Consequently I have been thinking about it. I have been thinking on how to be involved in the issues of road safety, not just in Lagos but elsewhere. I had made these road signs pieces in order to demonstrate what I went through, the new discoveries that I made and how they can help humanity”. The signs are pungent. They dwell on what people have to understand when they drive on the highway. It shows how conscious drivers can be in order to ensure that they preserve lives and avoid recklessness. In this wise, Mr Danfo is a very articulate artist, true to precision. He is conscious of what he engages in. The issues of yellow buses in Lagos in their traditional chaotic form of lifestyle, idiotic ways of handling vehicles, have engineered his interest in helping in fashioning ways for road precautions.

    His last solo show at the French Cultural Centre here in Lagos was essentially on issues of danfo, public transport system and what needs to be done to safe lives. The works he did for the show, all have signs of yellow colours as the symbolism of his artistic conviction. He emerged out of that experience better fortified to forge ahead. It is clear that one can safely call him a road marshal with his brushes and canvases. A committed road marshal artist, painter, advocate. You need to see him at work in his studio to appreciate how committed he is towards this project. He takes his time to produce a sign. Even though they come in tiny pieces, he buries himself deep in it whenever the occasion calls for it. By the time he is through no one can tell you that he loves what he is doing.

    “Well, maybe yes, the name Danfo is opening doors for me. But more than that, it is the conversation the works are generating that matter most to me and to the public. It kind of touches on some of the UN code; oh yes, codes on road safety. All these matter to me and make the conversation really interesting. The signs are many and varied. They are to educate the people. They are to direct the people. They are also to show how to drive and keep safe. They are to enlighten the people”.

    So how do we reduce the number of people in orthopedic hospitals due to road accidents? How do we get the drivers to be more enlightened and drive with guided care? How do the drivers grasp the meaning of the signs to help them navigate the roads for the good of all? These are the issues and we need to be involved to make them work. All these also will help for a better and greener environment where decency rules the minds of the people. “It is a global conversation and Danfo seems to be the opposite of that conversation. What I do now is to collect broken wind shields of vehicles wherever it is convenient for me to produce some art pieces. Like for two years now I have been doing that. I have done a few works from that. I even traveled with some of the works which I also exhibited in Geneva.

    At Geneva also you have different colours for different signals on the road. I was not compelled to create any works. What I was detailed to do was to go there and do the research and get all the experiences. But I also decided to produce all those works. And I had the opportunity to share my works with others. And so for me and others it was a good motivation because the residency was attended by people from all over the world”.

  • Otedola Bridge records another accident

    The ‘famous’ Otedola Bridge, Lagos, was the scene of another motor accident Friday, 24 hours after the Thursday petrol tanker explosion in which about nine people were burnt dead and 54 vehicles consumed by the raging fire.

    Involved in Friday’s accident was a commercial bus (danfo) and another bus.

    Read Also:Fuel tanker falls off Otedola Bridge

    The Rapid Response Squad said the accident was caused by the danfo driver who drove against traffic.

    The RRS reporting on the development on its Twitter handle said: “Reckless Danfo driver speeding on one way had a head -on collision with Toyota Hiace bus entering Lagos opposite scene of Thursday’s tanker fire. The buses have been moved from obstruction while wounded passengers hospitalised.”

  • Danfo o siere!  

    “Danfo o siere!”, the title of this piece, is a throwback to the innocent Lagos of the early 1970s, when the menace that has come to metastasize, as Yellow Buses on Lagos roads, made a tentative debut.

    Compared with the current bedlam, that near-pristine era belonged to respectable shuttle brands, starting with Zarpas, ironically the yellow-colour, Greek-owned Lagos town transport fleet, to the Lagos Municipal Town Service (LMTS), the re-branded red buses run by the Lagos Town Council, but bought off the departing Zarpas investors.

    Later, that became the Lagos City Transport Service (LCTS); and later, the Lagos State Transport Corporation (LSTC), a state-wide utility, after the Lagos State government had taken over its running, from the Lagos City Council (LCC).

