LSTC

A good time to search for my "History of transportation in Lagos" write-up. Hope I can still find it.

^ ^ ^
That's an LMTS bus. Right at the junction. wonderful!

gbadexy: Seems the military government were proactive more than what we have now.

Well, you may be right on the fact that the military guys were proactive. However, I think the 'chains' of command of corruption wasn't as numerous as these days. Hence, the military had more funds for projects.

The main way of transporting from Ikorodu and Epe in the early days was through the waterways. We need to explore the flourishing ferry business. If proper safety measures are in place, the quickest way to get to Lagos remains via the waterways. There is a lot money spinning in that business: bigger than selling cocaine. We need more competition to force down prices and for government to dredge the Lagos lagoons

Jarus: What I have learnt from this thread:
1, How Lagosians coped pre-TMB
2, That Lagos Island was at a time the capital of Lagos state

Was there a Lagos state pre 1976? If yes who were the governors

Gowon created 12 states

Lagos State was created in 1967 (eve of civil war)

Mallam Musa Yar'Adua was Minister of FCT/Lagos Affairs in the 1st republic.

Major Mobolaji Johnson was administrator of Lagos during Ironsi's era

List of governors of Lagos







Brigadier Mobolaji Johnson 28 May 1967-July 1975 (military)

Commodore Adekunle Lawal[/b]July 1975-1977 (military)

[b]Commodore Ndubuisi Kanu 1977-July 1978 (military)

Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe July 1978-October 1979 (military)

Alhaji Lateef Jakande October 1979-December 1983 (Unity Party of Nigeria - UPN)

Air Commodore Gbolahan Mudasiru January 1984-1986 (military)

Navy Captain Mike Akhigbe 1986-July 1988 (military)

Brigadier General Raji Rasaki July 1988-January 1992 (military)

Sir Michael Otedola January 1992-November 1993 [National Republican Congress (NRC)]

Colonel Olagunsoye Oyinlola 9 December 1993-22 August 1996 (military)

Colonel Mohammed Buba Marwa 22 Aug 1996-29 May 1999 (military)

Mr Bola Tinubu 29 May 1999-29 May 2007(Action Congress)

Mr Babatunde Fashola 29 May 2007(Action Congress)

@naptu2
Bros I hail.

It's not complete, it's disjointed, but you'll get the gist of the story...the history of road transport in Lagos.

Really learnt some things here. Wish I was born in those days! Aarrgh!!

[size=14pt]History of road transport in Lagos[/size]


An important factor in providing transport facilities in Lagos state has always been the aquatic nature of the state. According to Adeniji A.O. “Lagos Island which covers a mere 1.55 sq. miles was a rather small piece of land. Yet, up to 1950, 65.4 percent of the population lived there. No doubt a contributory factor to this situation could be found in the lack of adequate transport facilities which would have encouraged people to live on the mainland and shuttle to the island daily for business. It should be noted that besides the small size of the island, many parts of it were also swampy or waterlogged”.


Boats therefore became an important means of transport in the area now known as Lagos. According to Kunle Lawal, “ scholars are now suggesting that boat making industry thrived in Lagos as a result of the availability of more durable wood supplied by her eastern neighbours”.


The situation changed with the commissioning of the Carter (1901), Eko (1975) and Third Mainland (1991) bridges which connect Lagos Island to Lagos Mainland. Road transport gained primacy as the most important means of transport in Lagos.


Ayodeji Olukoju, who contributed a piece called “Urban Transport” to “Nigerian Cities” edited by Toyin Falola and Steve Sahm, wrote that “the first commercial bus service was established in 1914 by Charlotte Olajumoke Obasa, a leading indigenous entrepreneur of that time.”
Damola Osinulu on his part writes that, “In the 1920s, road-based bus transportation was pioneered in Lagos by two Nigerians, W.A. Dawodu and Mrs. Charlotte Obasa. This was followed by the establishment of J.N. Zarpas, a company owned by Levantine expatriates. Zarpas dominated the Lagos transportation scene until their buses were acquired by the Lagos Town Council in 1958 to form the Lagos Municipal Transport Service”


