A day in Ibadan & Lagos ... Tinubu needs to hear

President Bola Tinubu

Those who talk of predestination may not be wrong after all. For me Tuesday 3rd June confirms something like that. I hadn't planned it, but an uncle in-law died on Monday, 2nd June and it became very necessary for my wife and I to travel to Lagos where he lived to pay the cultural courtesies to his family. But as soon as we hit the road in the popular tricycle called ‘Marwa,’ named after retired Brigadier-General Buba Marwa who introduced it to Lagos to ease the decayed transportation there when he was military governor there, some observations began to draw my attention and until I got to the place I went in Lagos and returned to Ibadan they didn't stop to happen.

What are these observations and conversations. The driver of the Ibadan ‘Marwa’ was a young man whose driving was not as rough as that of others. He spoke good English. My first observation was what’s this young man doing behind the wheels of 'Marwa'? He had been complaining of the long time it was taking Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state to complete the reconstruction of the roundabout at Challenge, Ibadan. According to this young man, things were not done like that in his state of Rivers. He spoke better Ibadan dialect that me who is an indigene of Ibadan. How come he spoke the Ibadan dialect so well. He told me he had been living in Ibadan for fourteen years. He, infact, attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan. So I knew I was talking to a graduate. The way he spoke, he was not the typical Nigerian graduate of today that are derided of being unemployable because they only hold certificates but are not trained to do anything. This one is employable.

"Education for us is very expensive. We got the education but government will not give us jobs.” I heard the pain in his voice as he complained. I surmised quickly that he took to ‘Marwa’ driving because he could not find a suitable job. When he was in school, fees was about 40,000 Naira but his younger brother who is in the same Polytechnic, Ibadan he attended now pays 140,000 Naira. Yet after the expensive education, there will still be no job. I encouraged him that he could build on what he was doing and aim high at becoming a big transporter and an employer. Destiny may have led him to what God really wants for him. He didn't seem to disagree. But why did he buy only about 1,500 Naira worth of petrol at the last gas station as I saw him do? "Things aren't easy now as before and you can't afford to drive around burning fuel without passengers in the vehicle," he stated. He emphasised that: “What I bought is enough to get me to Taska and back to Gate ( two places in Ibadan). When I get back to Gate I will buy another one litre of petrol." So the subsidy removal programme of government has taught Nigerians lessons in management. Nigerians have developed many coping mechanisms. What about the possible negative effect on the tricycle? I did not ask him because he is not an engineer.

We continued the journey in the hectic traffic snarl struggling in the midst of many other vehicles who struggled to get advantage over other road users, yelling and cursing in the local language. Eventually we got down at the Challenge Bus stop and meandered our way to the Challenge Terminus built by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State. The Challenge Terminus was a very good example of how various governments in Nigeria spend money on things that are not necessary. The Terminus was conceived to possibly modernize clumsy transportation. It has a very huge building where nothing except toileting goes on. Good that unlike before a place is provided to urinate and to defecate. But even the management of this building leaves much to be desired. On my last visit there, ticketing had been abandoned. This, of course, allows whoever is managing it to skim much money off government. This is reflected immediately in the condition of the toilet: ill-maintained plumbing materials and water spilling uncontrollably all over the floor. Very soon that toilet will breakdown and the Terminus will revert to the old system where people urinate and defecate openly. The commercial vehicle drivers that were removed from the roadside and located inside the Terminus were back where they were located at the onset. Who will curb them? They help put government in power.

We boarded an SUV headed for Lagos. Generally, business was gloomy for the transporters on that day as there were few passengers and so there was so much struggle and fight among the 'agberos,' those special tribe of people who are strangers to peace and orderliness, as they struggled to get passengers into their vehicles. The transport cost was 6000 Naira per passenger. Few months back it was only 4500 Naira but the cost gallops everyday, thought to be so because of the fuel subsidy removal. But as we will soon see there are other things influencing this high cost. After a long while the SUV was ready to move and we drove on to Lagos. The driver was good and we soon got to Lagos disturbed on the road close to Lagos only by people buying rams for 'Ileya' festival. The ram sellers sold close to the road and so the negotiation spread to the road blocking traffic. We soon overcame that and disembarked at Berger Park where the real story began. We hopped into a small bus called 'korope' in Lagos parlance possibly because of its extremely small size. It shouldn't have been used for commercial transportation but anything goes in Nigeria where government cares nothing for the welfare of citizens and where the citizens care nothing about their health and comfort. Comfort for Nigeria’s populace is seen only in terms of food and partying.

As usual, I made sure I sat at the front beside the driver. I do this so that my legs are not ruined as a result of squeezing them in the small space available. The front seat has better leg room. Amazed as a slim and tall woman hopped in into the driver's seat. So a woman is going to drive us to Iju in Agege area of the sprawling metropolis. Not that I was seeing a woman drive a commercial vehicle for the first time but one was driving a vehicle in which I was for the first time. It was good for my continuous learning about Nigeria’s situation. This woman had taken on the character of the motorpark boys. She spoke freely and loosely, you will wonder what kind of moral she teaches to her children and how she relates with her husband at home.

