I boarded a LAGBUS Franchise (Red Bus) operating from Ikorodu to Oshodi at 9:07 a.m on Monday, January 18, 2016 in high spirits for an 11 a.m meeting in Okota with a prospective client. The bus departed for the trip to Oshodi about 8 minutes after boarding from the Ikorodu Bus Terminal. Seated beside me was a nice looking “Karishika”. Could this day get any better??

Just as I was about to say Hi to the beautiful lady, she let out an exasperated gasp. Oh My!!! Not again!!! I followed her gaze to the road ahead and noticed traffic build up at Benson bus stop. The optimist in me responded, the traffic is just here, it will disappear soon. She wasn’t having any of my optimism.

Fast forward 3hrs later (12:07p.m), we had just arrived at Mile 12. I had missed my appointment, tens of bottles of assorted drinks lay on the floor as passengers tried to quench their thirst from the scorching heat, the LAGBUS driver and ticketing officer had received all sorts of curses and insults from passengers requesting for a refund at various bus stops seeking to join faster means of transport – Okada and LAMATA buses (Blue Bus) on the Ikorodu to Mile 12 B.R.T corridor!!!!

And then I shouted out loud, Driver, you dey madt ooooo!! Why you no enter the B.R.T corridor, your bus no be B.R.T?? His exhausted ticketing officer responded, Oga, Task Force go catch us. I fired back, why dem go catch you? With little enthusiasm, she gently informed me that since the commissioning of the Ikorodu to Mile 12 B.R.T corridor by Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode the red buses (LAGBUS Franchisees) were not allowed into the corridor resulting in the red buses spending about 10 – 12 hours daily in traffic gridlock while the LAMATA buses had unhindered movement in the B.R.T corridor.

I took sometime to reflect on her response and came up with more questions: Why have the red buses been restricted access to the Ikorodu to Mile 12 B.R.T corridor? Was this done to give an unfair advantage to the LAMATA franchise holder? Is Governor Ambode aware that someone has intentionally or unintentionally created unfair competition between two government owned agencies? Was the passenger taken into consideration in the decision to restrict access to the red buses? Has the LAGBUS scheme become the new “Molue” service of Lagos state? If yes, the LASG should change the colour from red to yellow and black to enable passengers see them for what they are?? A waste of time.

In the midst of my confusion, I opened the LAGBUS website and was taken aback by their vision statement: “Our vision is to deploy buses in dedicated right of way with prepaid tickets, select operators and GPS monitoring to create a modern bus transportation system for Lagos. Our success will depend on the expertise of our people, a uniform service, high standards and full compliance.”

Dear LAGBUS, what happened to your dedicated right of way? Has Governor Ambode succumbed to pressure from interested parties so early in his administration against overriding public interest? The same overriding public interest he swore to protect.

Some days ago, our dear Governor restated his commitment to serve the people of Lagos. We look forward to a manifestation of this commitment through the removal of the restriction of access to the red buses on the Ikorodu to Mile 12 B.R.T corridor.

Eko o ni baje

The red buses plying the ikorodu - wherever route is an upgrade of the molue buses. They should be restricted from the brt lanes because they have been privatized and their daily aim is to meet and surpass "oga target".

Interestingly the blue buses are also privately owned. Everybody na "oga target"

Yeah, they might be privately owned, but they are better organised. The red ones are just....