As Lagos Danfo Heads For Last Bus Stop

In the Lagos metropolis, the unusual is the usual with danfo drivers and conductors. Driving against traffic, defying traffic lights, hanging on tailboards, beating up passengers, short-changing passengers, fighting naked and using their buses to rob, among many other eccentricities, are all game tomost operators of the danfo contraption. With them, the abnormal is the […]

In the Lagos metropolis, the unusual is the usual with danfo drivers and conductors. Driving against traffic, defying traffic lights, hanging on tailboards, beating up passengers, short-changing passengers, fighting naked and using their buses to rob, among many other eccentricities, are all game tomost operators of the danfo contraption. With them, the abnormal is the norm.

Danfois the parlance long given as the operational name of commercial mini buses that ply the many routes in Lagos State, especially the Lagos metropolis. The word is a Yoruba slang meaning “to stand alone” created sometime in the mid-1960s by Lagos residents asthe Volkswagen kombi bus gradually became an ubiquity on Lagos roads as a commercial mode of road transportation, competing with the bigger Bedford and Austin brandslocally fabricated into commercial buses Lagosians gave the corrupted name molue, because of their rickety nature and the reckless application to which their drivers put them.

In the molue, it was the fashion thatpassengers were jam-packed more than sardines in a can, with those standing shoulder to shoulder more in number than the seated. The late Afro music legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, described it as “49 sitting, 99 standing”.Ghastly accidents involving the molue in those days could claim more than 20 lives. On one occasion in the 1980s, a fully loaded molue bus, its driver high on speed, as well as on paraga, a highly intoxicating ethanol drink that bus operators are won’t to take in Lagos, fell off the highest bridge in Lagos, the Ijora-Apapa bridge, at its highest point at Ijora Seven-Up about 50 metres to the ground, killing more than 40 passengers.  

As fatal accidents involving the molue became more commonplace, successive administrations in Lagos began mulling banning them. But there never was the will to do so. However, passengers themselves began to shun the molue in preference for the danfo as the latter multiplied in their hundreds on Lagos roads and were readily accessible to passengers in virtually every nook and cranny of the metropolis.

The emergence of danfo drivers, virtually all of them stark illiterates, came with their unique exhibition of unusual behaviours. To observers of the weirdcharacteristics of the emerging generation of these bus operators, this unscrupulous breed notoriously stood out, hence the word “danfo” has since stuck.

 The earliest danfo buses were the Volkswagen Kombi which seated only 14 passengers. Subsequently came the other models like the Volkswagen Transporter (popularly known as FEDECO after the Federal Electoral Commission of 1979-1983 which had a fleet of transporter buses) and currently the wide-bodied Volkswagen Caravele (called Faragon by the danfo operators). However, other brands of vehicles, like the Toyota Hiace, the Nissan Urvan andthe Mitsubishi L300 have since been incorporated into the danfo circuit as commercial buses painted in the Lagos yellow colour.

More than five decades after the emergence of the danfo on Lagos roads, its operators have not weaned themselves of their odd peculiarities; they have actually developed into so much an irritant that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has resolved to show them the exit.

Ambode, who spoke at the 14th annual lecture of the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) at the Muson Centre,Onikan, Lagos, on February 6, 2017 said the state plans to replace the danfos with a more efficient and well-structured transportation system as part of bringing sanity to Lagos roads.

According to him, the present connectivity mode in Lagos was not acceptable and befitting for a mega city, and as such a well-structured transportation mode would soon be put in place to address the challenge.

“When I wake up in the morning and see all these yellow buses, okada (commercial motorcycles) and all kinds of tricycles and then we claim we are a mega city, that is not true. We must first acknowledge that that is a faulty connectivity that we are running.Having accepted that, we have to look for the solution and that is why we want to banish yellow buses this year. We must address the issue of connectivity that makes people to move around with ease and that is where we are going.

“For instance, people going from Ikorodu to CMS have started leaving their cars at home because the buses are very convenient and so why can’t we do that for other places? Yes, we don’t have the money to do that but we can go to the capital market and then improve on the technology of collection of fares and that will encourage investors and then the city will change”.

Ambode’s declaration has elicited not a few reactions, many commending what they called a bold move, many others condemning it, while some advised caution on implementation as the vital service the buses provide the mass population of commuters cannot, they maintained, be abruptly deleted, despite that their crimes are legion.

For those with a morbid sense of humour, missing what they regard as the soothing theatricals that danfo drivers regularly provide in a state like Lagos, where they said the per second pressure of survival, the hustle and bustle of commerce and the pushing and shoving on the roads can push the blood pressure up 200 degrees, is unimaginable. 

