Mr Chinedu Eze, reporter with Thisday Newspaper resides in Lagos. He was in the nation`s capital, Abuja for an assignment at the National Assembly in 2008. From the airport, He picked up a taxi to the National Assembly Complex and on alighting from the taxi he forgot his two blackberry phones in the car.
Seconds later, Chinedu called the two lines and he was greeted with the ominous response: “the number you are calling is either switched off or not…”? Mr Eze later went back to Lagos “phoneless”. Loosing everything – the phone, the contacts, in addition to the anguish suffered!
Chinedu`s story is not far from, but even worse than, the story of Miss Ngugi Mbalele,a student of Kenyetta University, who visited the nation`s capital on holiday from Kenya. She was unlucky to enter a “one chance” taxi and her experience is better not told on pages of newspapers.
Incidences like the ones above and the issues of exorbitance fare, in addition to reckless driving, poor state of vehicles and most essentially transport give the model city a “befitting look” are the reasons the transport secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has given order for all the rickety and substandard taxis in Abuja to leave the roads “in the next 18 months” and have given the right of taxi operation in Abuja to five companies.
Usual, the idea has been hailed by many residents of the city while some have a lot of misgiving about the scheme, saying “it`s an attempt by a few individuals to hijack the transportation business in Abuja” and render many taxi drivers jobless! In some quarters the ministry seem to be misquoted and misunderstood.
“What we said is that they should try and improve the state of their vehicles so that they come in with vehicles that Nigerians and Abuja people will be proud to ride in, not vehicles that will tear your clothes or those you can’t open from inside.”
That was Stella Ojeme, head of Public Relations (PR) , Transport Secretariat ,FCTA , reacting to accusation by the painted Taxi Drivers Union in Abuja.
According to the drivers, FCTA is not being fair to them.
They said they (FCTA) wants to chase the painted-taxis out of business. Speaking on behalf of the union its chairman, Mr Shehu Shugaba Yar’Adua, said “ We oppose the scheme because it`s not? going to benefit our members as well as the public because we have been in the business for long, we have experience, we know the problem confronting transportation in Abuja.”
Meanwhile, the chairman said, a meeting took place between them and the transport secretary where they appealed that they should be recognised as an independent body and to be allowed to key into the scheme directly through FCTA and not through any of the five registered companies. “We met with the transport secretary, Mr Jonathan Ivoke and he has promised to grant us our own licence. By next week we will start our registration.
We support the issue of rickety vehicle leaving the road and we are doing something about it. We already have an arrangement with a vehicle manufacturing company that will replace all rickety vehicles, and First Bank has offered to give us loans.
Also the issue of one chance is being handled by the union. We are also training our members on traffic rules and we have been punishing offenders,” said the chairman.
On the issue of security, Mr Yar’Adua appealed to the media to enlighten the public to watch out for the type of taxi they enter.
According to him, “Anytime they want to enter taxi they should look at the side number, there`s also another sticker that identify where a taxi is plying, so that if you have any problem with the vehicle we can trace the driver through the chairman of that area.
Therefore, if you are entering a taxi you have to watch out for the following: 1. Make sure it`s a painted taxi, 2. Make sure there`s a side number and 3. Check out for the sticker that identifies the route the taxi is plying – it can bear Banex, Asokoro, Maitama, Garki ,depending on the route the vehicle is plying.“
The FCTA head of PR, .Transport Secretariat, on the other hand said they have no issue with the taxi drivers since “they said they want to have their own licence, we said fine, if you want to have your own license, have all these our requirement: which is at least fifty new vehicles and every six months you increase the fleet to at least five hundred.
If you have that, you have your depot where you pack your vehicles, you have your maintenance bay where you will be maintaining these vehicles and then you pay your registration fees. If you are ready I give it to you. But these five we have are just the first phase.
This is not the end of licensing.” According to Ojeme every game has a rule, “The transport system has to be regulated. They don`t want the scheme to work because they want to continue with their old ways of charging exorbitant fare and packing four passengers at the back and all that, but we said that should stop. That is how it is in advanced countries.”
She said the drivers take advantage of passengers especially when it`s raining, “You see some of the taxi drivers when they see that it`s about to rain they pack their vehicle somewhere and when the rain start and a lot of passengers gather at the bus stop they will now come out and tell you Asokoro, from Central Area here five hundred naira.
So they want to continue with all these ugly practices.”
Some Abuja residents who, however, opposed to the arrangement said that many taxi drivers will lose their jobs and that could increase the crime rate in the FCT. Mr Hamsa Adiola, a car repairer said, “From report there are about thirty thousand taxis in Abuja. So a lot of people will lose their job with this very plan,” while Chijoke Nwafor a level four accounts student at University of Abuja said “the painted-cabs are like another Okada in this town. They need to go. See how they jump queues and drive on the work ways like mad people.”
