i
OPATA, CHRISTIAN CHUKWUMA
PG/PhD/00/32228
PG/M. Sc/09/51723
NIGHT-TIME ROAD TRANSPORTATION IN NIGERIA AS
AN ASPECT OF IGBO ENTREPRENEURSHIP, 1970-2000
OF HISTORY AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND INTERNATIONAL
STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA
Webmaster
Digitally Signed by Webmaster’s Name
DN : CN = Webmaster’s name O= University of Nigeria, Nsukka
OU = Innovation Centre
JULY, 2012
ii
NIGHT-TIME ROAD TRANSPORTATION IN NIGERIA AS AN ASPECT OF
IGBO ENTREPRENEURSHIP, 1970-2000
BY
OPATA, CHRISTIAN CHUKWUMA
PG/PhD/00/32228
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND INTERNATIONAL
STUDIES,
UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA
JULY 2012
DEDICATION
To all
iii
Road Transport Service Providers of Igbo extraction for their ability to confront the
challenges in the road transport sector of the Nigerian economy after the Nigerian
Civil War through their night-time services
and to my late parents,
Edoga Ugwuja Opata and Ogbungwaja Opata (Nee Igwe),
even as they could not stay alive to see the end of this exercise. Their constant
reminder in proverbial terms that it is delayed like a sad night that refuses to brake
was taken note of.
iv
ABSTRACT
Generalization has never been part of historical reconstruction. Little wonder,
historians always insist on specifics. Incidentally, there are many notions about the
Igbo and their spirit of enterprise that have not transcended the borders of
generalization. One of such notions has to do with the Igbo dominance of the nation‟s
road transport industry especially as it concerns passenger services and night-time
road transportation. The present study is aimed at interrogating some of the notions
about the Igbo spirit of enterprise in the road transport sector. Of particular
importance to this study are: why are the Igbo the major transport providers in night-
time passenger services and what accounts for their being the greatest patronizers of
night-time road transport industry in terms of generation of passengers? How did the
industry begin and why? How had it faired over time and what had been its
contribution to the nation‟s economy? Bearing in mind the recent calls for the
abrogation of night-time road transport, is the call based on any quantifiable records
or are such calls part of the speculations? For a nation where it has become a norm for
those in authority to pontificate on national issues without facts to back their bold
claims, answers to these questions would help in economic planning.
v
CERTIFICATION
The Board of Examiners declares as follows:
That OPATA, Christian Chukwuma, a postgraduate student in the Department of
History and International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, with Registration
Number PG/PhD/00/32228, has successfully fulfilled the requirements for the award
of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economic History.
The work embodied in this thesis is original and has not been submitted in part or in
full, for any other diploma or degree of this or any other university.
-------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------
--------------
Professor O.N.Njoku Date
Supervisor
-------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
--------------
Internal Examiner Date
------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------
-------------
External Examiner Date
---------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------
-------------
Head of Department Date
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I must state that no level of written appreciation is enough to thank all the people that
made this work come true because words do not represent the mind in most cases.
One can be sad but could fake a smile and write very poetic verses to pretend he is
happy. In my own case, my constraint is anchored on the fact that even as an adult; I
was still treated like a new born baby by many. The list would be so long that it would
be difficult to mention all. I shall first start with my late parents especially my father
who humbled me with his knowledge of nocturnal transport in Nsukka and Igbo
notions about night. Also worthy of mention is the admonition he gave me when I told
him the title of my research. “Nwa M, maru amaru, n‟Onye n‟ejekwu uchichi n‟apa
utukpe”. . This translates as “My son, be it known to you that he who goes to the
night must have a lamp”- a subtle way of telling me that I must scrutinize the
information I got from people. He went on to add that he said so because “O tiri aku
egboghi ikekere amagwoo n‟eha ya kwu n‟mkpume”. This means that he who cracks
palm kernel and did not remove the shells from the scene of cracking left his name on
the stone the cracking was done on – a way of telling me to plug my arguments.
My special thanks go to the entire members of the Opata family for their
support. Even in a multitude there is always an outstanding. Prof. D.U.Opata not only
mentored me academically, he literarily went hungry and on many occasions “wept”
because he wanted me to toe his line. To him I say Ekwa kele gi.
I owe a huge depth of gratitude to my Supervisor, Prof. O.N.Njoku. He not
only suggested the title of this thesis while we were in a motor cab on our way for the
American Studies Association Conference held at Pioneer Hotels Abuja in 2003 but
read through the manuscripts and allowed me to drink from his fountain of wisdom,
humility, zeal and candour. More humbling is the fact that he was not discouraged
from supervising me even when the University failed to pay for his services.
vii
Throughout the research, the staff members of the department of History and
International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka were of much help. Prof. Okoro
Ijoma would always ask if I wanted him to hear the result of my work from his village
and urged me to speed up the process. The same level of concern was shown by Prof.
U.C Anyanwu, Dr. P.O.Obi-Ani, Prof. P.O.Esedebe , and Mr. J.O.Ahazuem. Dr.
Uchendu even took the pains of calling my attention too a news paper article that
formed part of my sources. My other contemporaries in the Department were of
immense help. Some like Dr Apeh, A.A, Ihediwa, C.N, were always ready to share
ideas with me on the work. Drs.O.C.Eze and J.O.Eze, Amechi C always drew my
attention to the length of time I had spent on the programme.To all of them I say
thanks. To Agu C.S, I say remain oyongolo oyongolo.
I am equally indebted to my informants for their level of understanding.