Chinedu Ozordi and Olugbenro Adeoye state that“There was no significant change until the 1960s when many operators went into the transport business. This resulted in the emergence of the Bolekaja, which literally means “come down and let’s fight” in Yoruba. As there was never enough room in the packed vehicle for a decent sitting arrangement resulting often in fisticuffs; they would tell each other to “come down and let’s fight.” Bolekaja has since been phased out, and they are now used to carry foodstuff in rural communities”.
Yinka Aderibigbe states that “Molues, it was learnt, took over when government banned the use of Bolekaja, an average sized wood axial bus, which got its name from the manner passengers usually disembark. With only one wooden door at the back, passengers often had a hell of time entering and disembarking from the single exit point and conducting the bus from that position usually had its own problems, which often times led to free for all, making passengers to give the name bolekaja which means (disembark and let’s fight)”.



Yinka Aderibigbe further states that “Until the last one decade, they were the kings of Lagos roads. Those who have lived in the sprawling megacity for upwards of two decades hardly knew any other cheaper means of transportation. They are the moving yellow contraption known in the local parlance as Molue, the effervescent machine that hauls commuters from one part of the city to the other”.
Though many Lagosians are at a loss about the meaning or the etymology of the name, it is thought that Molue is the corruption of “Maul Him”, a description given to the vehicle by the city’s elite who are piqued by the incessant manner the large bodied buses tear clothes and even flesh of passengers while either entering or disembarking as they reach their destinations. Molues are kings of the roads. They are found everywhere, a private sector response to the yearning need for a safe means of mass transportation for the teeming population.


From Ojota to Ketu or Ikorodu and from there to Iddo, a major terminus made popular by the now comatose railway system, to Oyingbo, a bustling transportation haven to Oshodi, Costain, to Obalende, and from there to Apapa, then Orile, Iganmu to Mile 2 and further still to Okokomaiko, on the ever-busy Badagry highway and on the southern fringes of Iyana-Ipaja, Pen Cinema, Egbeda, to Idimu and Ijegun, and other emerging satellite towns of the state, such as Alimosho, the Lagos Molue at a time, captured the terrain, becoming an opium of the commuting masses.


So popular were these buses, that they at a time were printed on postcards and favoured as the face of a developing city state of Lagos.
From wherever you boarded them, a ride in a Molue was an admixture of fun and tears. There, you might be unlucky to have your pocket picked by one of the extremely smart street urchins regarded as area boys, who deliberately crowded the two entrances, making ingress and egress a headache to passengers.


There was no decency inside the Molue. After filling all the seats, the spill over passengers were made to hang on a rail in what was usually called ‘standing’ in the buses. Passengers were so tightly packed that they made nonsense of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s mimickery of their plight in the song, Suffering and Smiling.The air inside the Molue most times are stale, passengers have to cope with the body odours until fresh air permeates the vehicle. Most Molues don’t have windows and passengers have to sit on bare planks which are crudely welded to iron bars by local smithes. A ride inside Molue during the rain can spell disaster if a special outing is in view, as one may end up drenched.


Apart from the steering wheel, the dash boards of most Molues are often barren of any functioning gadgets, the drivers who are often boxed in with a wired mesh, could be found dripping with sweat as they battle with the steering wheel. With no view finder and side mirrors, the typical Molue driver relies on his mates, better known locally as bus conductors to marshal the roads, and these barks instructions to him intermittently.
"O wa legbe e o, (there is a vehicle by your side), Wole wa, (enter this side of the road), O nbo le (a passenger is dropping) or more lewd ones like; Wole pelu senji e o, (enter this bus with the correct fare), O loyun o ponmo o (this passenger, obviously a woman is pregnant and carrying a baby), are few of the jargons of the Molue conductor.
The driver is ever in a hurry. Apart from when it takes off from its major park, Molue never stops. Whether you are dropping off the vehicle or boarding, you have to develop a running feet, as you practically jump off, or rush in, on motion. This act which has become the archilles heels of many hapless commuters have somewhat become the defining mode of recognising who just migrated to Lagos and who is a resident.