Meanwhile, as all the talking and consultations are going on, the residents of Abuja are waiting to see the licensed companies start working after the expiration of the October 1st? 2011 deadline which FCDA gave them has come and gone.” Nothing has changed, it`s still the same old song and dance.
The few green-painted vehicle I have seen once or twice does not show that anything tangible will happen soon Therefore, one question that has been agitating the minds of residents of “ABJ” as the capital city is fondly called is: when? will the said vehicles get on the road and begin to render the long- awaited services?
A chat with one of the contracted companies attached to Abuja Transport Corporation Society (ATCS), which is one of the five companies permitted to run high capacity vehicles as well as taxis, the lofty idea, may turn out to be a stillborn. According to Mr Kanu Lucky, Group Managing Director, Vico Nigerian Group of Company. “The government is not serious, the scheme can`t work unless they force all these rickety taxis out of the road. They just “mouth” so many things without doing it.
How can you expect me to buy this vehicle at 4.7 million and expect me to still charge the same fare with the painted-cabs which is bought at three hundred thousand?” Mr kanu was talking about the Toyota Corolla light-green vehicle that surfaced in Abuja since July this year. He said the cost of buying and maintaining the vehicle is high and the government is not providing enabling environment for them to run the cab.
“These vehicles have been working in the city since July and we have ten of them. The government should help us by fulfilling their own obligation of forcing the painted-cabs off the road, at least starting with the very bad ones. They should also support the drivers to get new cars for them. Things are hard.
How many people can buy a NISSAN Sunny, which is about the cheapest of all, at N2.7 million?” He said a situation some of them are asked to pay 30% of the money, which is about N800,000.00(eight hundred thousand naira), for the Toyota Corolla they use, is still difficult to achieve, saying, “The money is too much for most taxi drivers. He warned that if the government does not act fast to remove the painted taxi out of the road they may be forced to go and sale one of their taxis and use the money to buy ten “tokumbo” taxis.?
The GMD said that as things are, they are considering diverting the Taxis to? inter state which is more lucrative than within the city where you will be competing with old taxis which are cheaper to buy and easier to maintain. “We make less than ten thousand naira everyday, while the old taxis make the same amount.” On the issue of Job creation Mr Kanu said the ten vehicles they have can employ thirty persons, based on three shifts method.
“That`s how these things are done abroad. They drive on hourly bases (six hours each), so that the drivers don`t get worn out” He said they charge normal fare of N300.00 {three hundred naira} a drop,N1500.00 (one thousand five hundred naira) per hour and N3000.00 (three thousand naira) for airport drop.
As one African adage says; when the eye cries the nose also cries.
The parent company of Vico Ltd, ATCS, is also lamenting the situation on the ground which has frustrated the new transport scheme. According to the President of the company ,Mr Emmanuel Omoruyi, the old taxis are supposed to buy stickers from them which indicates that they have keyed into the scheme but they are not doing that and it`s left for the government to force them to buy and paste those stickers on their vehicles. He stated that 31st October of this year is the last date given for taxis drivers to buy the stickers.
On the issue of long buses, he said: “The challenge we are having is that of infrastructure. We need 240 shelters (bus stops) between Eagle Square, through Kubwa Expressway, and Suleja, they will soon be ready. As I am speaking to you, we are building the Gwarimpa Bus stop.? Another thing is that, due to the experience operators had in Lagos, the bank has insisted that we would use electronic payment system to run the buses and we are working to meet these conditions.
Hopefully our buses will be on the road second week of November this year.” He also pointed out that the roads are not yet demarcated – the yellow line is not enough; a concrete pavement should be used in place of the yellow lines.?
The head PR, Ministry of Transport, FCDA, reacting to some of the claims from both the licensed private companies and the painted-taxi drivers said “We did not ask any company to buy any brand of vehicle and if they say the government has not fulfilled their obligations by not forcing rickety vehicles off the road they should fulfil their own obligation first by providing enough taxis on the road.
If we force the old taxis out of the road which ones will the Abuja masses use? If they want financial assistance they should come, we can introduce them to the banks – government is not ready to buy vehicles and give to anybody.” She also said the ministry has agreed to give the painted taxis their own license but not in the first phase which has already expired and that they still have to meet up their conditions.
On the issue of sticker, Ojeme said the date for buying it would only elapse after the eighteen months of grace given to the painted taxis to recapitalise.???
The few passengers who have been able to hire the service of the new green taxis in town spoke glowingly of the taxi. “It`s cool but there are very few of them and the electronic board on top of it makes it a sight to behold at night; it adds colour to the city.? It`s also cheap.”
Like Oliver Twist the Abuja residents have been adding their voices and waiting for more of the new taxis as well as the high capacity vehicles (long buses). Though many are sceptical of the scheme, few still believe that the programme is already on the move and it`s going to be a great success, just like the BRT in Lagos State. The ball is now in the court of FCTA.