Special thanks go to Late Chief A.E.Ilodibe of Ekene Dili Chukwu fame who through
the consent of his transport manager(Felix) granted me interview when his company
was after a big contract with Nigerian Breweries. Late Chief James Ogbonna Mamah
also gave useful insights to me. To them and others I remain indebted. The staff and
management of National Archives‟ Enugu, University of Nigeria, Nsukka Library,
University of Lagos Library, Department of Transport Management Technology
Owerri, University of Ife, Benin and Ibadan Libraries were very hospitable.
To my wife and children, I thank them for tolerating my long absence from
home during the period used in writing this work.
viii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ABC-------------------------------------------------------------------Associated Bus
Company
ENTRACO------------------------------------------------------------Enugu transport
Company
FUMTP-------------------------------------------------Federal Urban Mass Transit
Programme
GDP---------------------------------------------------------------Gross Domestic Product
ITC---------------------------------------------------------------------Imo Transport
Corporation
NAE-----------------------------------------------------------------------National Archives
Enugu
NAL----------------------------------------------------------------------Nigerian Airways
Limited
NNSL------------------------------------------------------------Nigerian National Shipping
Line
NURTW--------------------------------------------National Union of Road Transport
Workers
NWDAC---------------------------------------National War Damages Assessment
Committee
OTS-----------------------------------------------------------------Out Look Transport
Service
UTC------------------------------------------------------------------Union Trading Company
VIO-------------------------------------------------------------------Vehicle Inspection
Officer
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------ii
Abstract: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------iii
Certification: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iv
Acknowledgements: ------------------------------------------------------- -------------- v-vi
List of Abbreviations: --------------------------------------------------------------- vii
Chapter One: Introduction------------------------------------------------ 1-
27
Background to the Study: ----------------------------------------------------------1-5
Definition of Concepts: -------------------------------------------------------------6-8
Theoretical Framework: ------------------------------------------------------------8-12
Statement of Problem: -------------------------------------------------------------13-13
Purpose and Relevance of Study: -------------------------------------------------13-14
Review of Literature: ---------------------------------------------------------------15-18
Scope of Study: ----------------------------------------------------------------------18-19
Sources and Methodology: ---------------------------------------------------------19-21
Organization of Study: ---------------------------------------------------------------21-22
Notes and References: ----------------------------------------------------------------23-28
Chapter Two: Antecedents to the Rise of Night-Time Road
Transport in Igboland up to 1960----------------------------------------------
-------------29-55
Geography of Igboland and the Promotion of Nocturnal Commerce-------- ---------29-
31
Igbo Notions About Night: --------------------------------------------------------------31-33
x
Traditional Igbo Economy and the Promotion of Nocturnal Commerce----------33-38
Development of Mechanized Transport and Night Commerce in Igboland
up to 1960----------------------------------------------------------------------------------38-50
Notes and References: ---------------------------------------------------------------------51-55
Chapter Three: Early Beginnings of Night-Time Road
Transportation, 1961-1969-----------------------------------------------56-72
Government Initiative: ---------------------------------------------------------------------57-
62
Private Sector Involvement: ---------------------------------------------------------------62-
69
Notes and References: ---------------------------------------------------------------------70-72
Chapter Four: The Situation in Post-Civil War Igboland, 1970-1988--73-
99
Condition of Roads and Communication Facilities in Immediate Post-Civil War
Igboland: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------73-
76
Government and Private Sector Intercessions up to 1976----------------------------76-83
The 1976 State Creation Exercise and the Rise in Night-Time Road Transportation in
Igboland to 1988: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------83-
95
Notes and References: -----------------------------------------------------------------------96-
99
Chapter Five: The Era of Government Sponsored Mass Transit
Scheme, 1988-1993---------------------------------------------------------100-
126
Rationale for the Scheme: ----------------------------------------------------------------100-
102
xi
Night-Time Road Transportation under the Scheme: --------------------------------103-
113
Decline of The Mass Transit Programme: ----------------------------------------------113-
122
Notes and References: ---------------------------------------------------------------------123-
126
Chapter Six: The Era of Private Operators, 1993-200------------127-
150
The Rise of Private Operators: -----------------------------------------------------------127-
130
Consumers‟ Response and the Rise of Competition-----------------------------------130-
132
Changes in Organizational Strategies: --------------------------------------------------132-
138
Benefits of the Changes/ Innovations on the Economy: -------------------------- ---138-
148
Notes and References: ---------------------------------------------------------------------149-
150
Chapter Seven: Night-Time Road Transport and Night-Life in
Selected Igbo Communities------------------------------------------------------
----151-170
Commercial Activities: ---------------------------------------------------------------------152-
160
Social Activities: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------161-
162
Crime and Changes in Value Systems: ---------------------------------------------------163-
168
Notes and References: ----------------------------------------------------------------------169-
170
xii
Chapter Eight: Summary and Conclusion --------------------------171-
189
Notes and References: --------------------------------------------------------------------188-
189
Bibliography: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------190-
208
xiii
xiv
xv
xvi
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
The history of motor vehicle transport in Nigeria dates back to 1906; the year the first
motorable road in Nigeria was built. The road was designed to link Ibadan and Oyo as
an adjunct to the railway, not as an autonomous means of transportation. Accordingly,
with the birth of this road, a railway-operated transport service was floated to connect
the railway. When in 1914, Nigeria was born the country had about 3,200 kilometers
[km] of motorable road1. As the number of motorable roads grew, more vehicles
were imported to service Nigerians. With time motor vehicle transportation began
gradually to exert its independence of the railway. By 1950, there were about 1,017
private motor transport owners in Northern Nigeria alone. As the number of transport
operators grew, so did the number of vehicles. Between 1957 and 1967, the number
of licesensed motor vehicles grew from 39,000 to 100, 7522. Human population per
vehicle decreased from 851 to 556 between 1957 and 19643.
