Where Is The Transport Regulator?
The rate at which commercial transport operators charge fares on the Lagos roads calls for concerns because commuters are at the mercy of the dictates of the weather or the disposition of the driver of a particular vehicle or the conductor.
This is so hard on people that the commuters are looking for a way to beat this reckless fare hike or epileptic nature of the fare that some employees have to help themselves at the jeopardy of their jobs.
Last week. A middle aged man was in a commercial bus around 3 pm already on his way home because he had little with him that could not take him home if he failed to get out of the office at that unripe hour.
However, while discussing with his friend at the park, he said he had to jettison the jobs on his table to be able to get a price that his purse could afford.
As bad as this attitude is, it is also justifiable because if there is a regulation from either the state or federal government by giving a bench mark of fare on the routes, then every commuter will be able to make a budget of what they are to spend and that will actually give them a peace of mind to settle down to their jobs.
Essentially, the only way out of this national uncertainty is to get the National Transport Commission (NTC) out of the legislative incarceration to reality so that an astute regulation of the transport sector.
Sometimes, the amount to be charged by a conductor depends largely on how much the National Union of Road Transport Workers otherwise known as Agberos collect from them per trip.
It does not end there, their fate is jointly decided by some other security operatives who also live on the commercial drivers by making them to part with some sums of money before they can pass through a road constructed for them not because they have committed any offence anyway.
Some of the drivers are mere engaged to run the buses, which means that they will have to meet up with paying up their daily delivery to their masters as well as getting some for themselves and their conductors not forgetting that vehicles will not run without fuel.
As it looks, if the trend continues, like the middle aged man, it will affect the productivity of the individuals and may graduate into national calamity.
However, the man who got out of office but the normal time must know that he is not only doing his organisation a disservice, he is killing it and likely to lose his job if caught doing such.