Nigeria's Buses

Thursday, November 13, 2008 Printer Friendly Version

Despite BRT, commuters suffer and smile in public buses

By John Ameh

JUST when Nigerians started thinking that the Abami Eda, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, evergreen track, Shuffering and Shmiling is losing its steam, a vintage forty-four sitting, ninety-nine standing molue situation surfaces in the nation's capital, Abuja.


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Passengers inside a crowded Abuja Urban Mass Transport.



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The forlorn look on the commuters' faces and the thick sweat dripping down their bodies seem to summarise their story- it's not a jolly good ride! The number standing, stamping at each other's feet and clutching the aluminum rail attached to the vehicle's roof, far outweighs the number sitting.

On their way to the city centre daily, they face this accustomed experience, which is regularly replayed during the scary evening "rush hour."

That is what most commuters (civil servants, private sector workers, traders, artisans and others) using the Abuja Urban Mass Transport buses face in their daily struggles to place food on their tables.

In Abuja? One would probably wonder because such scenario is typical Lagos situation where 'molue' buses dictate the pace of city transportation.

Incidentally, the bus scheme, a replica of Bus Rapid Transit, was launched for Abuja, a better-planned city, in 2006 to provide a decent method of transporting commuters to and fro the city centre from satellite communities.

But, gradually, the Lagos scenario has caught up with Abuja in less than three years of having the buses in operation. The buses are not only overloaded, but there is also the ugly scrambling to catch a place to hang at the loading points!

The Federal Capital Territory has a population of 1.4 million, according to the 2006 census, the majority of whom look up to Abuja daily to earn a living.

On the average, commuters pay between N60 and N100 per drop from the satellite towns to the city centre in privately-run small buses, depending on the distance.

Privately-run cabs (otherwise known as 'drop' or 'Kabukabu') charge even higher. The third category of players in the transportation business is the car hire or charter services provided for the affluent by the Abuja Leasing Company. The famous Abuja Green Taxi Scheme is still neither here not there.

But, with its ticket price of N50 per drop, the Abuja Urban Mass buses are arguably commuters' first choice; yet the relief that comes with the lower cost is frittered away by the harrowing experience they go through every day.

Mrs. Angela Onu, a civil servant and mother of four, who lives in Nyanya, says that government has a lot of work to do to make the bus scheme a success. She recounts her experience, "Which one do I begin with? Is it that the buses are few or that they don't come on time?

"Everyday, people wait for hours and they don't get to ride in the buses because when they become fed up, they opt for other vehicles. When a bus comes at all, it is already overloaded; of course, you do not blame people when they scramble for a particular bus because another one may not come on time."

Mr. Francis Audu, a construction worker, says that the evening rush hours are the "worse times."

"On some days, they may bring only three buses, which at most have about 207 combined sitting capacity. Meanwhile, there may be between 1,000 and 2,000 people waiting to be conveyed to a particular location, say Kubwa."

"What do we do? It becomes the survival of the fittest; that is why you see many buses overloaded and yet many commuters still want to stand just to get home", he explains.

Overloading has its consequences; a common one involving the urban mass buses is the loss of control by drivers, resulting in accidents.

"These drivers love to speed on the smooth Abuja roads; but when driving a bus that is loaded with about 150 people as against the prescribed 69, there is little a driver can do to stop an accident.

"I remember that a particular bus somersaulted at the sharp bend along the Aya-Nyanya Expressway early this year, after the driver lost control, leaving many passengers injured," another regular commuter, Olufe Daniels, tells this reporter.

A driver, who gives his first name as Emma, however, blames "most of the wahala we face" on passengers' alleged impatience.

"A lot of them are just stubborn; if you tell them to be patient and wait for the next bus, they shout at you," he claims.

By their designated route policy, the buses are expected to commute passengers to their destinations on time. For instance, a bus assigned to Karimu is expected to convey commuters to and fro Abuja from the satellite town, without branching elsewhere; by so doing, the passengers will arrive early.This has not worked as intended; the buses are very slow, arriving late and most times, they are forced to stop at points not included in their original schedules.

According to an Abuja-based transportation analyst, Dr. Godwin Okpobla, the Abuja bus scheme is facing difficulties largely because the authorities did not provide designated lanes for them.

"This was envisaged to be a kind of BRT; so, we should have special lanes for them to facilitate easy movement and efficient service delivery. But, what do we find here? These big buses are competing with cars and other smaller vehicles in the same chaotic Abuja traffic.

"The least we can have is to create special lanes for them at some points, even if they have to use the general lanes along the line", Okpobla advises.

Studies have shown that in countries with the "ideal" BRT in place, buses are completely separated from general traffic lanes.

In New Zealand for instance, the Auckland Northern Busway, is segregated from other traffic to enhance service delivery and save time.

One study argues that "in order for BRT to have greatest effect, it must have its own right-of-way, requiring space and often construction costs.

"A regular bus service would share the road with cars; a BRT service operating in mixed traffic would be subject to the same congestion, delays, and jarring and swaying rides as do ordinary city buses.

"Furthermore, signal priority systems, which are often the sole factor differentiating BRT from regular limited-stop bus service might cause severe disruptions to traffic flow on major cross streets."

However, in New Delhi, which launched its BRT in April 2008, segregated lanes for buses have only compounded the traffic problem, especially at intersections.

Officials at the Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company in the FCT, the operators of the buses, deny that inadequate number of buses is a major factor working against the progress of the system.

"We are talking of hundreds of buses, and more are coming; people have to appreciate that it takes a lot of time and re-strategising for us to get to where we want to be. There are times when you find empty buses driving about without passengers.

"During rush hours in the mornings and in the evenings, while some buses going to a particular direction are overloaded, those returning in the opposite direction are empty.

"People are just impatient; when you set rules, they prefer to break them than let them work", one official at the Maitama headquarters of the company, tells this reporter.

All attempts to get the Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AUMTCO, Abdulrazak Oniyigi, to comment on the issue failed as two visits to the premises of the organisation yielded no results.

During the first visit, which was in the morning of Monday, November 10, a member of staff on duty at his office said that the MD/CEO was out of Abuja to Lagos, but added that he was already on his way back.

"Come back in the afternoon; he has already sent for someone to come to the airport and pick him", the officer said.

When the reporter called back in the afternoon, Oniyigi was in the office, but directed the officer to take the reporter to his "second in command," Mr. Ajom.

"But, you cannot even see Ajom because he is very busy; he is in a meeting discussing the ongoing interview for fresh applicants", the staff stated.

On his part, the Public Relations Officer of the FCT, Mr. Suleiman Hazat, directed the reporter to the same Oniyigi and a certain Secretary, Transportation, who could also not be reached.

Findings, however, show that AUMTCO and some banks as well as mobile telecommunications service providers are partnering to improve the services of the buses.

As they wait for that partnership to transform to reality, Abuja commuters are "suffering and smiling", to quote one of the lines of a popular track by the late Fela.