The gross inadequacy of motor vehicles led the government of Eastern Nigeria
to float a transport company that would complement the efforts of existing privately
owned vehicles. The company was named Outlook Transport Service [OTS]. OTS
embarked on night-time services right from inception in 1961 as a quick response to
the paucity of vehicles.4
OTS serviced passengers travelling from Enugu to Owerri
and Aba at night. It took-off from Enugu daily around 10pm, except on Saturdays.
Even as the government of Eastern Nigeria sought to improve the transportation
problems of its region, Eastern Nigeria had the least number of vehicles servicing its
xvii
citizens5.
OTS was operational till the civil war broke out in 1967. When the war
ended in 1970, human population per vehicle averaged two [2] vehicles for every
1,000 persons in Nigeria6. The intention of the federal government to address the
problem of dearth of vehicles through the importation of more vehicles was delayed
by insufficiency of foreign exchange7. For both passengers and road transport
operators in Igbo land, the delay meant increased hardship. This was because most of
the vehicles operating in the East were old and lacked maintenance. Spare parts were
scare due to war-time economic blockade. The roads were bad due to neglect and
intentional damages done to them during the war.
The Red Cross came to the aid of the Easterners by donating twenty-four [24]
vehicles to the East Central State Rehabilitation Committee in 19708. The government
of East Central State on its part established the Oriental Line Limited to ``provide the
much needed transport assistance to the people just returning from the Nigerian civil
war”9.
Originally, all the services of Oriental Line were limited to East Central State.
By 1975, the Line had offices in Lagos, Jos and Asaba. Within the state, it maintained
intercity stations at Aba, Onitsha, Umuahia, Owerri and Nsukka. This outfit became
extinct in 1976 following the creation of Imo and Anambra States from the former
East Central State, as the new states shared the assets and liabilities of their `parent‟
state. Oriental Line offered night-time road transport services10
.
Each of the new states floated its own transport company. While Anambra
established Anambra State Transport Corporation [TRACAS], Imo state established
Imo Transport Corporation [ITC]. These companies engaged and still engage in not
only day-time services but also night-time services which they still operate. By 1977,
a year after the demise of Oriental Line and the emergence of TRACAS and ITC there
were 69,292 commercial vehicles in Nigeria but by the end of 1979, the number of
xviii
commercial vehicles in the nation had declined to 29, 382 from the 1977 figure11
.
Federal Government intervention led to increase in the number of vehicles but the
tempo was not sustained. Under the Third National Development Plan [1975-80], the
Federal government planned to assemble commercial vehicles locally in Nigeria. The
result of this arrangement was not manifest until in the 1980s.From 29,382 vehicles in
1977, the number rose to about 700,000 during the 1983-84 periods. The number,
however, declined to under 500,000 by 1987due to the harsh economic conditions the
nation saw itself under the second republic‟s austerity measures and the consequences
of the structural adjustment program12
.
From being subservient to the railway, road transportation had gone on to occupy
a central place in Nigerian economy, accounting for 60.5% of goods evacuated to the
seaports by 1987. This was against 3.1% for the railway, 20.3% for water
transportation, and 16.2% for other modes of transport13
. Noticing the demand on the
road transport sector, the Federal government in 1988 bought 939 buses, some spare
parts and workshop equipment which it disbursed to states and labor unions. With this
latter exercise, the Federal Mass Transit Scheme was born. The said scheme was
designed to cushion the transport predicament of the nation, especially in the urban
centres14
. By 1990, there were 2,500 buses designated as Federal Mass Transit (FMT)
buses nationwide. By 1992, the number had risen to 4,500 15
.
Due to many factors,
16 by 1993, the Federal Mass Transit Scheme had all but
died. Unfortunately, as the scheme ``died” inflation increased from 5.4% in 1986 to
57.2% in 199317.
With the failure of the FMT Scheme and the inflationary trend in the
nation‟s economy, the burden of providing road transport services fell almost entirely
on the private sector. In response to the enormity of the burden, many private
transport companies began to engage in night-time road transport services. For
xix
instance, Ifesinachi Transport Company began night operations in 199418
. As night-
time road transport services gradually became fashionable for various reasons, road
transport operators changed their operational strategies. Companies like Ekene Dili
Chukwu and Chisco created separate sections or departments for passengers and
freight. Police escort was introduced to ensure the security of passengers and their
goods. Some companies built private parks and workshops. Others employed more
workers and alternated their duty hours.
It is instructive that by 1993 when the private sector began to dominate the road
transport sector, using mostly luxury buses, the cost of a luxury bus stood at
N3million. This was to rise to N17 million by 1997; a jump of over 400%. By 2000,
the price rose to about N40million19
. Worse still, the depreciating value of the
nation‟s currency made the cost of vehicles and spare parts prohibitive. In the face of
these adversities, the poverty level in the nation kept rising. In 1996, it was estimated
that 65.6% of Nigerians were living in poverty. This translates to 67.1 million
Nigerians. By 1999, the poverty level had climbed to 70%20
.As the operational costs
of vehicles increased, transport operators soon realized that maintenance costs were
higher for vehicles that operated during the day than those that operated at night
only. One reason is that many rush hours are witnessed during the day, but hardly
exists at night. Evidence from a study done in the United States of America, 21
indicates that driving at rush hours consume unduly high amount of energy (fuel) and
time. This should be no surprise since rush hours are associated with traffic hold-ups
and very slow movement of vehicles. This fact was not lost on Nigerian long distance
commercial drivers especially. To attain energy efficiency and reduce the delays
during rush hours, some drivers and passengers adjusted their departure time in favor
of night.
xx
In time, the phenomenon of night-time road transportation became
fashionable. The reasons for this include, increasing poverty level,drivers demand for
energy efficiency and conservation of fuel, the desire by passengers and drivers to
avert delays experiencedduring the day at police check points and some other factors.