    Later, competition like Benson Transport Services, Osinowo Transport and a few others joined  to feast on the expanding Lagos shuttle pie.  But all competitors, with long buses, had their shuttle routes, designated bus stops, uniformed conductors, checkers that happened, mid-shuttle, to ferret out and punish rogues that rode but hoped to evade payment, and drivers whose road etiquettes were second to none!

    But Danfo (Lagos street generic lingo for minibuses) came and tore off that paradise.  Enter then, the murderous iconoclasts on the road!

    “Danfo o siere!” was the Lagos laconic alarm atainst these new plague of drivers, “eni t’onwa lo nsiwin” (Yoruba for: “The minibus is no lunatic, but its driver is raven mad!”).  Back then, the Danfo came in all colours, operated no charted route, and reserved the right to spurn any traffic rule, no matter how brazen!  Danfo o siere!

    Over the years, the Danfo road lunacy has so metastasized that you could hardly know which is madder: the jerky, ramshackle, smoke-puffing van, or its drug-crazed driver, or even its rude-and-crude, often topless conductor, with the drug-crusted voice!  It’s a total package in raven road lunacy!

    Phasing out this plague of yellow buses, and allied clans of tricycles and Okada shuttle bikes, therefore, is no reinventing the wheel.  It is just regaining the Lagos paradise, lost to a booming population, by past governments that lost their nerves, particularly during the jungle of military rule.

    Paradise regained, on Lagos roads, is the sane way to go.  Let those to be affected retrain and fit into the new system — or find other jobs.

    Any other is the sentimental wide and merry way, nothing short of self-imposed mega-perdition, for a mega-city!

  • Lagos eyes N100b bond for buses to replace Danfo

    Lagos eyes N100b bond for buses to replace Danfo

    Lagos State Government plans to raise about N100 billion bonds for its proposed Bus Reform Initiative (BRI), Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has said.

    The bonds will span between seven and 10 years.

    About N30 billion sinking fund has been set aside for its take off, he told reporters during an interview.

    The BRI, he said, was aimed at providing an alternative for Lagosians to commute daily.

    Under the three-year initiative, over 5,000 air-conditioned buses will replace the Danfo, which according to him, was no longer befitting for the state’s mega city status.

    “We decided that the best thing is to allow the yellow buses (Danfo) to go and so the BRI itself is a three-year plan of 2017 to 2019 under which 5,000 units of new buses will be brought in.

    “The bigger size buses will take 70 people and then the medium range buses will take 30 people. We believe that the middle range buses will be supplied up to 70 per cent of the total volume which will amount to about 3,600 units and then the longer range in that direction,” he said.

    The governor stated: “You are aware that the Federal Government paid the refund of the Paris Club Loan last December and this is money belonging to the state governments. So, Lagos State decided not to touch its share of the Paris Club refund. Right now, we have a sinking fund of N14.5billion that is already put in place to drive this public transportation bond.

    “We refused to touch our money and we believe that the second batch of the refund should be paid next month and eventually that will be N29billion that we will have. I will add another N1billion to it making it N30billion to kick-start this initiative.

    “By the time we have N30billion as sinking fund to drive the bus initiative against the bond of N100billion that we want to put into the market, there will be that credibility and credence that the bond will drive itself and that is the whole idea.”

    His administration, Ambode said, would give out franchise to interested stakeholders in multiple of 50 buses, 100 buses and 200 buses each, explaining that what is required is a 25 per cent down payment.

    “So, these are bankable projects as we have a sinking fund and so our exposure as a government is just technically 75 per cent. So, from the kind of machinery we want to use to run the buses, there are no cash takings, everything is automated and obviously, whoever has a franchise, whoever drives, they have the recourse to take part of the money while part of the intake also goes to the repayment of the facility and so it is a comprehensive template,” he said.

  • Danfo: We’ll kick-start bus reform initiative with N30bn – Ambode

    Danfo: We’ll kick-start bus reform initiative with N30bn – Ambode

    Lagos Sate Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode at the weekend said that the proposed Bus Reform Initiative aimed at giving Lagosians an integrated public transportation system would kick start this year with a sinking fund of N30billion.

