Major headaches for Abuja mini-buses

WHEN Amego Kassim visited Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory early this year, he could hardly believe his eyes.
He was surprised at not just the physical development that had sprung up, but more so by how astronomically the population had grown.
“There were people everywhere,” he remembered.
He also remembered that there was so much traffic congestion like we experience in Lagos, which showed that the transportation system has not kept pace with the daily influx of people into city centre.”
The result of what Kassim observed was that “commuters experience severe hardship finding their way around the different axes of the territory owing to the absence of an effective transportation system, a situation that might have informed the introduction of a new transportation policy by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
According to the FCTA Minister, Bala Mohamm, the new transport policy would bring an end to gridlocks, reduce road traffic accidents, and enhance security as well as ensure sanity on the major roads.
FCT Minister had, last week, said the new transportation policy of restriction was to curb congestion and enhance security as well as ensure sanity on major roads in the territory.
Speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Information Management Systems, Hajiya Jamilah Tangaza, the FCT Minister said it was time to sanitize the territory and make it work towards becoming one of the best 20 cities in the world by 2020, rather than allow it to degenerate in terms of the current chaotic traffic situation.
But Owners and Drivers of Mini-bus Town Service Association in the Federal Capital Territory, said they would have nothing to do with it and to drive home their dislike for the policy, a week ago, besieged the main gate leading to the National Assembly during which they carried placards that condemned the new transport policy.
They said their members would resist the new transport policy, which bans mini-bus operations within the Central Business District, a policy they describe as being against the interests of the majority and would introduce hardship to drivers and commuters.
But Tangaza told The Guardian the policy to ban mini-buses, which takes effect from today, had been in the pipeline since 2010 and arose as a result of the menace posed by the operations of the mini-buses which had led to persistent gridlock from the unruly nature of the mini-bus drivers.
The ban, she said, would reduce road traffic accidents, improve security and restore sanity on the major roads and interchanges in the nation’s capital.
The areas worst affected are: Wuse Market, Area 1 Junction/under the bridge, Area 3 junction and many others.
A resident, Ibrahim Mohammed told of how at Wuse Market in the city centre, a mini-bus emerged and hit his car from the side and the bus driver had the effrontery to still threaten to ‘deal’ with him.
Determined to press ahead with the implementation, the administration believes that when the high capacity buses commence operations in the city in earnest, the residents would commend the innovation aimed at ensuring sanity on the streets.
“There will be designated bus stops and the buses will be to strictly adhere to picking and dropping of passengers at the designated bus stops and they will not impede other road users, quite unlike when the mini-buses were operating in the city.”
The authorities also pointed out that mini-buses were not banned outright in the territory but were assigned alternative routes to operate and still break even without causing problems.
Such routes include: Mombassa-Michael Okpara-Olusegun-Moshood Abiola Area 1, Area 1-Gudu Market-Apo Mechanic Village, Area 1-Gudu by Cemetery-Apo Mechanic Village, Jabi-Mbora-Kaura-Gudu Market, Jabi-Sun city-Apo Mechanic, Jabi-Mbora-Lugbe, Gwarinpa-Life Camp Entrance-1st Gate, Bwari Town-Dutsen Alhaji-Expressway (ONEX), Kubwa (2nd Gate)-Gado Nasko road-Kubwa 1st gate, Mpape-Murtala Mohammed Expressway Junction.
However, they are banned from operating on Wuse Market-Eagle Square-Asokoro-AYA-Nyanya; Area 3 Junction-Tafawa Balewa-Herbert Macaulay Way-Berger Junction-Jabi; Gudu Market-Apo Quarters-Ahmadu Bello Way-Federal Secretariat-Gwarinpa; AYA-Shehu Shagari-Federal Secretariat-Transcorp-Nicon Junction.
The routes would henceforth be serviced by high capacity buses.
The present FCTA might be taking a cue from the el-Rufai administration whose ban on motorcycles was initially harshly criticized but has now come to be a welcome development.