Notwithstanding its attractions, the business of nocturnal road transportation in
Nigeria has been bedeviled by many factors such as armed robbery attacks on night-
time passengers, road accidents, poor rescue operations etc. A careful appraisal of the
arguments for and against nocturnal road transport, however suggests that the pros
outweigh the cons.
First, night travels by road are patronized mostly by low-income and middle-
income business people (the backbone of the nation‟s economy, especially from the
labor force perspective). This implies that a ban on night-time road transport, as is
being canvassed in some quarters, could lead to economic hardship and do more harm
than good to the economy. Also, night travel reduces man-hour losses associated with
day-time traffic hold-ups. In terms of income generation, transport operators posit that
night-time operations generate more income than day-time operations22
. Traders also
argue that it is more convenient and cheaper to travel at night, as man-hour losses,
costs of accommodation in hotels are sometimes avoided. In the distribution of easily
perishable agricultural products, night-time road transport appears to be more suitable
and apt than day-time transport by road. This is because such products deteriorate in
quality quicker as a result of excessive heat in the day. To buttress this assertion, out
of the 16 truckload of yams that came into Ogige market, Nsukka between July 13
and August 15, 2004, 13 of the trucks took-off from their points of loading at night.23
xxi
DEFINITION OF CONCEPTS
Transportation
The meaning and the usage of the term ``transportation” has attracted the attention of
many scholars and commentators. Quite often, some conflict the function of
transportation with the meaning. This confusion stems from the fact that some of the
definitions of transportation are derived from the use to which transportation is put.
For instance, Harold Barger once posited that the definition of transportation
industries should be confined to enterprises actually producing transport services but
businesses manufacturing transport equipment or operating garages or filling stations
should be excluded24
. Be that as it may, what is obvious is that the author is of the
view that transportation is concerned with the provision of services. Dudley F.
Pegrum defines transportation as that aspect of economic activity, which provides for
the carriage of persons or things from one place to another. He argues that transport
generally involves both public and private interests in some way or another and it may
relate to either production or consumption 25
. From this definition, it is clear that
transportation as a service industry is open to both the public and private sector
operators. Both are concerned with the movement of good and services. While
concurring with the view that transportation has to do with movement of peoples‟ and
goods. R.W. Faulks insists that the essence of such movement(s) is to add more value
to such goods and services26
.
Benson and Whitehead see transportation as that crucial aspect of economic
activity that centers on increasing human satisfaction by changing the geographical
position of goods, people and services27
. Arguing in line with Benson and Whitehead,
J.C Anyanwu et.al opines that transportation is the process of conveying goods and
people from place to place28
. All these definitions tend to neglect the central economic
xxii
theme of demand and supply which transportation has a big role to play in. Equally,
they do not state how and through which means the movement is achieved. However,
the present researcher persuaded by the views of O.N Njoku who argues that the
primary function of transportation of goods and services is to move them from
locations of low marginal utility (surplus production/supply) to points/areas of high
marginal utility (i.e. high demand/ deficit supply) 29
.Thus, as an economic activity,
transportation has to do with the spatial relocation of goods and services either
manually or through automated devices. In the road transport sector, such devices
include head porterage, donkeys, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, lorries and buses of
various sizes.
Entrepreneurship
There seems to be many definitions of entrepreneurship, as there are scholars. Richard
Cantillon, regarded as one of the early scholars in the field, argues that
entrepreneurship involves risk taking30
. Joseph Schumpeter argues that
entrepreneurship has to do with innovations, and avers that the function of the
entrepreneur is to reform or revolutionize the pattern of production by exploiting an
invention. He may also use untried technological method of producing an old one in a
new way. The entrepreneur can also open a new source of supply of raw materials or
a new outlet for products by organizing a new industry31
.
Robert C. Ronstadt sees entrepreneurship as a dynamic process of creating
incremental wealth. Such wealth, he argues, is created by individuals who assume the
main risks in terms of equity, time and/ or career commitment or provide value for
some products or services. The product or service may or may not be necessarily new
xxiii
or unique, but value must somehow be infused by the entrepreneur by receiving and
locating the necessary skill and resources32
.
Implicit in the above definition is the notion that entrepreneurship entails the
ability to perceive, recognize and exploit an opportunity which others fail to recognize
and take advantage of. Thus, an entrepreneur is one who has the knack/ability to
perceive new possibilities/ niches others fail to perceive and the boldness to take up
the challenge (with all the risk involved).
Theoretical Framework
In the past, historians tended to shy away from theories/concepts in dealing with their
subjects of research. Not any more: the use of theories as basis for historical
explanation has become fashionable and valid, particularly as inter-disciplinarity
becomes the vogue. It therefore follows that any theory to be adopted for this exercise
must establish the nexus between the emergence of night-time road vehicular
transport and Igbo entrepreneurship. For the latter to be done, the pattern of economic
organization among the Igbo which is better understood in the context of their socio-
political organization is necessary. More so, the economy represents a matrix of
interrelationships of the social, political and economic organization of life of a people.
The theory that fits into this discourse is the adversity theory. This theory
propounded by a famous British historian, Arnold J Toynbee, states that “conditions
of hardship and adversity begets change as they constitute a challenge which not only
stimulates men to respond to it by trying to overcome it, but in doing so generate
energy for new achievements”33
. This theory is otherwise known as challenge and
response theory. It is instructive that this theory is taken to have universal
applicability. Yet, earlier Eurocentric views of African societies were wont to assume
xxiv
the absence of the capacity to respond to such challenges in Africa- the Hamitic
perspective. For the Igbo spirit of enterprise, the Hamitic myth is baseless.
The central element in the characterization of the Igbo is that they are highly
individualistic, and extremely enterprising. These qualities mix equally in striking
degree of tolerance and gregariousness34
.These attributes enable the Igbo to cooperate
and live peacefully in the most populated area of Negro Africa. Igbo drive and spirit
of enterprise is to a large extent anchored on their political and social system which is
regarded as ``stateless”. The economic underpinning of this socio-political
arrangement lies in the high level of economic dependence, with the family as the
basic social and economic unit35
. Ottenberg has rightly observed that among the Igbo,
while a man is dependent on his family, lineage and residential groups for support and
backing, strong emphasis is placed on his ability to make his own way in the world36
.
The above observation by Ottenberg is a clear indication that the Igbo place
more emphasis on individual achievement. This is attested to by the saying among the
Nsukka Igbo that runs thus: Onye ehu ji ndi onwere aba mba, kedu ihe obu nke ya?
i.e “has the lazy or a weakling who pride in his relations asked himself what he is”.
``What he is” is metaphorical and represents what the individual achieved in society
as an individual. This aphorism must have prompted E.N Onwu to posit that the Igbo
man is aware that he is not judged by what his father or relations have but rather by
what he is able to achieve by himself37
. This achievement orientation of the Igbo may
be said to be part of their history. The history of Igbo origin as legend has it that the
word ``Igbo” means ``forest-dwellers”38
. Living in the forest meant interaction with
dangerous animals and becoming farmers. This condition of an unfriendly
environment led the Igbo to have a concept of man based on achievement. Thus, in
the words of D.I. Nwoga, the most prominent aspect of Igbo concept of man is that of
xxv
a struggler for survival, a hard and determined person in confrontation with the
environment to force out of it a means of sustenance 39
.
To make the best out of their environment, the Igbo through the age grade
system encouraged competition and the spirit of entrepreneurship. The Igbo notion of
competition as an economic activity is best illustrated by their aphorism that sees the
world as a market. Thus, uwa bu ahia, onye zucha olaba implies that the Igbo see the
market as a metaphor for existence. As markets are organized around profit and loss,
competition is a must. Success in any enterprise requires that the competitors should
have special skills, talents and will to be in a position to predict and invest aright.
Little wonder the Igbo begin early in life to introduce their children into
competitions that are economic oriented. For instance, among the Ohafia people,
children were thaught how to accumulate wealth through a game that involved the
shooting of arrows at the stem of cocoyam placed at a distance.The child whose
arrow(s) got the target would take the arrow of the others whose arrows missed the
target. With this some children would accumulate many arrows while others had
none, having lost theirs to the master shooter40
. A similar scenario exists in Lejja. In
the Lejja example, children who fetch(ed) fodder for the ruminants engaged and still
engage in what they call Itǘ Egbaa. They used their sickle in the contest. Before the
contest began, they always had some quantity of the fodder kept aside by each of the
contenders. When one threw his sickle and the tip of the metal blade is firmly buried
in the soil with the handle lying on the soil surface, he is adjuged to have won and is
authorized to apprioprate any of the fodders used in the game. Where another threw
and his fell in a reverse position, he lost his chance. In some cases, some contenders
went home without winning41
. The drive for achivement among the Igbo is equally
seen in their religious belief. The deification of the iconography of the right hand in
xxvi
Ikenga (the Igbo personal god of fortune) speaks volume of how achievement
motivation is enshrined in Igbo culture. It goes without saying that the urge to achieve
is anchored on the benefits that are associated with achievements. For instance, the
quest for titles among the Igbo is very high. Titles like the Ozor placed one on high
social ranking among his peers and the title holder is exempt from some public work
as a mark of respect. The holder would always pride himself as a successful man.The
issue of pride as a motivating factor for achievement among the Igbo caught the
attention of G.T.Basden who observes that; pride is one of the outstanding traits of the
Ibos; indeed in some cases, there are obvious signs of a superiority complex expressed
by men in striving for titular rank, and their arrogance when they have attained it42
.
For the Igbo, their adoption of night-time road transportation in reaction to their
economic predicaments is in tandem with Toynbee‟s relative deprivation theory
(which is an aspect of his larger challenge and response theory). Stories abound to
show that the Igbo were not receptive to vehicular transportation in the early 1920s.
Among the long distant traders from Nike in Enugu State, Okoh Nwamba is
remembered for his opposition to the use of vehicles on the grounds that the odor of
petrol made him vomit the first day he entered it from Enugu to Eke Imoha in
Abakiliki43
. In the Bende area of Abia state, the Igbere, who were known to be
professional porters were opposed to the use of vehicles on the grounds that it kept
them out of business. It was in a bid to cajole the Igbere that the now popular saying-
oji ukwu eje Aba- among the Igbo used in referring to those that trek long distances
took its root 44
. Ugwu Nnamani of Umuoda village, Lejja in Nsukka Local
Government Area, took to traveling on foot even when Okonkwo Ugwoke of Echara
village Nsukka popularly known as Oyi Umuaka used his lorry to serve passengers
from his town that went as far as Adani45
. His reason was that travelling by cars made
xxvii
the legs weak. To use his own words ``iji moto je ije n‟ekwuyi mmadu unu n‟ukwu” i.e
travelling in motor vehicles makes the legs feel like salt is packed into its marrows.
Many factors combined to force the Igbo to embrace the use of vehicular transport
and to adopt night-time road transportation. First, Igbo land is the most densely
populated area in Nigeria 46.
Based on population pressure, there is too much pressure
on available land due to over cultivation, erosion and other human activities. These
factors forced the Igbo to look for source of living outside their immediate
environment. Even as they left their homes, they were seen as social misfits in various
towns in Nigeria, especially after the Nigerian civil war that occasioned mass poverty
on them. Worse still, the bad state of roads in Igbo land is adjudged the worst in
Nigeria47
. Basically, most Igbo people are into businesses that are small scale and
involve buying and selling even when they do not have shops to store their goods.
This forced them to take to buying from distant markets during the day, traveling all
through the night and meeting their local markets in session during the day. This
arrangement which encouraged nocturnal road transport offered them the opportunity
to trade even where they had no lock up shops.
However, one may ask wyh is it that the Igbo took mainly to road transport
even where rail transport existed. The truth is that greater parts of Igboland were not
served by rail transport. Those who had rail services had to make use of road transport
to evacuate their goods to the rail stations where were they carried by rail to urban
centres where the demand for such goods were high. Equally, many parts of Igboland
were not served by navigable waters. This made water transportation a less option for
the Igbo.
xxviii
Statement of the Problem
For over eight decades, Nigerians have been making use of vehicular road transport.
During the First Republic, night-time road transportation existed in Eastern Nigeria as
a deliberate government policy. Since the end of the civil war in 1970, night travels
by road have become increasingly fashionable for a variety of reasons and the Igbo
have continued to hold sway in this business either as service providers or as
``consumers‟ of the service.
Incidentally, many Nigerians-some of high profile and opinion leaders- have
vehemently condemned road transportation by night and have called for its ban48
. As
would be expected, many Nigerians tend to hymn the opinions of such persons,
assuming such opinions to be authoritative. The truth though is that such opinions
have been based more on emotion than substance. The question then is; is night
transport by road as dangerous and unproductive as some commenters have
canvassed? Is it not imperative that proper research should be conducted into this
matter before we can pontificate on it?
Purpose and Relevance of Study
This work is aimed at studying the origin, nature, organization, importance and
problems of night-time road transport as an aspect of Igbo entrepreneurship in
Nigeria. Over the years, scholars of transportation in Nigeria have not paid serious
attention to this aspect of our national life in spite of its growing importance to the
nation‟s economy.
Against this backdrop, this study has a number of objectives. Cardinal among
them is the need to fill a gap in road transport literature in Nigeria. The second is to
provide stakeholders with a working document which, it is hoped, would save
xxix
Nigerians from ``planning without facts”, for, as Rosalind Ferguson warned, `` he that
would know what shall be, must consider what has been” 49
. The study is also aimed
at expanding the frontiers of Igbo studies. Equally important to this study is the
assessment of the effect of night-time road transport and other businesses associated
with it on the economy of some selected Igbo communities. This will be achieved by
studying some Igbo communities that generate heavy traffic at night either as take-off,
transit or terminal stations.
The relevance of this study can be discerned from a variety of angles. As
attention of previous scholars of transportation in Nigeria has focused on areas other
than night-time road transport, the present endeavour would open a new discourse in
the study of transportation in Nigeria. Such a discourse would contribute towards
unearthing the enterprises of some unsung Igbo heroes and captains of industry. For
scholars interested in the study of people‟s response to adversity (imposed by nature
and man), this study is of importance, especially for those interested in the economic
dimensions of the subject. To those who wish to investigate the claims that the Igbo
by their contribution to the economic development of Nigeria are otherwise called ``
The Jews of Nigeria”50
, this work can serve as a reference material.
This work is expected to guide road users at night on how to locate transit
stations, take-off and terminal stations by noting their features. For a nation where
poverty is on the increase, knowing how to combat poverty through efficient time
management as emphasized in night-time road transportation is an advantage. More
importantly, it is hoped that as a pioneer study, it will generate a lot of attention,
which will help to extend and enrich our knowledge of Igbo enterprise. Such
knowledge would be of benefit to night transport service providers as it would offer
varied views; an amalgam of which would help them improve their services.
xxx
Review of Literature
Much has been written on the history of transportation in Nigeria and on road
transport in particular. Such works provide very useful background information for
researchers on road transport. While some of the works offer us definitions of
transport, 51
others stress its importance52
; some of the writers have been preoccupied
with the role of transportation in economic development53
; some others show how
government had spent huge sums of money on road transport54
. Most of these works
offer us some background knowledge needed for this study. Suffice it to state that
none of them has waded into the subject of nocturnal road transport in Nigeria and
why the Igbo dominate the business vis-à-vis other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
The work of A.E.Afigbo tells us the role of the uneven spread of natural
resources in the rise of the industry55.
Ikenna Nzimiro56
and I.I Ukpong57
observe that
there were drastic demands for motor vehicles after the civil war but that the numbers
of vehicles were too insufficient to meet the demand for them. Nzimiro observed that
during the war, some vehicles were commandeered, while spare parts were acutely in
short supply. Ukpong on his own part was interested in the ratio of vehicles to
population. Thus, he noted that at the end of the war in 1970, the ratio of human
population to vehicles stood at two vehicles for every 1,000 (2: 1,000) persons.
Ukpong‟s account is contradicted by A.W.Obi who observed that the number of
vehicles in Nigeria stood at 70,410(seven thousand, four hundred and ten). Based on
the 1970 population figure by Ukpong, the ratio of human population to a vehicle was
937 (nine hundred and thirty seven) persons per vehicle58
. P.O.Obi-Ani‟s work tells
us the state of roads and communication facilities in Igbo land in the immediate post
war period59
. D.E.Amieghebhor shows that the number of vehicles in Nigeria stood at
xxxi
700,000 in 1983/84 but declined to fewer than 500,000 in 1987. He equally predicted
that if unchecked, the number will decline to as low as 350,000 in 199160
. A Financial
Times publication61
gives account of the dwindling fortunes of the railway, while K.E.