    Governor Ambode, who spoke to journalists, said his administration had identified the challenges Lagosians go through on a daily basis commuting via public transportation, saying the reform was aimed at providing a viable alternative.

    He said the Bus Reform Initiative is a three-year plan aimed at introducing over 5000 air-conditioned buses to replace the yellow commercial buses, popularly called Danfo, which according to him, was no longer befitting for the State’s mega city status.

    “We decided that the best thing is to allow the yellow buses go and so the Bus Reform Initiative itself is a three-year plan of 2017 to 2019 in which it intends to bring in new buses of 5,000 units in the three-year plan.

    “The bigger size buses will take 70 people and then the medium range buses will take 30 people. We believe that the middle range buses will be supplied up to 70 per cent of the total volume which will amount to about 3,600 units and then the longer range in that direction,” he said.

    Speaking on how the Government intends to fund the initiative, the Governor said that his administration would launch a public transportation infrastructure bond of N100billion that would span between seven to 10 years, revealing that the Government already has a sinking fund which it intends to put into the bond.

    “You are aware that the Federal Government paid the refund of the Paris Club Loan last December and this is a money belonging to the State Governments due to the refund and so Lagos State decided not to touch its share of the Paris Club refund. Right now, we have a sinking fund of N14.5billion that is already put in place to drive this public transportation bond.

    “We refused to touch our money and we believe that the second batch of the refund should be paid next month and eventually that will be N29billion that we will have. I will add another N1billion to it making it N30billion to kick start this initiative.

    “By the time we have N30billion as sinking fund to drive the bus initiative against the bond of N100billion that we want to put into the market, there will be that credibility and credence that the bond will drive itself and that is the whole idea,” Governor Ambode said.

    He said aside the bond, his administration also intends to give out franchise to interested stakeholders in multiple of 50 buses each, 100 buses, 200 buses and above, explaining that what is required is a down payment of 25 per cent of the buses.

    “So, these are bankable projects as we have a sinking fund and so our exposure as a government is just technically 75 per cent. So, from the kind of machinery we want to use to run the buses, there are no cash takings, everything is automated and obviously, who ever has a franchise, whoever drives, they have the recourse to take part of the money while part of the intake also goes to the repayment of the facility and so it is a comprehensive template,” the Governor said.

    He, however, said that the State Government expects the Danfo drivers, who would be absorbed into the new initiative to adapt accordingly, saying that the transport unions would be expected to take ownership to ensure sustainability.

    “This is just a paradigm shift where Danfo drivers move from being addressed as Danfo drivers but as professional drivers. So, we will buy back the Danfos from them and it becomes the seed money to become eventual owners of those buses in the years the facility is spread.

    “It is something we have been working on in the last one year and we don’t come out to say we are going to do anything without working properly on it. It is process and now we are at the advocacy process.

    “We intend to start to go to the bus parks and all that to educate people and the integral part of these buses is what you see us trying to provide bus terminals, Laybys, bus stops. They are coming in pieces but they will become a complete cup of delivering this particularly product when we put them together,” he explained.

  • Ban on ‘danfo’: Lagos RTEAN drums support for government

    Ban on ‘danfo’: Lagos RTEAN drums support for government

    The Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), Lagos State chapter, on Friday expressed its total support for the proposed plan to stop the operations of yellow buses popularly known as ‘danfo’ on Lagos roads.
    The State Chairman of the association, Alhaji Musa Mohammed, articulated this in a telephone interview with The Nation in Lagos.
    According to him, the association is fully behind the state government under the leadership of Mr. Akinwumi Ambode in his bid to ensure Lagos State is transformed to a mega city.
    Mohammed said the only area which the association will advise government to take critical look is to ensure they provide enough buses to cater for the yearning need of the masses before the plan would be finally implemented.
    Lagos State governor Akinwumi Ambode, had on Monday February 6, announced a plan to sweep yellow buses popularly called ‘danfo’ in local parlance, for a more efficient, well-structured and world-class mass transport system.
    Ambode said that the well-structured transport system would ease movement within the state and make Lagos cleaner without burden the people in terms of taxes. Mohammed admonished members of RTEAN to lend their total support for government to ensure the mega city project of present administration attain success.