The Molue could be a market too. Itinerant merchants often make a kill inside Molue, hawking all manners of wares from the usual drugs to the cure-all herbs that take care of a thousand ailments. Standing at one corner of the bus, the agent projects his voice by usually cupping his hands round his mouth, clears his/her throat and begins by assisting the passengers to call out the many bus stops along the routes, before leading the passengers into prayers which often he/she uses to hoodwink them before bringing out his or her wares. Molues are also a veritable ground for peripatetic preachers. Many young pastors used the Molue as sound bites, from where they work on their confidence to handle microphone and address larger audience in the Church. It could also be a leveler of sorts, a melting pot for the upcoming middle class usually in his razor sharp edged shirts and tie and their female counterpart in their skirt suits, mingling and struggling for space with the pepper retailers, and the mechanics in their grease-blackened aprons.


Because it carries more passengers, fares on Molue are often times cheaper than the smaller commuter buses.


Wale Adeduro recounts this little story “I had asked my father why the largely ugly commercial buses plying Obalende-Oshodi route were dubbed 'Molue' in Lagos. I think my reserved father explained that he was not sure of the origin of the tag 'Molue'. He however adduced a reason for the name. In his opinion the first batch of such vehicles were 911 models of Mercedes Benz trucks without carriers. Some welders in the outskirts of Lagos had the expertise of building cabins on such trucks. Through their efforts, they were able to convert the trucks to passenger vehicles. No thanks to the recklessness of 'Danfo' buses (smaller commuter buses especially the Volkwagen types) conductors on the converted buses often admonished their drivers to 'Molue' (a corruption of the word remould) the smaller buses when they obstruct the larger ones. From that moment on the term 'Molue' became associated with the big bully nature of the 911 model of commercial vehicles in urban Lagos”.


According to Okpi, Ozordi and Adeoye, “Molue and the Danfo buses, which rolled into Lagos in the seventies replaced “Bolekaja”. Molue is a Mercedes truck, which is reconstructed, locally, into a bus which seats about 44 passengers. The Danfo initially started with a Volkswagen model which seats only 12”.


According to Aderibigbe, “The journey to their extinction started some 10 years ago when the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration banned Molue buses from entering Victoria Island. Their operations were limited to Obalende or Falomo roundabout, their operations was replaced with the white painted small buses. With the commissioning of the BRT buses by the Fashola government on March 17, 2008, a more definite roadmap for the phasing out of this phase of the city’s major means of transportation began to take shape as government invited the National Union of Road Transport Workers of Nigeria (NURTW) to partner with it on the new face of Lagos transportation initiative”.



According to Ilevbare et al, “It was the second day of the Lagos State Ministry of Transport' launch of a new public transportation scheme. That scheme, by which private commercial bus operators were banned from plying the V.I and Ikoyi routes, is intended to sanitise traffic in these highbrow areas of Eti-Osa Local Government. But the new scheme offers no succour for commuters, particularly school children

The yellow and black private buses popularly refer to as Danfo , had from the previous day been barred from plying the roads of Ikoyi and Victoria Island by the state government. Scores of mobile policemen and officials of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA), were on hand at all entry points to the two neighbourhoods to prevent defiant drivers. Children and women went through untold hardship as they struggled for limited buses that were allowed by the new scheme to operate on those routes. The scenario could best be described as the biblical camel passing through the eye of a needle: a situation where close to five thousand commuters struggle to get seats in a bus that has provision for just 18”. “CMS Taxi and Motors Nigeria Limited (T&M), is the second carrier on those routes". The City Bus which has it's terminals at TBS, CMS/Outer Marina, Obalende and Femi Okunnu Housing Estate (Round About), also has major bus stops in Ikoyi and Victoria Island with different routes and their routes numbers.



According to Kekelola Oyebola "Conflicting claims have continued to trail the decision of the Lagos State government to replace the yellow commuter buses popularly called "danfo" by City Buses in Ikoyi and Victoria Island routes, even as the government has approved special commercial buses for Ajah residents.
The new buses are however, painted green and white as against the popular yellow and black. Feelers within the Ajah community showed that residents are yet to enjoy the benefits of this new transport system as investigation showed that most commuters are still often stranded at the various bus stops within the area.


It would be recalled that shortly after the announcement of the new policy by the Lagos government, a sizeable number of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) members went on rampage to registered their anger. “Efforts by to reach the spokesperson for Cross Country Ltd, owners of city buses to find out their future plans, and other measures put in place to ensure compliance from their drivers failed. He was said to be indisposed”.


