The training of bus conductors by the government signals the advent of a new regime of organised public sector transportation in Lagos, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE
With the coming of modern bus terminals, as well as hundreds of bus shelters, that are nearing completion, the Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration in Lagos State has left no one in doubt of its determination to reinvent transportation.
That determination was consolidated last week with the training of conductors, a critical factor in the government’s transportation reform.
Since assuming office, Ambode has enhanced transportation systems, so profoundly that a lecturer at the School of Transportation Studies, Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Samuel Odewunmi, described his intervention as, “beyond conceivable threshold”.
Odewunmi canvassed a robust intermodal system that would maximise the state’s massive investments on road, rail and water transportation.
In a paper: “Accelerating integrated transport system: rail, road and waterways,” delivered at the second Lagos Traffic Radio Lecture, the don said such development became imperative because of the anticipated migration of more Nigerians due to growing insecurity across the country, which could put pressure on the state’s 23 million population.
In the last two years, the government has invested hugely on changing the state’s transportation architecture. Ambode inherited an unregulated public transportation system, where the about 18 million population relied on unplanned, unsafe, unreliable and rickety means of transportation – popularly called Danfo – or commercial motorcycle or tricycle for their travels.
Building on the successes of the strategic transportation masterplan by his prede cessors, which sought to replace the privately-owned commercial transportation with an organised public sector-driven transportation system, the government consolidated on the Lagos State Traffic Law 2012, restricting okada operators from some arterial roads and bridges, and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) revolution by introducing a reform that seeks to inject 5,000 maxi buses into the transportation sector over the next three years, under a group franchise operator system that would grant 50, 100 and 200 buses to willing operators.
In tandem with Odewunmi’s position, The Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Ladi Lawanson, at another forum, said the government was determined to revolutionise the rail and waterways transportation, with massive investments to further promote the mass transportation initiative aimed at decongesting city centres and freeing the state of the about two billion man hours lost to gridlock yearly.
Ahead of the take-off of the pilot phase of the project in November, the government last week confirmed it has updated its databank, disclosing that over 4,000 bus assistants (popularly called conductors) operate in the state.
The Chief Executive Officer of Lagos State Drivers’ Institute (LASDRI), Mr Phillip Ogunlade, confirmed on Friday that 4000 conductors have been trained on new skill sets that would be needed when the new bus reforms of the government eventually takes off.
“More than 4,000 members of the Bus Conductor Association of Nigeria (BCAN) have registered with the Lagos State Drivers Institute (LASDRI) for training and accreditation in line with our mandate,” Ogunlade said.
Ogunlade, who refrained from speaking on the transportation policy, confirmed that his agency has trained bus conductors on such skills as customer relations and the requisite roles of a conductor in the new regime.
BCAN President Mr Israel Adeshola said the training would equip them to function and conform to the state’s reforms on transportation.
“Over 4,000 members are fully ready to operate along with the new Lagos State transportation reform.”
While LASDRI would deal with accreditation of operators, which includes drivers, the Directorate of Commuters Service is to provide appropriate gears, including identification badges, uniforms and route numbers for operators.
“We want to assure the people and the government that our members are fully for the state transformation of transport system. All these we have done to get prepared for the state development plan in the transport system,” he said.
According to him, the association has enlightened its members that very soon conductor work will no longer be business as usual.
“The association had trained so many registered members. BCAN wants to ensure no more jumping and hanging on the buses anyhow.
“We are in line with the state government’s plan on the new transport reform and we enjoin others in the system to key into the system and get registered,” he said.
Adeshola however appealed to the state government to carry members of the association along with the ongoing reform.
Planet Projects Managing Director Mr Biodun Otunola said the government was actually pioneering a paradigm class shift.
According to him, while hitherto the government has continued to invest heavily in making the rich in the society more comfortable, by investing in motorable roads and building more airports across state capitals, the poor, who form the bulk of mass users of the roads across the state are denied comfortable ride.
Otunola who said the 20,000 passengers who use airports across the country, do so in comfortable environment, while the 12 million passengers who use the road in the state alone, have to queue up under the blazing sun or the rain, without a shelter over their head and rush for rickety buses only to end up becoming a victim of one-chance robbery gangs, operating in commercial vehicles.
He said it is unacceptable that an average Lagosian spends over 60 percent of his income on transport cost monthly, adding that with the bus reform, cost would be crashed, and safety more assured as government is determined to ensure all operators have identity cards and wear uniform that would be clearly marked.
Also on the card would be the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) which allows passengers plan their journey time right from their homes, while travellers would pleasurably walk into the comfort of a terminal purchase their ticket and sit down to wait for their buses at whatever time of the day, adding that when the buses begins operation, they would run a 24 hour schedule.
Otunola whose firm was behind the construction of laybys which has brought huge relief on critical roads across the city, and bus terminals which is springing up in 10 different locations and about a thousand bus shelters across the state; said Ambode’s massive investments in providing supportive infrastructure for the roads is a major policy shift, as it would for the first time, “give back to the people the real essence of governance where it is most critically needed.”
“Government must redefine the content of its welfarist offerings. People could choose the kind of education or the type of healthcare, they wanted, but not the road. The road is a leveler. It brings the poor and the rich together and that is where government’s spending should go because it has the capacity to create more wealth,” Otunola said.
He said all over the world, government make the terminals more inviting and attractive in order to generate a fluid or “itinerant economy” as people spend more on consumption at the terminals, whether road, rail or air.
The Managing Director Lagos State Ferry Services Corporation (LSFC) Mr Paul Kalejaiye said the government is determined to replicate the same signature projects with which it has been noted on the road on the waterways. Last year, the government unveiled three executive boats and four jet skis in what was seen as a bold attempt to further strengthen the state’s responders on water emergencies.
Espousing the government’s strides at a public forum recently, Kalejaiye said the government is dredging, clearing and charting new routes, building more jetties, and ensuring a seamless world-class inter-modal system of transportation aimed at promoting the waterways as a better, and more affordable alternative to road transportation.
But it is on the road mode of transportation that the government seems determined to make the most profound statement with iconic threesome Oshodi interchange, that came with a shopping mall and a 30-bed hotel facility, which is projected to process a million passenger traffic when fully on stream, the Ikeja Terminal, which is projected to accommodate 400,000 passenger traffic, as well as the Oyingbo, Yaba, Ojodu Berger Terminals among others all of which are in various stages of completion.
The terminals, when completed, would be serviced by a new set of medium or large capacity buses which the Mercedes Benz in Brazil confirmed the first batch of 200 buses is on their way to Lagos.
Mr Ladi Lawanson, the State Commissioner for Transport, said the government is would commence commercial operations of the buses before the end of the year.
“In the last couple of months, we did the commissioning of the Ikeja Terminal, which was meant to be the flagship.
“The Ikeja Terminal would be signaling the beginning of what was going to be the entire project, consisting of 13 terminals including Oyingbo, Yaba.
“We are using the Ikeja axis as a laboratory where we are going to roll out from,” Lawanson said.