  • Lagos without danfo

    It is necessary and indeed achievable, but with careful planning

    For some Lagosians, it is difficult to contemplate what Lagos would look like when eventually danfo buses are off Lagos roads, in line with Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s new vision of Lagos as a megacity. The governor had stated at a forum:”… I want to banish yellow buses from Lagos this year. My dream of ensuring that Lagos becomes a true megacity will not be actualised with the presence of these yellow buses on Lagos roads.”

    We should understand why some people cannot contemplate this happening. Danfo is all they have come to know as the means of transportation in the metropolis. To most of us too who have been around for some time, we have been wondering how a place like Lagos came to be identified with what we used to regard as ‘backwater’ transportation means like okada. What we knew in Lagos before were Lagos Municipal Transport Service, Lagos City Transport Service and Lagos State Transport Corporation buses owned by the government, as well as some other buses owned by private individuals. One is talking of T.O. S. Benson, Zarpas, Osinowo Transport Service, etc. Of course we also knew the bole kaja and the molue which is fast becoming history.

    Perhaps the most disgusting of all the developments that have happened to transportation in Lagos is okada. I remember vividly that up till the 1980s, long after okada had become an accepted means of transportation in some parts of the country, like Calabar and Kano, Lagosians would swear that that could never be the lot of Lagos.

    But before our very eyes, that is in our lifetime, it has come to be in Lagos, our own Lagos, a clear manifestation of lack of foresight on the part of some of our leaders. Not only has it come to be; even attempts to phase it out have been met with brick wall, but for the determination of the state government to restrict its movement to certain routes. Otherwise, we would have been seeing okada more prominently than we are today in the state. Such is the popularity of okada in Lagos that we were told, early last week, that the state government was going to crush over 4,000 of them seized over their riders’ contravention of the state traffic law!

    However, when one is talking about lack of foresight, one should put it in context because it was not all the leaders we have had in the state that lacked foresight. Unfortunately, those with lofty dreams sometimes did not have the capacity to see them through due to the fact that ignorance or dirty politics sometimes reigned supreme in high places here. For example, the Lateef Jakande administration in the state, as far back as the early 1980s, realised the need for mass transit as solution to the traffic logjam in the state and indeed began the process of actualising that through the Metroline project. Suddenly, the soldiers struck and the scheme became a victim of politics or ignorance, which ultimately led to its death at a loss of over $78 million to Lagos tax payers.

    Without doubt, the decision to take danfo off Lagos roads is a welcome relief to many Lagosians. Many motorists in the state would tell you that any road that still has its sanity intact is so because the ubiquitous danfo drivers have not yet arrived. The moment they come, no one needs to herald their arrival. Israel Adesola, National President, Bus Conductors Association of Nigeria (BCAN), apparently in reaction to the state government’s decision to take danfo off the roads, said his members would, with effect from this month, start wearing badges, name tags and uniforms, following the state government’s approval.

    They do not have any choice if they must fit into the new dream. The state government is spending a lot of money to change the face of transportation. Imagine the investment in places like the new bus terminal at Tafawa Balewa Square and other places. How the current crop of commercial bus operators (drivers and conductors) can fit into the new arrangement is yet to be seen. Most of them believe that their kind of job is for ruffians and they are not hiding it.

    This is where Adesola got it wrong when he said that it is members of the public that regard the conductors as touts and illiterates. Both the drivers and the conductors are responsible for this perception. It is good that he expressed optimism that the government’s vision to transform the transportation sector in the state would impact positively on their members. Not many people share this optimism though, because it is going to be difficult for many of the drivers and conductors to adjust the same way it is difficult for a leopard to change its spots.