According to Okpi et al, “The last time Gerald Onwuzurike visited Lagos was in 1998. Coming from the sleepy town of Okigwe, in Imo State, he was shocked at the frenzied lifestyle of Lagos residents. He has since come back to Lagos to stay for good, and he quickly joined the ever-swelling band of brothers called commercial auto bike (Okada) riders. Today, he is even more astonished at the sea of human beings who calmly wait on a queue for a BRT bus.


“This is an amazing sight,” he exclaimed in pidgin English. “Imagine Lagosians queuing up in an orderly manner. Such a sight was rare. This governor has really tried in providing this transport scheme that has been so popular.”


The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme, introduced by Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Agency (LAMATA), on 17 March, 2008 has been praised by stakeholders as a largely successful venture.
According to Okpi et al, “The scheme was launched on 17 March, 2008, with 100 buses. BRT operates as a transport system, which relies on the use of ‘dedicated lanes’ special traffic lanes to guarantee fast and reliable travel time for commuters. These lanes are usually segregated, thus enabling the buses to have the right of way in situations of traffic congestion. It flagged off with the Mile 12 - CMS route. It was planned by the Lagos state government and run by LAMATA.
“The Bus Rapid Transit system, launched for Lagos on March 17, 2008, successfully transported 9.7 million passengers in the first 100 days of operations,” said Dayo Mobereola, managing director of LAMATA, at a media forum last year”.

There weren't as many population then, as it is now.

pussy cat car

p ussy cat

dayokanu:
Was there a Lagos state pre 1976? If yes who were the governors

Gowon created 12 states

Have you seen the response up there?

Don't let 3rd mainland bridgeworks ruin travel plans.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMxlojLdjo4

Welcome Centre Hotels is only 5 mins drive from the Lagos Airport. Book online on www.welcomecentrehotels.com. Luxury hotel, leisure, wedding and conference venue.
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johnie: In the seventies, only the Carter(First) and Eko (Second) Bridges linked the Island with the mainland.

Carter bridge was constructed by the colonial government while the military ( I believe Gowon) built the Eko Bridge.

The odd and even number concept was adopted to reduce vehicular movement in the seventies. Odd-number vehicles could ply the major roads on particular days and even-number cars on the other days. Ojuelegba and Yaba were two major bottlenecks n those days. Fela's song Ojuelegba , was about the regular confusion at the place. Whenever we we were going to school and climbed the overhead bridge at Jibowu (from where we could clearly see the traffic situation at Yaba from a vantage position), my dad would remark Yaba O wo loni o! - meaning Yaba is messed up today.

In those days, people such as my parents had to have two cars -one even and the other odd numbered. My dad still advises me today to ensure that my cars are evenly spread between odd and even - just in case the number regime returns!


The Third Mainland Bridge was constructed by the Babangida government and was actually named after him (Ibrahim Babangida Boulevard) on completion. That name did not stick particularly because of the June 12 Saga which shortly followed the opening of the bridge. In the first phase of the project, Adeniji to Adekunle was done and open to traffic. When completed, the Adekunle-Oworo section of the bridge was not open to traffic for about six months.

Before the Adekunle-Oworo section was opened I was worked variously at Lagos Island and VI and would have to go through Adekunle to join Ikorodu road. That stretch from the Third Mainland Bride through Herbert Macaulay was hell. The traffic used to be very bad. Thank God that in those days, the incidence of robbery in the traffic hadn't started (at least I neither experienced nor heard of it).

That's how we used to "cope" then.

Bros! I hail. Thanks for the detailed history

johnie:
In the seventies, only the Carter(First) and Eko (Second) Bridges linked the Island with the mainland.

Carter bridge was constructed by the colonial government while the military ( I believe Gowon) built the Eko Bridge.

The odd and even number concept was adopted to reduce vehicular movement in the seventies. Odd-number vehicles could ply the major roads on particular days and even-number cars on the other days. Ojuelegba and Yaba were two major bottlenecks in those days. Fela's song Ojuelegba , was about the regular confusion at the place. Whenever we were going to school and climbed the overhead bridge at Jibowu (from where we could clearly see the traffic situation at Yaba), my dad would remark Yaba O wo loni o! - meaning Yaba is messed up today.