This curiosity made me to stay alert for any cue. One soon came when this tall woman in trousers overtook and took the place of the car in front of her because the car left a small place for this woman's 'korope' to edge it out. It was what you call the Lagos 'dangerous driving.' My heart was literally in my mouth. The woman spoke, perhaps because she noticed I panicked a little. "I used to wonder why commercial buses drive dangerously on the road and why they are so much impatient until I began to drive one myself." “What pushes them to drive that way," I asked immediately. She declared: “It is money, they want to make big money for the day and they wouldn't allow any 'my car' to delay them.” Commercial bus drivers call private car owners 'my car.' So you know the reason for the road rage in Nigeria, especially on Lagos roads. But didn't she think her driving was dangerous. She didn't, she only edged out a man who was 'doing go-slow on the road.' Commercial bus drivers don't think private car owners are smart.

She began to talk again. "This is my first trip today and when I return to Berger and go the round back to Iju it will be my last for the day. I would have made enough for the day. I own the bus and I pay 70,000 Naira per week as installment to the person who leased the vehicle to me. I still have enough for me for the day after making allowance for this payment."

“You must be contented, I quipped. Then you will have time to be home early enough to take care of your children and your husband.” Replying she said: "The children are old now and they can take care of themselves but which husband?" She threw those two words at me in a way that gave me the impression that something was wrong with her home. She might be a single woman or a divorcee. “But why did you think your husband was not worth being cared for,” I probed. “He can't be going to the kitchen and husbands will remain husbands for all of life as long as it remains.” She flashed a look at me and said nothing; a look that told me something was wrong. That for me is the reason why family values have broken down in Nigeria and why government has to look into it if it has to redeem that current generation of youths who have lost all orientation concerning right behavior.

You will recall that the Chairman of EFCC, Ola Olukoyede wondered in a WhatsApp video whether “these youths who are heavily into scam are the ones that will lead Nigeria in the future." He said one of them just 22 years-old who has been convicted has 5 billion Naira in his bank account.

Government must look into homes if it will reorder values in the country. It must look into these women who drive commercial vehicles, and their homes. This woman had collected a whooping 1,000 Naira from each passenger. Five years before this writer left Lagos, Berger to Iju was only N200. Who is killing the passengers and what is the cause of it and how can it be redeemed? What is the effect of this big money as we will soon find out from another enterprising ‘Marwa’ driver in Lagos I encountered on this auspicious day. A quick dash to Alaba Williams Street to greet the widow of deceased and a quick dash out to return to Ibadan. We boarded another ‘Marwa’ from Iju to Ogba. He charged 400 Naira. But why was he charging that much, a conversation ensued. Contrary to expectation, this young man who spoke polished English did not blame the petrol subsidy removal. It is not so much petrol subsidy removal, it has to do with various links that skim money from the commercial vehicle drivers. They are NURTW, the union that controls the drivers and the security. "Each driver pays 3,000 Naira to the union daily. That is why illiterates have become billionaires doing nothing." I asked him: "Are you talking about M.C Oluomo who was for a long time the Lagos state chairman of NURTW, who the EFCC reportedly discovered some billions in his bank account, invited him for investigation but found nothing against him."

He confirmed he was. "It is this people that made the government and people to know there is much money in the business." There is much money in commercial bus business but taxes are not accruing to government but everything is going to private pockets. M.C Oluomo and company collect taxes from commercial vehicle drivers instead of government. “Why don't you drivers, the real workers resist them ?” “You can't resist them, he answered and continued, "if you drag them they will call in the police who are on their payroll. The police will support them and arrest you the driver.” In addition, he stated that: “There is a case now with the red bricks (red bricks is the appellation given to a police station in Iju area), the police arrested a ‘Marwa’ driver who refused to pay the 3,000 Naira per day and took him to their station where they detained his ‘Marwa.’ Furthermore, he said, “he would have to collect that vehicle with 25,500 Naira. Wouldn't anybody prefer to give that 3000 Naira than pay 25,500 Naira to the police." We continued the journey and somewhere along Yaya Abatan road close to Ogba our final destination, a young boy ran across the road and the driver put a currency in his hand. I asked him what he just did. He replied, "that is another link in the chain, that is security money. It is collected by those boys on behalf of soldiers and police. If you observe very well, you will see soldiers carrying guns in the evening on motorcycles. They are going to collect this security fee from the boys. They have a fixed amount everyday. You dare not give the money."

That is why transportation is costly. And it will continue to be until these links are removed. But who will remove them? The politicians who use these union boys as thugs or the police and the military who daily collect 'security money.' We hopped in again into another 'Marwa' that got us from Ogba back to Berger for another 400 Naira. We were soon in an old sixteen-seater bus renovated but still very old and rickety. It took 2,500 Naira; the type that should not carry even animals but this is our hope for getting back to Ibadan in the dark night. The driver drove well in the dark night and we got back to Ibadan at 9 pm on this fateful day encountering another traffic bottleneck at the Sat Guru Marahji end of Ibadan, at the former toll gate, caused by nothing but the impatience of the commercial drivers eager to make big money.

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos