Despite efforts by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to stop them, passengers keep riding on trains’ rooftop at the risk of their lives. Will Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi’s directive to NRC Acting Managing Director Fidet Okhiria on the issue change things? ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE reports.
Time was 6p.m. The Iddo-Agbado-Ijoko Mass Transit Train Shuttle (MTTS) was loaded as it made its way out of Iddo Terminus last Wednesday. In some coaches there was still enough leg-room to stretch tired limbs, as many made the return trip home. But the story began to change when the train got to Ebute-Metta (popularly known as EBJ), where passenger spillage first became noticeable. Those who had bought ticket, but could not find seat in the coaches made do with the gang ways.
But as the train got to Oshodi, the surge became uncontrollable. Hordes of passengers rushed towards the station, trying to make their way into the coaches to take the seats of those disembarking. Many of those with tickets, could not get space inside, climbed the roofs of the coaches.
Within minutes, the rooftops of the 16 coach-train were filled as passengers sat on all available spaces, including the locomotive engine compartment, cargo and electricity generating set cabins.
That happened barely 24 hours after the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, directed the NRC Acting Managing Director, Mr Fidet Okhiria, to curb the menace.
For Amaechi, it would be better for passengers to board the train without tickets than the suicidal ride atop the train. He argued that the government has no business in the business of transportation if it cannot guarantee people’s safety.
Instances abound where roof riders were the victims of train derailment either at home or abroad. Despite the growing awareness of the danger, many prefer the rooftop ride, which a passenger last Wednesday aptly described as “a ride on Tiger’s tail”.
Barely a year ago, scores of passengers fell to their death as an MTTS train collided with a truck at the Agege level crossing. In another instance, several rooftop riders were reportedly killed two months ago when the brakes of a Kano bound train failed at the foot of the River Niger at Jebba, in the Moro Local Government of Kwara State.
The minister’s charge has again raised the need to address the question: “Why do low-income earners and, or people in developing economies choose to die cheaply? Is it in all cases that the ‘passengers’ had no fares as espoused by the Minister?”
Rooftop riding is a world-wide phenomenon identified as pervasive among the poor. The majority of those who opt for this illegal and risky ride are assumed to be poor and unable to pay their way.
Costly option
A survey carried byThe Nation showed that 70 per cent of those involved in this risky ride, especially on the Iddo-Agbado route, fall within the ages of 21-35 years. It was also discovered that 60 per cent of them are either artisans, hawkers, or those learning a trade and over 90 per cent of them are gruff. Interestingly, about 50 per cent of those who sit on trains’ rooftops have valid tickets on them.
Though risky, riding atop trains has become the acceptable way of life for majority of people in this class. Whether on the Lagos-Ogun MTTS, or those riding between border communities on the inter-state Lagos-Kano shuttle.
The Ijoko-Agbado-Iddo train, which leaves the Ogun State suburb at about 6am, as well as the Iddo-Alagbado-Ijoko trains which returns at about 6.00 p.m., are usually filled to capacity. For them, the train is the cheapest means of transportation. That explains why on many occasions, the Ijoko bound train, which leaves the sleepy town at dawn for Iddo, are usually filled beyond capacity before getting to Agbado, with many passengers, who cannot secure a seat hanging on any available space for the bumpy ride.
The menace of rooftop riding is, however, usually minimised in the mornings due to the fear of arrest by men of the NRC Police Command. Hell, however, is usually let loose in the evenings, when the security agents are expected to have “officially closed” for work, as scruffy-looking ‘boys’, suspected to be returning from “work”, take over to display this menace, which begins from 6.00pm as witnessed recently untill the last shuttle at about 9.00 p.m.
Before the train would hit Mushin station, from Iddo, the coaches, built to carry only 90 passengers, would have been filled to capacity, making the coaches stuffy and largely uncomfortable. Yet, each stop at the several major and minor stations along the routes means more passengers embarking.
Some of those, who spoke with The Nation insisted that the uncomfortable nature of the train coaches supplied by the NRC on those routes might have been responsible for the sustained surge in the number of riders who sit on rooftops. Muftau, a motorcycle mechanics, who plies his trade at Iddo, said he would most times leave his seat on the second class coaches to sit on rooftop to escape suffocation inside the stuffy coach.
Muftau said the second class coaches are no better than a manger, with many of the passengers including beggars, and all manners of stench oozing out of the coaches. “I ride on the roof to escape the odour that comes out of the coaches at times and though it is unsafe, I found out that I could breathe better each time I ride on the rooftop of the train,” Muftau, who has been using the MTTS train since 2011 said.
But apart from trying to escape from the clutch of stuffy cabins, some riders might have been attracted to the rooftop because of the lure “to do other things”. Mrs Cynthia Israel, a Lagos Island trader and another regular user, who lives in Ijoko, said since she started using the train over three years ago, having moved to Ijoko neighbourhood, she has found out that many of those sitting on rooftops have tickets.