    Unless old habits no longer die hard, I do not see how they can conduct their business without taking their usual ‘paraga’ or other things that make them high (and, sorry to say, sometimes irresponsible) while on duty. That many people have lost their lives due to the irresponsibility of many of these drivers and conductors is not in doubt. They hardly service their vehicles unless the vehicles completely break down. They drive without regard for traffic rules or other road users. It is difficult to imagine that a man in his right senses would remove his shirt and still be allowed to drive on the roads as some of these drivers and conductors do. Just as one would not expect any sane person to, at the slightest or no provocation at all, reach for his vehicle’s boot to fetch one dangerous object or the other with which to inflict injuries on the person with whom he is having altercation. This had sometimes led to avoidable deaths.  In fact, it is doubtful if Lagosians would miss the danfo drivers and conductors much by the time they are off the road.

    Without doubt, removing danfo from Lagos roads is a revolutionary and bold policy decision for which the Ambode administration should be commended. However, the government must not behave like Khedive Ismail, the king who ruled Egypt  between 1863 and 1879, that has been described by some historians as “an impatient Europeaniser”  on account of his haste to transform Egypt. The danfo buses have outlived their usefulness and, more importantly, that is not the way to go in a megacity that Lagos has become. How many danfo do we need to move the millions of people from one place to the other in the state daily? Mass transit is the way to go. But in order not to create any gap in the transportation process, the yellow buses must be taken out in phases.

    It seems the government is aware of the need for this caution as well as the possible security implications of just throwing the danfo workers into the unemployment market and has therefore decided to accommodate them in the new scheme. This is why I was not surprised by a report denying that the state government wants to ban the danfo buses. As a matter of fact, I do not see its feasibility within this year as media reports earlier suggested because it would take a lot of planning, investments and even enlightenment to bring such dream to reality. So, the state government should save its breath. It is only natural that danfo would disappear gradually when the operators discover that they can no longer fit into the new dream. So, those in the business would do well to begin to think of the future without danfo buses. However, the government should bring the operators into the new picture so that we do not have security issues on our hands because this is going to happen if they are eventually thrown into the unemployment market. We should not be seen to be creating one problem in the attempt to solve another. It is possible some of them, drivers and conductors, would be able to adapt into the new scheme and even be a part of it. Such trainable persons should be absorbed and trained for the more productive enterprise rather than allowing them to continue with the jungle life that they think is their God-ordained lot. They are rendering an invaluable service, but it can and should be done better in a noble and respectable manner that the new dream promises.

  • CCTV buses to replace Danfo

    CCTV buses to replace Danfo

    The popular commercial bus, Danfo, will be replaced with Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) buses, Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation Prince Anofiu Elegushi said yesterday.
    At a Stakeholder’s meeting on the upgrading/utilisation of the Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS, Bus Terminal on Lagos Island, he said the government planned to build several bus terminals across the state to meet commuters’ demand.
    He said there was need for new buses as most of the yellow commercial buses were not roadworthy having been in use for the past 20 years.
    The Commissioner said: “So, it is not convenient anymore for passengers. What we are trying to do is to take them up and bring other new buses that will have CCTV, charging points to charge phones and a lot of facilities and many other facilities. So, they are still going to be the drivers.
    “The essence of re-fleeting it is to get it right. We are working on the programme most especially on the financial model that we will use in transferring those vehicles to the operators. That is just what we are doing.”
    On the upgraded TBS Bus Terminal, Elegushi called for stakeholders’ collaboration on its maintenance, as government planned to replicate it in other parts of the state.
    The project, he said, was to mark excellence, as the state prepares to mark its 50th anniversary.
    Elegushi said government was keen about upgrading transport facilities.
    The terminal, he said, would accommodate its original operators, taxis, yellow buses, tricycles, as well as Bus Rapid Transport (BRT), and LAGBUS buses, with designated lanes, ticketing points, Intelligence Transport System guide for passengers, mini shops, and stickers for identification, among others.
    He appealed to transport unions and others to take care of the terminal, saying: “it is a kind of responsibility expected from the transport stakeholders especially transport unions. We have delivered as promised but what we expect from them is to see a project well maintained so that there will be justification for what we spent.
    “We are working on other terminals like Oyingbo, the drawing is almost ready; Yaba Terminal, the drawing of that is almost ready. We are also working on Anthony, the VIS garden; we are turning it to a bus terminal. The two petrol stations at Maryland, we are turning them to bus terminal very soon; those are parts of what we have in the pipeline. Very soon we will hit the ground running.”
    House of Assembly Committee on Transportation Chairman Fatai Adebola praised Governor Akinwumi Ambode for the initiative and urged the people to take ownership of the project.

