‘Ojota, ojota, ojota, ojota, ojota, Yaba, yaba, yaba, yaba, yaba, 

’Ojota, ojota, ojota, ojota, ojota’’, Yaba, yaba, yaba, yaba,’’

‘’Ojulegba, ojulegba, ojulegba’’, ‘’Obalende, obalende, obalende.’’

The above chant by the skinny looking, shabby dressed conductor with an intimidating husky voice, one that can make a baby cry on hearing it, almost made me miss my bus stop to Ojulegba.

Poor me, even with my sharp ears, I could barely figure out which bus was going through my direction, because of the different blaring sounds coming from horn speakers and conductors who were calling different locations (One of my JJC Stories in Lagos). LOL!

It was a Friday morning, the day I had set aside to shoot my shot on the project of documenting how Danfo drivers and Conductors go about their hustle running Lagos round the clock, from sun rise to sun set and into the dawn of a new day.

There we go; the driver speed off as I settled down on the window side at the rear to get a better view of the ambience of Lagos. A quick let out on this was that I noticed Lagos was just so dirty. Well, on how the government was facilitating the 'cleaner Lagos project' and the bitter complaints of lagosians on is a full documentary for another day.

Traffic in Lagos is an inevitable experience to every resident in Eko. You really have not experience Lagos yet if you haven’t encounter the kind of traffic that will make you sleep and wake up still stuck inside traffic-flow. That was my ‘Oyo’case, two hours inside a bus from Bariga in Lagos Mainland through Ojuelegba and finally to Ajah in Island.

As you may know, in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is one city in Nigeria that is touted as the land of possibilities, one flowing with milk and honey.

The city is widely known as the Economic nerve centre of the most populous black nation in Africa―Nigeria.

As a new comer in Lagos, first thing you notice on the overhead bridge at the entrance of Lagos, close to Berger a popular location in Lagos, is a boldly written inscription, ‘This Is Lagos, shine your eyes’.

The narrative behind the inscription is one that resets your brain to factory setting, making you conscious of every fly that dances ‘shaku shaku’ in your ear.

Bottom line is that in Lagos, you must always be on alert, because what you never bargained for might happen, else you get robbed or become a victim of ‘Pick-Pockets or One-Chance.

The city has a public transport bus known as Danfo. Danfo is a passenger bus that operates in Lagos and accommodates approximately 16 – 18 passengers.

They play an essential role in the lives of myriads of Lagosians by transporting them from location to location in the main metropolis.

So, I eventually arrived at my final bustop in Illaje— Ajah, my meeting point with Mr. Musairu who had agreed to share his ten-year experience with me as a Danfo driver, along with his personal conductor, Lukemon.

It was time to reel out questions to Mr. Musairu, but I had to exercise patience for him and his conductor to finish smoking a jumbo size marijuana with a bottle of ‘BabyOku’, a small concoction herbal drink.

Mr. Musairu  and Lukemon were set, after they were done with their smoking and drinking escapades. They walked towards me, hailing and chanting…’’ ‘Oga Journalist, oya make we do am ‘osha pra pra’.

Light, camera, action; Musairu started narrating his story in a cracked voice reddened with white unfiltered marijuana smoke gushing out slowly from his mouth.

‘’Na for Lagos mainland  wey dem born me and na where I grow up.’’

 ‘’Because my papa and mama no been fit send me go school, I come decide to do this Danfo business wey I dey drive passengers from morning to mid-night and till day break.’’

 ‘’I don dey involve for this Danfo business for ten years now and I don get plenty experience since I been start.’’

 ‘’Danfo transportation business na wetin I dey do to take help my family and take pay my children school fees.’’

‘’The kind life wey Danfo driver dey live be say we dey work so tey we no get rest just to make better money’’

‘’On a normal day, we dey wake up by 3am for morning to pick passengers for street wey dey rush to reach their office early.’’

‘’I don dey do this danfo bus business with so much passion and I dey obey the laws wey our union take give us, and I dey also pay my tax.’’

 ‘’The work wey we dey do, we no dey ever get rest at all, because we dey always dey for road to pick passengers.’’

 ‘’Sometimes, I dey imagine if danfo drivers no exist, how the middle class people for dey take survive for this Lagos.’’

‘’The fact be say, we the Danfo drivers dey run this Lagos round the clock, whether na for rainy season or dry season.’’

‘’On top 24 hours of the day, danfo drivers no dey sleep reach four hours, because we dey always dey for street dey hustle.’’

‘’Life as a Danfo driver no easy at all, we dey go through ugly experience for road, mad traffic for hours, agbero  seff dey attack us, and sometimes another bus fit jam our own bus.’’

‘’We dey help the life of thousands of people by transporting dem to their various locations every day.’’

‘’Las las, our own na to dey drive our Danfo for this Lagos and dat na like our contribution to the society.’’

Having listened to Mr. Musairu speak passionately about his experience as a danfo driver, I was really impressed by his submission.

He also made mentioned that sometimes; Lagosians treat them like they were nobody. "As you can see my boy Lukemon, na graduate oh! but people dey insult am because of their change, some small girls go talk to am anyhow, dem no no say, the guy go school sef, so na as him no find white collar job, na him come join danfo work".

This narrative sums up the positive routine of hustle these men pull through to put Lagos on the go.

However, he failed to mention their reckless lifestyle of smoking, drinking, patronizing 'Olosho' (popular word used in referring to prostitute in the street of Lagos), not going home to their wives and other activities that some of them who use their vehicles to steal from people on a One-Chance pick up.

I had dedicated my whole day for the documentary, so there was no rush to go back to mainland where I reside with my brother. I called a couple of my friends in Ajah, hunged out with them; because I wanted to go back home late in the night to see how these bus drivers and conductors conduct their activities in the night.

About 11:30pm, I told my friends I was ready to go back to mainland, they resisted me from leaving, stating the dangers involved. But, I insisted that I was on a mission of documenting this reports, and for this reason, they left me to my decision.

I boarded a ‘keke Marwa’ from their estate, headed to Illaje, to get a bus back to mainland. Behold, I met Mr. Musairu and Lukemon again at the park loading passengers. I quickly said hello to them, and they asked me to join the front seat.

"Oga, well-done oh! Una no close" I asked with curiosity written all over my face. He laughed and responded "no be you wey I tell for morning say we no dey sleep for this town, as you can see we still dey road dey hustle". But, he quickly added that this was his last turn. That on getting to Oshodi which will be his final bustop for the turn, he will be heading home.

It was about 11:56pm before we finally left Ajah heading to mainland. These men conducted their night routine with decorum, meekness and peace. From one bustop to another, they made passengers alight, and they also allowed others heading to their location to join them.

I arrived my house at Bariga about 12:45am that morning. The driver was pretty fast, compare to when I was heading to island in the day time where there was enough traffic to keep me for over 2hours on the road.

Like Mr. Musairu, a plethora of other Danfo drivers are daily proving, despite the stress of the hustle, how and why residents of Eko cannot do without them.

Imagine, if they decide to go on a strike for at least a day in Lagos. Well, this will keep Lagos on a stand still. The engine of movement will be on a total shutdown, leading to gnashing of teeth and the agony of trekking for Lagosians. A case similar to when Buhari recently visited Lagos to commission some projects.

On the summary, indeed the Lagos Danfo Drivers and Conductors really do much more than they have been appreciated to keep the city moving round the clock with transporting passengers from location to location within the metropolis.

SOURCE: www.agog.ng