“They found the rooftops attractive because it enables them to engage in other things. Many of them actually have valid tickets which they purchased at the railway stations, but preferred to sit on the roof of the train to catch some fun because the spot offers them unfettered freedom to do so many other things, such as drugs,” she said.
She admitted the coaches are extremely inconvenient for passengers as they are usually over-crowded and stuffy, adding that they have made many of the passengers to decide on climbing the roof top.
Drugs on the tracks
The roof top is a world open to the daring and the bold. While the courageous dare to risk their lives in a bumpy ride where they have only the air to clutch on for safety, only the daring could afford to do drugs on the rooftops while the trains speed to the next station.
Findings showed that many, who do drugs on rooftops do so to gain inner stamina against the phobia associated with such risks, and more appropriately to “chase away fear”.
Checks as at last Wednesday showed that the rooftops are home to so many illicit trading in both soft drugs, such as Indian hemp, otherwise called marijuana, and hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine, or just the usual ‘hot’ drinks and cigarettes of all brands.
As The Nation correspondent disembarked from the train at Shogunle that fateful Wednesday, he beheld a scene where a young man, who just secured a seat on one of the many heat extractors of the coaches searching his bag to bring out a small piece of paper containing some substances suspected to be Indian hemp inside before wrapping and sealing with it saliva. It was a world of unhindered freedom, where there is no security agents; a world where fear seem to have fled.
The rooftop offers immunity against crime. It does not mean that those who sit there do not have tickets. On most occasions, policemen and the ticketers often point to the roofs as another option for those, who either could not secure a place inside the train, or complained of stuffy interiors of the coaches.
Another regular user of the train who could only express himself in Pidgin English, said: “Dem no born anybody well to attempt to dislodge dem (the riders). These boys, as we usually call them, are no better than hoodlums and they fit throw down anyone who put mouth for dem affairs comot the train,” he said.
Habitual rooftop riders kick against any intrusion into their “world”. Four years ago, a photo journalist, the late Tunde Ogundeji, was beaten up at the Ikeja train station, when he attempted to take the picture of these riders.
Soft enforcement
While the Minister and any casual observer might trace the pervading menace to a total or partial failure of enforcement by security agents, the police said they have been working round the clock and are unrelenting in tackling the menace.
The NRC Police Command said, last year alone, no fewer than 1,000 rooftop riders were arrested and prosecuted with offenders facing the full wrath of the law. The Command said it would not be intimidated by anyone or group of hoodlums in maintaining law and order on the train.
They not only denied aiding and abetting the menace, the police said the practice is prevalent only at night after official hours. To them, it is an indication that the riders are afraid of being caught.
The Railway Police Chief, Mr Pius Imue said the security agencies would double its efforts and are more primed to arrest the menace once the NRC gives the green light.
“The NRC knows what to do to abate this menace and we can only assure Nigerians that the Police is ready to put this menace in check,” Imue said, via a text message sent to The Nation last Thursday, when he was prodded on what new things the police might do to arrest rooftop riding based on the new Ministerial directive.
Way out
Okhiria said the NRC has been battling the issue of rooftop riders since the renewed tempo on transformation of the railways because of the increased awareness of the cheap price of the railway compared with other road mode of transportation.
The Acting Managing Director, who spoke with The Nation, said the management, under his leadership, would not rest on its oars until the issue of rooftop riders is erased on all its routes in the country. Okhiria, who had served in several formations of the NRC, said he has met with his management since the ministerial directive and would soon unveil a number of initiatives aimed at achieving the result envisaged by his boss.
He said: “The NRC had in the past embarked on enlightenment campaigns to drum the awareness of the dangers inherent in rooftop riding to all its intending passengers. We would deploy more aggressive efforts into effectively securing the right of way of the trains as well of all stations, to ward off hoodlums from getting easy access to the railway tracks.
“This would be in addition to the construction of overhead barriers at all the stations to serve as dangers zone for anyone who might intend to still get to the rooftops after all these steps to enable him see even before the train would eventually leave the station that such was a suicide mission.”
Okhiria said the NRC would also make bold attempts to address the shortage of coaches that usually results in rooftop riding.
The NRC boss said the surge in the number of riders are clear indications of the growing acceptability of the train by the Nigerian masses whose needs to move from one point to the other are being served by the Corporation, adding that as more rolling stocks are being added either through the refurbishments of the old stocks or through the new ones being bought by the Federal Government the shortages that caused the menace would be addressed.
He said it was in response to the need to provide more services and entice more people to embrace the train that the Corporation deployed the First Class Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) coach on the route.
Okhiria said rooftop riding is prevalent especially in the popular category (second class coaches), because most of the stations on Lagos Districts are porous.
He said: “Ninety per cent of our stations are porous giving easy access to hoodlums to access the train.”