Eririogu, 62
examines the decline of air transport. The misfortunes of these services
partly help to explain the increased patronage of night journeys by Nigerians.
The work of D.O.Ike63
tells us when modern buses were first used and the
transport magnate that introduced them into Nigeria. However, the work has no
information on the use or non-use of these buses in night transportation. Night-time
road transport as a subject of study began to receive scholarly attention in1998; the
year a national seminar was held on the matter. One of the papers presented during the
occasion by Prof. A. Adalemo tagged Challenges of Night Travels in Nigeria: Lessons
from other countries64
is very relevant to this work. The work outlines the problems
of night travels and offers solutions based on the experiences of other countries. Some
of his recommendations are very applicable in the Nigerian context. However, the
work is not historical. Probably following the footsteps of Adalemo, S.I.Oni at the
24th
International Baltic Conference presented a paper titled, Towards an Improved
Night-time Road Transport in the Next Millennium65
. Oni observes that there are
many merits and demerits of night travels. He also analyzed the category of people
that patronize night journeys most and why they do. In spite of its merit, the work also
lack historical depth.
The works of Engr. E.O.Sawyer66
, K.A.Baffour and K.S.W.Yahya67
are relevant
to this study. They provide informative statistics on road accidents in Nigeria between
the 1970s and1980s, though the works make no distinction between accidents that
occurred at night and those that took place in the day-time. Relying mostly on
newspaper reports, L.O.Olanrewaju68
examined the causes of road accidents in Nigeria
xxxii
and went on to show that most of the vehicles involved in nocturnal road transport
had the Igbo land as either take-off, transit, or destination. The Revised Highway
Code 69
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is also of importance to this study. With
respect to night travels, it offers some of the reasons why accidents that occur at night
tend to be more fatal than those that occur during the day.
S.A.Olanrewaju‟s70
The Nigerian Road Transport System is very relevant to this
study. The work outlines the character, importance and development of road transport
in Nigeria. Kunle Adenyi‟s71
Urban Transport System in Nigeria tells us some of the
factors that influence travel patterns and modes in Nigeria. It also discusses the
convulsive nature of some government owned transport companies in Nigeria.
Strangely, none of the transport companies from Igbo land is included in his study.
This notwithstanding, some of his observations about other transport companies
operating outside Igbo land are applicable to some transport companies in Igbo land.
O.N.Njoku 72
examines the development of roads in southeastern Nigeria between
1903 and 1939. The work of Njoku provides no direct information on how the roads
so developed during the period encouraged night-time road transport even though, one
can draw some ideas from his work. P.C.Onokala‟s73
Trade and Transport gives an
account of the development of transportation networks in Igbo land and their link with
trade. The work states that by 1967, Igbo land was setting the pace in transport
services in Nigeria. One other work found to be highly valuable to this study is that of
A.I.Nwabughuogu74
who posits that indigenous enterprise and initiatives played more
role than government in the motor transport industry in the colonial times in Eastern
Nigeria. From his observation, one is made to believe that Igbo entrepreneurship in
the road transport industry is old.
xxxiii
Igbo entrepreneurship in the road transport industry also attracted the attention of
S.B.Silverston 75
who examines the emergence of Igbo entrepreneurs of Nnewi Igbo
subgroup in the road transport sector of the economy. Though limited in scope, the
work is on an area that could be termed the ``nest” of Igbo transport gurus.
U.O.A.Esse‟s Ph.D thesis and the work of R LeVine 76
are very important to this
study: not only does Esse‟s work trace the history of transportation in Igbo land, it
also links the industry with Igbo enterprise. LeVine‟s work, though full of
generalizations is a bold attempt at examining entrepreneurial activities in Nigeria. Of
the Igbo he posits that they are the most energetic parvenus who have successfully
challenged the established order of supremacy which the Yoruba occupied in the
elitist professional civil service establishment.What may be regarded as a major error
of judgement in LeVine‟s work is his inability to state whether he was talking of
entrepreneurship in the formal or informal sector of the Nigerian economy since when
compared to other ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo are in the forefront of
entrepreneurial activities, especially in the informal sector.
Scope of Study
This study spans the years, 1970 to 2000, a period of thirty years. 1970 marked the
end of the Nigerian civil war. It was also the year that Nigeria since independence in
1960 witnessed serious reduction in the number of vehicles and the ratio of humans to
vehicles was very low. To the Igbo, it was a year of return to the Nigerian fold which
confronted them with monumental economic challenges, not least of these in the
transport sector.
The year 2000 is the terminal date of this study for two reasons. In February
2000, a luxury bus loaded with corpses of Igbo traders killed in Kaduna during the
xxxiv
sharia crisis drove into Aba in the mid-day. This luxury bus left Kaduna at night. On
Thursday, November 23rd
, 2000, a Lagos-bound luxury bus from Nnewi skidded off
Lagos- Benin expressway and plunged into the Ovia River at about
1am.Unfortunately, only five out of the sixteen passengers survived the accident77
.
The wares of the traders were destroyed and could not be recovered as they were
washed away by water.The rescues were hampered by the darkness of the night. As a
result, many passengers (especially traders) who had been patronizing night transport
service providers changed to day time travel. Hence, these episodes dealt a blow on
the business of night transportation by road as is made evidentin the manifest of some
transport companies.
With respect to geographical spread, the study covers the entire nation of
Nigeria, though the transport companies involved are owned by Igbo business men
based in some commercial and administrative centers in southeastern Nigeria.
However, the companies‟ operations spread across virtually every state of the country.
