Lagos commercial drivers lament defacement of vehicles by NURTW officials

Commercial buses in Lagos Olalekan Olabulo writes on the act of defacing commercial vehicles with indelible markers by transport unionists in the name of collecting dues and how this is causing a lot of headaches for the commercial bus drivers who find it difficult to clean such marks.

A mass transit bus popularly known as"molue" is a common sight in Lagos. It is the ‘saviour’ of the masses as it is the cheapest means of transportation in the Centre of Excellence. On this particular day, one of them, filled to its capacity, slowly and gradually came to a halt at the Iyana Ipaja Bus Stop along the Lagos -Abeokuta Expressway and the passengers began to disembark from the vehicle. Suddenly, a gang of about six to seven men, all of them holding varying colours of tempo marker, swarmed round the driver's side of the vehicle and began to inscribe all sorts of illegible writings on the vehicle.

The people who Lagos Life learnt were members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) were all clad in green and white uniform with different colours of fex caps What was surprising about the manner in which the unionists descended on the vehicle was the scramble by each of them to have his inscription on a conspicuous position on the vehicle

Immediately the transport unionists finished their business of properly defacing the neatly painted commercial bus, they all rushed at the driver, who was also attempting to get off the bus, and opened their palms in a way that suggested they were expecting something from the man who looked completely worn out. The driver however directed them to the conductor who was by them engulfed in a battle with some passengers who were claiming their unpaid balances.

One of the touts moved into the midst of the wrangling passengers and dragged the conductor to where his colleagues were standing as if he had been arrested by law enforcement agents. The conductor, before giving the unionists any dime, took them to the side of the vehicle where they had all scribbled different signs and finally gave each of them the demaded ransom

The driver of the vehicle observed the ‘settling’ from afar after which he quietly went to the side of the vehicle and attempted rubbing off the signs but they appeared indelible as they were not erasable. The driver resigned himself to fate and joined his colleagues who were all seated under a shade within the motorpark at the back of the bus stop.

The act of defacing commercial vehicles by transport unionists and social miscreants in Lagos has become one of the problems facing commercial drivers in the state.Often times, drivers and unionists engage one another in a serious fight over the defacing of vehicles.Commercial bus drivers have tried in vain to stop the habit which the unionists have vowed to continue with.

It is a common trait among touts in Lagos to write all sorts of printable and unprintable signs on commercial vehicles, all in the name of collecting money on the major roads of Lagos State. The unionists inscribe some signs which look like foreign alphabets but meaningless. Anybody looking at the signs would find it difficult to decipher anything from such signs; even those who have scribbled them argue with drivers, at times denying that such signs emanated from them.

Commercial drivers plying Lagos- Abeokuta road, Ikorodu road, Agege Motor Road Egbeda, Ikotun, Mushin, Isolo, Agege all have to bear the brunt of having their vehicles defaced by transport unionists in the state with little or no resistance. In some cases when they had attempted to prevent such defacement , they had had themselves to blame following acts of aggression from the unionists.

Lagos Life gathered that the unionists engage in this act as a way of identifying the vehicles whose drivers and conductors have paid their dues. The unionists all have peculiar writings with which they identify the vehicles signed on by them. They are of the impression that once they see any vehicle appended by them, they would recognise it.

Some of the drivers, while speaking with Lagos Life, decried the attitude of the unionists who they accused of being indifferent to their plight. The drivers complained that those who write rubbish on other people’s vehicles are not mindful of the effect of the act. In the words of a driver popularly known as Esikay at Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos, “I don’t blame them. Since they have not bought a single vehicle with their money, they can not realise that they are spoiling our vehicles.”

The driver also added that they had been at the receiving end of the whole thing, as owners of vehicles often held them responsible for the defacement.

Other drivers who spoke with Lagos Life on the defacement of their vehicles, also criticised the unionists for such an act, which, they claimed damages the body of their vehicles, while calling on union members to find another way of identifying those who had paid their union dues.

Some of the commercial drivers who spoke with Lagos Life said they now have to wash their buses daily as a result of the defacement.

“We want a way through which the union officials will identify those who have paid and those who have not, as many bus drivers now spend a lot of money to wash the buses daily”, one of the drivers told Lagos Life.