We now have corporate conductors in Lagos

If you a regular commuter in Lagos State, be prepared to see refined and corporate conductors plying their trade in the notorious Danfo buses that move around the city because the state government has mandated that they start wearing uniforms with name tags for easy identification.

A statement by the National President of the Bus Conductors Association of Nigeria [BCAN], Comrade Israel Adeshola, said the rebranding of bus conductors in the state which is in partnership with the state government is a project that has been in the master plan of the government as a way of stemming criminal activities and also protect the lives and properties of Lagosians.

I am sure you never knew there was a national body of conductors. Neither did I until now.

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Smart move, you will say, but the directive will take the shine off the job and make the profession less attractive.

Gone will be the rugged, half drunk, croaky voiced guy hanging loosely on the door of a speeding Danfo bus as it tries to break Michael Schumacher's world motor race record on the Third Mainland Bridge.

What we will have now will be smartly dressed, uniformed corporate conductors who will be refined in their approach and even calling bus stops will be affected because everything about them will change.

You will no longer be at the risk of missing your bus stop because you will now hear what they say as against what we are currently used to. Instead of lumping all bus stops on a route together like they do, they will painstakingly call them out.

You will no longer hear things like Ketu-jota-kooduuu ooooo or Cele-jesha-mile 2-shodi-okeeeee.

Another thing Lagosians will miss with the introduction of uniforms and name tags for conductors will be their regular fights with roger-collecting police officers, NURTW officials at bus stops and their passengers.

They will stay away from engaging in such because they will be easily identified and fished out. You will be able to know their real names instead of hearing names like Jammani, Kamaru, Fighter or Commando.

The usual fight over change with passengers will now be a thing of the past as they will be held responsible if they try any nonsense.

Despite these things that we will miss, we sincerely hope this good initiative will not go under even before it starts as most good things find a way to go under within a few months.

We are pleading with the government to make the compliance of this initiative very strict so that it would not be abused and given a different coloration. We sincerely hope there will be measures taken to regulate their registration so that criminals will not get the uniforms and perpetrate crimes that will indict the conductors.

We pray the government will be able to capture the conductors in a data base so that if any of them commits a crime, it will be possible to trace him and nab him.

Aside from the introduction of the uniforms and name tags for conductors, we hope the government will do something to regulate the drivers themselves who think they own the roads and drive at break neck speed as if they are going to keep an appointment with the devil themselves.

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These changes should also be taken to the motor parks and garages and weed out miscreants, drugs, and illicit drinks so as to bring sanity to the profession.

There are many questions this initiative will raise but we hope the Lagos State Government will be able to tackle them as they arise.