Recently, the LAGBUS Asset
Management Limited opened its doors to women who are interested in driving its
metro buses in Lagos. HANNAH OJO engaged some of the female drivers in
conversations and they shared their bitter-sweet experiences, particularly how they
were able to cope in a profession believed to be the preserve of men.
WITH its
deluge of vehicles and reckless drivers, Lagos ranks as one of the world’s most
difficult cities to drive. So, a woman who opts to drive a 46-seater bus on
commercial basis in the central part of the city is bound to arrest the
attention of curious members of the public.
That,
precisely, has been the case with Olayinka Oloruntoba, one of the drivers of
the popular LAGBUS luxury buses, a commercial venture founded by the Lagos
State Government for the purpose of moving the inhabitants of Lagos from one
part of the city to another.
Armed
with a degree in Accounting from the Taiye Solarin University, Oloruntola’s
search for a job in the financial sector had been fruitless. The only viable
offer she could get was in a micro-finance bank where she was offered the job
of a marketer. But irked by the unseemly experiences of female marketers in the
country, she opted for something more dignifying even if more challenging.
Spurred
by the belief that she can do whatever she sets her mind on, she applied to
become a captain, as drivers of the metro buses are called. After three months
on the job, she recounted her experience, saying: “Sometimes, you get to the
station to load and some passengers refuse to board because they see a lady
behind the wheels.
“At other
times, if you are driving on say the Third Mainland Bridge and there is a
slight vibration, passengers would start to panic. But all that was at the
beginning. Things are better now. Some of my passengers even confess now that
they feel safe when I’m the one driving.”
Reflecting on her funny experiences in the early days of her driving career,
she recalled instances when people, particularly her fellow women, refrained
from boarding when they realized the bus would be driven by a woman.
She said:
“On a certain day, a woman was coming in, but on sighting me behind the wheels,
she turned and disembarked. The consolation has always been that in such
situations, there would be one or two other passengers who had boarded my bus
before. They usually do a good job of assuring the doubting Thomases that I’m a
very good driver.”
She
described her encounter with street urchins, popularly called ‘area boys’, as
another remarkable experience, since they are always amazed that a woman can
drive a bus of that size.
She said: “Before I joined the
services of LAGBUS, I could not even move a bicycle. But the company sent us to
a driving school and I started learning with a small car before I graduated to
a bus. We were about 20 women when we started the training, but some of us
could not cope and they withdrew. There were only six of us remaining, and out
of the six, I am the only one working on the road. The others are still on
dummy runs.”
Asked to
describe her training experience, she said: “Learning to drive the bus was a
big challenge. Even when we were in driving school, sometimes I wept and
doubted if I could continue. But my boss, Mr. Babatunde Shoderu, would
encourage me.
“He has
had experience in the UK, so he is always encouraging the female captains by
telling us that women also drive buses in the UK. He brought the idea here.
That way, we are able to stand on our feet, telling ourselves that we can do
it.”
With no
record of accident so far, the young woman, who seems to be enjoying her job,
believes that women are better drivers because they have better self-control
than men who are always in a hurry. She also said that unlike many male drivers
who take alcohol and other substances to get strength, she does not believe in
taking any performance-enhancing substance. She would rather take time off to
rest, eat well and go for medical check-up as and when due.
She said:
“I resume duty at 7 am and close at 3 pm. By 7.30 am, I am set to go because I
would have checked the condition of my bus before rolling out.
“My
husband is okay with the job because I told him from the start that I wanted to
challenge myself to do what a man can do even in a better way. Although he was
scared at the beginning, God has been faithful.”
Driving
for empowerment
Some of
the female drivers say they decided to take up the challenge as a means
empowering themselves financially. One of them is Eno David-Asuquo, a female
driver who comes across as someone with more knowledge than her SSCE
certificate.
She had
been to a higher institution but had to pull out when she discovered that the
school was not approved by government. After completing secondary school in
2000, she had worked as a café attendant and was close to getting a job in a
bank when she stood in for a secretary who was on leave and her performance on
the job earned her recommendation from the branch manager. But she lost out
because she didn’t have a certificate even though she had the knowledge
required for the job.
Then she
moved to a firm where she had to market products, but she had unsavoury
experiences with men who wanted more than the products she was marketing. After
that, she moved on to other places before deciding to try her hands on self
employment by selling fairly used shoes. That also did not pay off as her debtors
were not forthcoming with the moneys they owed her, so she called it quits.
In the
midst of all this, she was sitting exams to get into institutions of higher
learning but was always denied at the point of entry. At a point, she joined a
scheme at the National Directorate of Employment to learn auto mechanics but
she said the motivation was low. She recalled that the trainers would often
miss classes without a tangible excuse.
She said:
“I was determined to do something that is not really common with women. So, I
had attended the directorate of employment thing for months but I was
discouraged, because even though I was spending money on transport, the
lecturers were not regular.
“It was
then that my sister brought the handbill advertising the recruitment of women
as LAGBUS drivers. Right from my early years, I used to admire female drivers.
At a point, I thought if I had my way, I would be operating an airport cab
business, dressed in a peculiar way,” she said.
As a
LAGBUS driver, Eno described her experience so far as challenging.
She said:
“I never knew how to drive before I joined LAGBUS. We were first taken to a
driving school to learn the rudiments of driving. It was in January that we
were asked to resume at the Ojota depot so that we start learning with the big
bus.