To Ajani Adewale, a mechanic with his workshop at Tabontabon on the dualised four-lane Agege-AbuleEgba road, watching the acrobatics of the illegality that danfo drivers display has become his pastime. “At the slightest build-up of traffic hold-up in the evening going towards Abule-Egba, and this is a daily occurrence, those danfo drivers will veer to this side of the road of vehicles coming to Agege, blatantly driving against traffic.

 “What I even find funny is that the conductors will hang on the tailboard, looking mean and violent, ordering asidevehicles driving towards them, which are the rightful owners of the road.With the confidence with which they go about the illegality, threatening whichever driver wants to claim right of way, you would think they own a presidential licence to drive against traffic. And it is amusing to watch how frightened private vehicle drivers surrender their right and steer awayfrom the path of the lawless danfo drivers,” Adewale regaled.

  What Ambode wouldn’t, however, find amusing and, was, as confided in Daily Trust on Sunday by one of his top aides, indeed, a major reason that informed his resolve to ban the danfo, is a grave crime to which commitment operators have deployed the yellow bus. In Lagos these days, commuters dread the term ‘One Chance’. One Chance is a form of always violent, most times armed robbery that danfo operators perpetrate in their yellow buses while the buses are moving.

 By the robbery method, the criminals, operating as innocent drivers and conductors, shout routes their normal way, calling in passengers. Passengers then jump into the operational vehicle, none the wiser. Two or three more of the criminals’ colleagues are already seated inside the bus, pretending to be passengers.When on the road, the conductor simply closes the door and the robbers announce the mission. They tell the passengers they (the passengers) have only one chance to live, and that is to surrender all their belongings – phones, cash, jewelleries, wallets, watches, media tablets, laptops and whatever valuables. To give practical vent to their announcement, they give deafening slaps and crippling blows to whoever of the passengers that dithers; that sends a signal to others who quickly comply. And to conclude their ruthless proclivity, they throw out passengers from the buswhen it is on high speedafter the robbery. One chance robbers have been seen to violently throw out pregnant women from their buses. That is how heartless they are.

 Two members of a gang of One Chance robbers, Ubuke Michael, 26 and Obinna Okoro, 24, the Lagos State police command paraded in June last year for using their operational vehicle registration number, FST 890 XM, to rob passengers going to the Alaba International Market and Ladipo spare parts market to buy goods confessed before newsmen that he and his conductor were familiar with the operation. “I have so many commercial buses that I can call for operation. I call them to join me at a particular location. The driver and conductor do their normal work while we collect belongings of the passengers, drop them off and pass them to the driver to hold on,” Michael said.

One of their victims, Boniface Anusionwu, whose phone was found with the gang, stated: “I just came out of a bank where I went to withdraw some money for trading and for my rent. I never knew they were robbers.”

Many passengers never know, and the yellow bus remains a risk to board.

Deleting them off the roads, as Ambode resolved, has, however, become a debate. How can anyone just phase out the danfo, the mass conveyor of the teeming population of the state from one end to the other, from Lagos roads? The question becomes more imperative when it is considered that there are no far-reaching alternatives yet in place to satisfy the transportation needs of the people.

Mixed feelings and reactions have trailed the governor’s remarks, with many stakeholders in a dilemma between the vital services the danfo operators provide to commuters and their incorrigible excesses.

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme that Gov. Ambode is hinging his plan on has come under focus.The first phase of the scheme, a 22-kilometre Mile 12-CMS pilot corridor, was commissioned by former governor,Babatunde Raji Fashola on March 17, 2008.

 That was the flagship of LAMATA’s bus services reforms described as the first example of a comprehensive and integrated approach to improving public transport in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The second extension was carried out from Mile 12 to the Ikorodu roundabout, while the government has commenced the construction of a third corridor from AbuleEgba to Oshodi. 

 Users of the scheme commended it, saying it has made an unquantifiable impact on their transportation needs. Stakeholders described it as a forward-looking approach to meeting such needs, which align with the state’s status as one of the fastest growing mega cities in Africa. But there is also the unanimity of agreement that there is still a wide gap to be filled if the ban on yellow buses is not to be regretted.

Some commentators are calling for caution on the decision, especially, they say, when the Lagos light rail project from the CMS on Lagos Island to Mile 2 and thenBadagry, which is expected to bring succour to thousands of passengers, is yet to be completed and its completion date is uncertain.