In those days, people such as my parents had to have two cars -one even and the other odd numbered. My dad still advises me today to ensure that my cars are evenly spread between odd and even - just in case the number regime returns!


The Third Mainland Bridge was constructed by the Babangida government and was actually named after him (Ibrahim Babangida Boulevard) on completion. That name did not stick particularly because of the June 12 Saga which shortly followed the opening of the bridge. In the first phase of the project, Adeniji to Adekunle was done and open to traffic. When completed, the Adekunle-Oworo section of the bridge was not open to traffic for about six months.

Before the Adekunle-Oworo section was opened, I worked variously at Lagos Island and VI and had to go through Adekunle to join Ikorodu road. That stretch from the Third Mainland Bride through Herbert Macaulay was hell. The traffic used to be very bad. Thank God that in those days, the incidence of robbery in the traffic hadn't started (at least I neither experienced nor heard of it).

That's how we used to "cope" then.

Respect to you man, you b real old school . There is some interesting post on third mainland bridge here http:///third-mainland-bridge-interesting-stuff-longest-bridge-nigeria/

In this interview, IBB tells the story of a seeming insult led him to complete the construction of the Third Mainland Bridge
http://www.tribuneonlineng.com/built-lagos-3rd-mainland-bridge-less-n1bn-ibb

Two hour stand-still in traffic. Most places of work were actually on Lagos Island not VI. After Udoji awards, every worker was buying cars and things became even worse.

naptu2:
A good time to search for my "History of transportation in Lagos" write-up. Hope I can still find it.

Someone liked my post from 2012 on this thread today.

That prompted me to read the whole thread again

One of the first people I took a liking to on Nairaland was someone who wrote and maintained a very detailed thread on transportation in Lagos (or Nigeria).

At the time, I paid no attention to the name of the person.

Naptu2, are you you the one?

If yes, please post the link to that thread here.

You did a wonderful job then just as you are doing now.

Only better!

johnie:

The odd and even number concept was adopted to reduce vehicular movement in the seventies. Odd-number vehicles could ply the major roads on particular days and even-number cars on the other days. Ojuelegba and Yaba were two major bottlenecks in those days. Fela's song Ojuelegba , was about the regular confusion at the place. Whenever we were going to school and climbed the overhead bridge at Jibowu (from where we could clearly see the traffic situation at Yaba), my dad would remark Yaba O wo loni o! - meaning Yaba is messed up today.

In those days, people such as my parents had to have two cars -one even and the other odd numbered. My dad still advises me today to ensure that my cars are evenly spread between odd and even - just in case the number regime returns!

I just checked the date of this post and realised that my dad died just six weeks after the post was made.

I still miss you dad.

johnie:


Someone liked my post from 2012 on this thread today.

That prompted me to read the whole thread again

One of the first people I took a liking to on Nairaland was someone who wrote and maintained a very detailed thread on transportation in Lagos (or Nigeria).

At the time, I paid no attention to the name of the person.

Naptu2, are you you the one?

If yes, please post the link to that thread here.

You did a wonderful job then just as you are doing now.

Only better!

This one? Unfortunately most of the links to the pictures are broken, but I can try and restore them when I get home.

https://www.nairaland.com/1218704/history-public-transportation-lagos

naptu2:


This one? Unfortunately most of the links to the pictures are broken, but I can try and restore them when I get home.

https://www.nairaland.com/1218704/history-public-transportation-lagos

Aha!

That's the one.

The picture of the tram is one I cannot forget.

Please restore the pictures.

I skimmed through the thread just now.

I couldn't help laughing as I read about:

1. Jarus story about his family patriarch whose bicycle was stolen in 1945

2. The post about the person who had her dress soiled with pepper on a molue

3. The father of the late FRA Williams who rode the trains daily just for the fun of it.

Great thread!

johnie:


Aha!

That's the one.

The picture of the tram is one I cannot forget.

Please restore the pictures.

I skimmed through the thread just now.

I couldn't help laughing as I read about:

1. Jarus story about his family patriarch whose bicycle was stolen in 1945

2. The post about the person who had her dress soiled with pepper on a molue

3. The father of the late FRA Williams who rode the trains daily just for the fun of it.

Great thread!

Almost done.

lol

denzel2009:
I remember I used to swim from Obalende to Ebute Metta before the bridge was constructed.

Good thread