  • Acting Commissioner: LASG has no plan to ban ‘danfo’

    Acting Commissioner: LASG has no plan to ban ‘danfo’

    Lagos State Ministry of Transport has no plan to ban yellow buses known as “Danfo” but to upgrade them to international standard, the acting Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Lanrewaju Elegushi, has disclosed.

    Elegushi made the disclosure in Lagos on Tuesday during a stakeholder’s forum to deliberate on how to improve the transport system in the state.

    He said that the plan of the government was to restructure the transportation system in the state to international standard.

    “What we are planning is to restructure the transportation system in the state to meet international standard.

    “That is why we organised this forum to seek the contributions of the people involved at the new Bus Terminal at Tafawa Balewa Square.

    “We are changing the face of the transport system in Lagos state with fully air condition buses, charging port, CCTV and other infrastructure for the benefit of commuters,” he said.

    Elegushi said the government had also embarked on building of standard bus terminus in various locations across the state, to standardise the transport system.

    The acting commissioner appealed to the stakeholders to make judicious use of the new bus terminal at TBS.

    In his remarks, Mr. Kunle Azeez, the Chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Idumota branch, commended the government for building befitting bus terminal for members of the union.

    He assured the government that members of the union would obey rules and regulations and ensure proper maintenance of the terminal.

    “We appreciate the government for carrying us along in its development plan.

    “I am sure that our members will not let the government down in its plan to make the state a Mega City,” he added.

    On Feb. 6, Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode announced that the government plans to restructure the operations of ‘danfo’ buses for a an  efficient, well-structured and world-class mass transport system.

    According to the governor, a well-structured transport system will ease movement within the state and make Lagos cleaner

     

  • Opadokun hails Ambode’s plans to Phase out yellow buses

    Opadokun hails Ambode’s plans to Phase out yellow buses

    Chief Ayo Opadokun, Convener, Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER) on Tuesday, commended Lagos State Government’s plan to ban yellow commercial buses popularly called Danfo from plying roads in the state.

    Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s plan, Opadokun told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that reckless driving by ’Danfo’ drivers called for concern and government action, adding that they had made life unbearable for everybody on Lagos roads.

    ”They drive without adhering to traffic rules and regulations and they do it so ungodly. The one-chance issue is mainly perpetrated by Danfo drivers. Government has every right to check their excesses, therefore, Ambode should go ahead and ban them on Lagos roads,” he said.

    NAN reports that on February 6, 2017, Ambode revealed plans to ban yellow commercial buses from Lagos roads this year.

    He said this while speaking at the 14th Annual Lecture of the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) at Muson Centre, Onikan with the theme: “Living Well, The Challenge of Africa’s Future Cities.”

    Ambode said the present connectivity mode in Lagos was not acceptable and befitting for a mega city and called for well-structured transportation mode to address the challenge.

    “When I wake up in the morning and see all these yellow buses and Okada (commercial motorcyclists) and all kinds of tricycles, the claim that we are a mega city is not true. We must first acknowledge that, that is a faulty connectivity that we are running,” he said.

    Opadokun also commended Ambode’s development initiatives and urged him to sustain them to better the lot of the people.

    ”I must confess that I have attraction for that young man for all he has been doing in the state. The way he has been turning the state around positively is marvelous and he should be commended. I pray that God will grant him greater wisdom to make more and better strides,” he said.