Dutse: A state capital without commercial taxies

Dutse, the capital of Jigawa state, is a city capital where residents commute only on tricycles and motorcycles as shuttle taxies and buses for town service are entirely absent in the state capital. The state has been  created in 1991 by the then military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida. Though one of the state […]

Dutse, the capital of Jigawa state, is a city capital where residents commute only on tricycles and motorcycles as shuttle taxies and buses for town service are entirely absent in the state capital.
The state has been  created in 1991 by the then military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida.
Though one of the state capitals rapidly growing, Dutse is changing from a sleeping rural city to an urban town but with little or no features to depict the assuming status. It is a town that is experiencing population explosion but with no provision of modern transportation system, Kano Chronicle observed.
 There are over 6,000 motorcycles and 40 tricycles that shuttles the metropolis.
State chairman of National Commercial Tricycles and motorcycles Owners and Riders Association (NATOMORANS), Abbas Abdulkadir said tricycle was only introduced in the state two years ago.
He said the commercial tricycles were procured by the state government as the Union was only engaged to provide operators and watch over their safety. The tricycles were distributed to all of the 27 local government areas of the state with each receiving five while the state capital got 40.
Abdulkadir said each tricycle operator was expected to make a weekly return of N3000 and the government shoulders maintenance of the machines, adding that an operator would lose his job if he fails to meet up the  obligation of weekly balance or in maintaining the safety of the tricycle.
But despite the fact that the union in conjunction with government has zero tolerance for failure to meet the obligations, the chairman decried poor patronage by members of the public. He said only women that move in group, pregnant women or the sick patronize the tricycles because passengers were not patient to wait until they were filled up.
On commercial motorcycles operating in the metropolis, Abdulkadir told Kano Chronicle that 6,000 commercial motorcycles operate in Dutse.
He said the high presence of commercial motorcyclists suggests that the population of the town was growing otherwise the number of the riders could have dropped.
Motorcyclists operating under the union, like their tricycle operators counterpart, also must provide a weekly balance of N3000.
One of the commercial motorcyclists who gave his name as Suleiman Sa’id told Kano Chronicle that all things being equal, he realizes as much as N800 daily. But the market is not booming  one realizes as low as N400 in a day, saying their business reaches its peak from October to Match.
The state chairman of NATOMORAS stated that despite the volume of motorcycles and tricycles in the metropolis, Dutse as a state capital was ripe for government to introduce taxies and buses for town service.
Speaking to Kano Chronicle on the issue Cynthia Moses, a guidance and counseling consultant said when she came to the state in December last year at the peak of harmattan period, she went through untold hardship because she could not get a taxi to her destination.
She said the only alternative available was to take a commercial motorcycle, adding that considering the load she was carrying and the dry wind that was blowing made the memory of the entire short distance journey very distasteful.
Habiba Hussaini, a corp member in the state expressed her displeasure over the absence of taxies in the state capital, saying she had a special case that compels her to avoid motorcycle transport system.
On why she does not patronize tricycles, she said they were always not readily available on the streets; one could only get them at the center of the metropolis.
Adamu Mani, a grocery seller, said he did not require the services of taxies and that he had never looked at their absence as a minus for the state capital until one day when his boss who fell sick asked him to bring his family home after they have arrived the state capital from a journey.
Mani added that he had to use five motorcycles to take them home alongside their luggage, saying commercial motorcycles was the only means of transportation to the town from the new motor park located at the outskirt.
Another contribitor Mohammed Aliyu said the absence of such services in the metropolis further confirmed that the state was a rural state, adding that the presence of such kind of services could give the state capital a befitting status especially from visitors.
When contacted the Special Assistant to Governor Badaru Abubakar on media, Alhaji Bello Zaki said government is worried about the problem of transportation in the state.
Zaki said: “Recently government has bought 750 tricycles for onward distribution across the state with a view to alleviating the sufferings of its people. In addition to this government will soon revive the Jigawa line to complement the tricycle and motorcycles operators in the state.”