Another issue raised is how the Lagos State government will take care of the thousands of the drivers and conductors whose danfo is their meal ticket. Will the government be able to reabsorb these operators into its new scheme? There is the fear that the bus operators, most of them unskilled in any other area, could take to crime when thrown into the unemployment market. There is also the apprehension that the thousands of motor park touts who feed off the danfo service would also turn a menace to residents of the state if they can no longer eke out a living from the tolls they collect from danfo drivers.

 The Lagos State government would, however, appeared to have answered some of these questions and doused some tension. Last Monday, the acting Commissioner for Transportation, Prince Anofi Elegushi, explained at a stakeholders’ meeting on the upgrading/utilisation of the Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS, bus terminal on Lagos Island, that government would, by the decision to ban the yellow buses, not be taking jobs away from commercial bus drivers.

Elegushi said what government wanted to do was to refleet the transportation system with new buses, as most of the yellow commercial buses were not roadworthy, having been in use for more than 20 years.

 “They are not convenient anymore for passengers. So what we are trying to do is to take them up and bring in new buses that will have CCTV, charging points to charge phones and many other facilities. They will still be the drivers; we are not the drivers,” the Commissioner said.

 The chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Lagos chapter, Alhaji Tajudeen Agbede, told Daily Trust on Sunday that discussion was still ongoing on the matter, saying the union was meeting to take a position.

But feelers from the union have it that the position of the NURTW leadership remain that any policy that would not favour the members should be jettisoned forthwith. They are also advising the government to be cautious in implementing the policy to protect the means of livelihood of millions of danfo drivers.

Our correspondent sought the views of commercial motorists in some of their parks in Ikeja. Most of them appealed that the transportation business remains the only source of livelihood they have and banning the buses would throw them into the unemployment market. Some, however, said if government should ban the yellow buses, they must provide them with commensurate means of survival.

Jude Chuckwuemeka, a danfo driver at the Maryland park, said: “I have been driving this bus for the past 10 years. Yes, we have heard that the government said it would be banning us. But we don’t know how government is going to introduce their own buses in this park. Is it that we are going to be delivering daily or monthly, or operate the way the BRT does?”

 To Mukaila Bisiriyu, who said he has been a bus driver for 15years, “government is not supposed to ban yellow buses because we don’t have any other means of livelihood. This is what we are leveraging on to take care of our families. Government has the power to ban the busses but they should put us into consideration. We are appealing to them to tread with caution”.

Bisiriyu debunked the claim that yellow bus operators have become a nuisance on the road, saying the state government has the power to deal with unruly danfo drivers.

“Government knows what to do if they want to deal with any of our colleagues who are disturbing the peace of the state. Police should be vigilant by arresting those who engage in unlawful activities,” he said.

Chief Ayo Opadokun, an old Afenifere chieftain and Convener, Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER), welcomed the plan to remove the danfo from the roads. Opadokun said reckless driving by danfo drivers called for concern and government’s action, stressing that they had made life unbearable for everybody in the state.

“They drive without adhering to traffic rules and regulations,and they do it so ungodly. The One Chance crime is mainly perpetrated by danfo drivers. Government has every right to check their excesses, therefore, Ambode should go ahead and ban them from Lagos roads,” Chief Opadokun added.

However, The Secretary-General of the Federation of Informal Workers Association of Nigerian (FIWON), Gbenga Komolafe and human rights lawyer, Ebun Adegboruwa, called for caution in separate interviews with our correspondents. 

According to Komolafe, there is the need for adequate replacement for the yellow buses before government could take such a decision.He also advised that there should be consultations between the government and drivers’ unions before the ban.

“Government should incorporate the drivers and conductors into the new system so as not to throw them out of jobs. If all these are put in place the plan is a welcome development, but is there an adequate plan now? The answer is no,” Komolafe said.

Adegboruwa viewed the decision as “wrong at this time because the danfo provides essential services to the people,which cannot be overlooked except there are credible alternatives.

“I want to commend the efforts of Gov.Ambode in providing better services to the people of the state, but this approach (ban on danfo) is too elitist. The government should not in the processes of finding a solution to a problem create another one,” Adegboruwa said.

He feared that thousands of danfo who will lose their jobs as a result of this policy may take to crime. “The rail system is not in existence, the rail along the Lagos-Badagry expressway is nowhere near completion. So the government should provide alternatives before thinking of banning danfo on Lagos roads,” the human rights lawyer added.

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in Lagos agreed with Ambode, saying banning the yellow buses would put an end to their menace on the roads. The sector commander, Hyginus Omeje, also said the governor’s mega city project should be complemented with a mega transport system to make it work.

According to the road safety boss, the governor may restrict the yellow buses to the hinterlands while introducing mass transit buses in the city.