“The
first day I attempted to drive the big bus, it was something else. The seat was
so high and I was seeing everybody. I was happy, but it was difficult getting
it at once. Your trainer keeps correcting you and sometimes you feel very down.
If you don’t really have a strong will, you will chicken out.
“Some of
us left on their own volition; others were asked to go.”
Recalling
people’s reactions when she started driving the bus, she said: “Many people
were surprised. While some were cheering me, others were like commot for here
joo (get out of here). It was unbelievable to tell somebody that a woman could
do this.
“I admire
women who drive the Lagos State Waste Management (LAWMA) truck. Again, there
was a lady who drove a commercial bus in Ajah (Lagos). That I also admired. So,
those people motivated me to be focused.”
Driving
on Lagos road is not for the faint hearted. Motorists often have to contend
with bad roads and other aggressive road users and everyone often wants to
outsmart the other on the road, most times in flagrant disobedience of traffic
laws. Eno also speaks of her experience in this regard.
She said:
“it is very challenging because sometimes when you try to manoeuvre your way,
another road user will just come from nowhere and overtake you. It is maddening
to drive on Lagos roads.
“You are
the only sane driver when you are on the steering because anything can happen.
Someone may just come from nowhere to overtake you, causing you to match the
breaks unexpectedly. But then, you have to be agile. You have to keep watching
your mirrors every now and then.”
Asked if
she ever thought of quitting, she said: “The thought of quitting has crossed my
mind, but I am the type who likes thinking deep. Even if I am being
discouraged, I will tell myself I have to see the end of this.
“I don’t
really give up like that. If I had wanted to, with the discouragement and
challenges, I would have done so long ago.”
‘I want
to show women there’s nothing they can’t do’
Tunrayo
Opadisin holds a diploma in Public Administration from Olabisi Onabanjo
University, Ijebu-Igbo. Before she joined LAGBUS, she had worked in factories
and stores and set up an outlet where she sold men’s wears.
Asked why
she left a seemingly safe task for one as tough as driving a long bus on the
busy streets of Lagos, she said the move was inspired by her fondness for the
job.
Opadisin
said: “I want to be that woman who is able to show others that there is nothing
on earth you cannot do once your mind is set on it. That was why I applied for
this job. This is the ninth month I have been in the scheme.”
According
to her, driving the big LAGBUS comes with lots of challenges but determination
could pull one through as the journey progresses.
“I
motivate myself with the example of women who are already driving the bus on
their own. I fall back on their success examples whenever there is
discouragement. What I tell myself is, I must see the end of this,” she said.
Being a
woman, she is not shielded from unpleasant experiences on the road. And she
shared an instance of these: “Last week, I almost broke down but I thank God
that I got myself back on track. I was driving and another big vehicle, instead
of slowing down to wait for me just rushed to overtake me even though my
trafficator was on. I had to match the breaks suddenly, causing my tyre to
burst. I shed tears because I don’t like anything negative to happen when I am
driving. Later at home, my husband and children did not enjoy me because I was
not happy throughout that day.”
While most
women have been known to pull out, sighting lack of support from their
husbands, Tunrayo is confident that will not be the case with her since she had
sat down to discuss with her husband before taking the decision.
She has a
word for other women who thought the job could deprive them of time for their
families: “If you are focused on something, you will know how to arrange your
family and kids so that one will not affect the other. My husband and I have
already sat down, so everything is settled.
The head
of bus captains training of the LAGBUS Asset Management Limited, Mr.
Babatunde Shoderu, who mooted the idea of hiring women to drive the bus
in the state, told The Nation the motivation for the scheme.
He said:
“I worked with a lot of female drivers in London where I worked in the
transport sector for about 28 years before coming back to Nigeria in 2011.
Women drive long buses there. It is no big deal because whatever men do, women
can also do.
“When it
comes to commercial driving, women are always on point in the sense that
because they know it is a job, they go into details and they are more careful.
“I think
because of that motherhood nature, they tend to be exceptionally thorough in
terms of the things they need to do before rolling out because they don’t want
to go out on the road and encounter problems. They always make sure they do a
detailed check.
“Although
it takes them longer time to catch up with the training, in the end they are
always on point with the job.”
While it
is generally believed that women tend to be better drivers than their male
counterparts, training them is usually not as easy. Some of them spend longer
periods in training before they can be dimmed capable to be thrown into the
system fully.
Sharing
his experience about the women bus drivers he has trained, a LAGBUS trainer, Mr
Mustapha Olatoye, said: “To be realistic, training a single woman is like
training 10 men because women are sometimes difficult to take through
instructions. They feel because of their gender, you are trying to override
them.
“It is
not easy as such but we are trying to put some passion into driving and we
believe ladies as the mother of the nation will be better at handling our
customers who are the commuters because the money we made from the tickets we
sell is the source of our daily bread.”
Women
driving buses is not a trend that is peculiar to Lagos alone. In Edo State,
women have been employed into the stated owned Edo IntraCity bus, otherwise
known as COMRADE BUS.
Also, the
Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has an initiative where women
drive the min trucks used in collecting wastes. These women, jokingly called
Iyawo Fashola (Fashola’s Wives), do not only see themselves as bus drivers but
ambassadors of a cleaner and safer environment.
