Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode has announced plans to banish yellow buses, otherwise known as Danfo, from Lagos roads. He argued that it is not possible to build a mega Lagos in the real sense of it with yellow buses , tricycles and motorcycles all over the place.
He promised to introduce what he termed ‘world class mass transportation system’ that would facilitate ease of movement within the nation’s commercial hub.
Ambode made this known while speaking at the 14th Annual Lecture of the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) held at Muson Centre in Onikan with the theme: “Living Well Together, Tomorrow: The Challenge of Africa’s Future Cities.”
He admitted that the current connectivity mode in Lagos was not acceptable and befitting for a state bearing a tag as ‘mega city.’
“When I wake up in the morning and see all these yellow buses and see Okada and all kinds of tricycles and then we claim we are a mega city, that is not true and we must first acknowledge that that is a faulty connectivity that we are running.
“Having accepted that, we have to look for the solution and that is why we want to banish yellow buses this year. We must address the issue of connectivity that makes people to move around with ease and that is where we are going.
“For instance, people going from Ikorodu to CMS have started leaving their cars at home because the buses are very convenient and so why can’t we do that for other places? Yes, we don’t have the money to do that but we can go to the capital market and then improve on the technology of collection of fares and that will encourage investors and then the city will change,” Governor Ambode said.
He added that, “We are also embarking on massive reform in the waste and sanitation management system. I don’t like the way the city is and the Private Sector Participants (PSP) collectors are not having enough capacity to do it but again should I tax people to death, the answer is no. I don’t want to tax people and so we need this partnership with the private sector so that they can invest in the sanitation management of the city and in no time maybe by July, the city will change forever.”
