BRT was introduced in the year 2008 by the administration of the former Governor, Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to ease up transportation brouhaha in Lagos. The BRT system started so poorly and went into a bit manageable state, but right now it is in a deteriorated condition. Apart from the exorbitant fare charged, the bus has lost its quality service. As we all know, whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing very well. A city supposedly the giant of all cities in Nigeria should be responsible enough and able to manage a Bus Rapid Transit. A supposed advantage of BRT has turned around to be a grave disadvantage to the masses of the beautiful city of Lagos.
First, the major nightmare Lagosians encounter daily is dealing with the ill-mannered BRT staff mostly the drivers who lack professional customer relations skills. Commuters complain and raise accusations against BRT drivers. It was once reported that a BRT driver raped and murdered an innocent girl.
BRT is a government initiative that’s supposed to cushion the challenges faced by the masses. Unfortunately, BRT has turned out to be the main challenge faced by the people. Normally, using BRT should be easy and affordable. It’s so unfortunate that it now costs more than the regular ‘danfo’ bus in Lagos. Apart from the high cost of the fare of BRT, it’s often not available. After recharging your BRT card, you must be ready to wrestle and go to war before getting a bus. This is quite not the expectation of the masses.
Apart from this fact, BRT service costs more, it’s also not safe to use. Several atrocities have been committed and recorded on BRT. People had been murdered and duped among several atrocities committed on the bus. Only a selected few of the BRT buses have CCTV cameras installed even after the murder of Bamise this year. The set of buses that ply the Ikorodu route doesn’t have a camera installed. At night, BRT services in Lagos are tantamount to anarchy. The queue lacks coordination, drivers are unready, commuters are frustrated and several fights often break out in the queue as a result of incoordination.
There’s a special lane set out for BRT buses in Lagos where no other vehicle can ply except BRT only. Although Lagos traffic is not manageable, the state government has made traffic worse by disengaging public transport from a particular lane which makes the road congested and locked up. BRT buses are not up to 2% of the total vehicles in Lagos, this implies that most taxpayers are denied their rights.
With the Way BRT services have turned in Lagos, it might sooner become a history or a catastrophe if nothing meaningful is done to stop the loops
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