Sources and Methodology
Obtaining adequate, informative data on this subject was problematic for many
reasons. Most written accounts of what should form the ``raw material” for this
exercise are scattered in various dailies of the country. Information that should be
sourced from official (government and transport companies) documents was not easy
to come by due to bureaucratic bottle necks and suspicions on the part of those who
keep such records. Oral information was also hard to extract because some operators
hoarded their knowledge for fear of competition. Some who had a lot of information
to offer were not readily accessible. Some documents like stumps of cash receipts,
where available, do not indicate the time of issue to enable one have an idea of the
xxxv
number of passengers generated during day and night travels. The accounts of some
vehicles registered as stage carriers made no distinction between freight charges and
passenger charges. In fact, freight charges were often negotiated and not receipted.
Even in the face of these difficulties, this study relied much on primary sources.
These include oral information elicited from transport service providers, passengers
and other stakeholders in the business of night- time road transport either directly or
indirectly. Groups and individuals were interviewed. The present researcher travelled
on many occasions at night to have a first-hand assessment of the business and
interview people knowledgeable in the business. Newspapers, magazines, Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Reports were also used in conjunction with official records in
the National Archives. Records from offices of various transport companies were also
made use of. The nature of records kept by the various transport companies varied
and was not detailed. The passenger manifests of some never indicated the time of the
day the journey was made. Even where they did, the names on the manifest were not
written in full to allow one ascertain their ethnic nationalities using their surnames.
The absence of the latter information was a major constraint in proving the
argument that the Igbo patronize night-time road transport more than other ethnic
groups in Nigeria. The details of their financial transactions were to say the best
epileptic as they had no record of the amount realized from passengers and those from
their goods. Even as it relates to income generated from passengers, their figures had
descripancies as passengers in the same vehicle headed for the same destination paid
different fares. Most of the companies did not even have receipts of their own and
only made use of that of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW). It
was observed that in most cases drivers of such companies printed a replica of the
Union receipts to defraud the company. Such drivers only showed their own doctored
xxxvi
receipts to researchers and such did not present the true picture. The secondary
sources used include unpublished projects, conference papers, journal articles and
books relevant to this study.
As the nature of this topic calls for interdisciplinary approach, methodical tools
from cognate disciplines such as economics, geography, engineering, sociology etc
have been made use of. Descriptive analysis is combined with some degree of
quantitative data to get to any conclusion.
Organization of Study
This study is organized in eight chapters. The first chapter is the introduction, and
provides the background to the study. It states the research problem, the theoretical
framework on which the work is anchored, the purpose of the research, the scope, the
sources of data and methodology used for the exercise. It also contains the literature
review.
Chapter two focuses on the antecedents to the rise of night-time road transport in
Igbo land from 1906 to 1960. It studies how Igbo notions on night and achievement
orientation encourage nocturnal commerce. How both government and private sector
tackled the problems in the transport sector during this period and how their actions
gave rise to night-time road transport are examined. The third chapter examines the
official beginnings of the industry with focus on the period 1961 to 1969. The roles of
the government and the private sector operators are highlighted. Also discussed in this
chapter is the impact of the Nigerian civil war on the industry.
Chapter four surveys the industry from 1970 (the immediate post-war period) to
1988 when the federal mass transit scheme was launched. It captures the state of road
networks in Igbo land immediately after the war and how the war led to the increase
xxxvii
in patronage of the industry. The chapter also discusses the response of government in
combating the problems in the road transport sector of the economy before and after
the 1976 state creation exercise. This chapter ends with the launching of the Federal
Mass Transit Scheme. Chapter five highlights the way and manner the business of
night-time road transport was conducted during the period of government-sponsored
mass transit program. The rationale for launching the scheme and the changes it
brought into the business of nocturnal road transport, and how the scheme declined
are also examined.
The sixth chapter examines the business of night travels by road from 1993,
when private operators began to dominate the business, to 2000 when some who
earlier patronized the industry began to withdraw their patronage partly as a
consequence of the Kaduna/ Aba and Ovia River incidents. Attention is paid to the
reactions of Igbo entrepreneurs in the industry to the decline in patronage of their
business and how their reactions impacted on the Igbo economy generally. Chapter
seven focuses on the relationship between night-time road transportation and night-
life in selected Igbo communities that generated heavy traffic at night either as take-
off, transit or terminal stations; how the industry has influenced the commerce, social
life and political activities of such communities are highlighted. The last chapter
(eight) summarises and concludes the work with recommendations.
xxxviii
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. S.O.Onakomaiya, cited in S.A.Olanrewaju, “The Infrastructure of Exploitation:
Transport, Monetary Change, Banking, etc” in Toyin Falola (Ed.) Britain and
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2. Northern Nigeria House of Assembly Debate, cited in U.O.A. Esse, “Road
Transport in Nigeria as a Private Enterprise among the Igbo, 1920-1999” an
unpublished PhD thesis, Department of History and International Studies,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, March, 2005, 112.
3. I.I.Ukpong, “Social and Economic Infrastructure” in F.A.Olalokun, et al…,
Structure of the Nigerian Economy, London: Macmillan, 1979, 68-99.
4. Nigeria Outlook, February 7, 1961, 7.
5. I.I.Ukpong, “Social and Economic Infrastructure”…,87
6. ___________, 88.
7. „‟Nigeria Waits for 16,000 Cars” West Africa, August 22, 1970, 971.
8. “Nigeria-Red Cross hands over to States” West Africa, July 4, 1970, 753.
9. See the company‟s advertorial placed in The Daily Star, January 21, 1976, 5.
10. See the advertorial of the company in The Renaissance, December2, 1972, 8.
11. A.W.Obi, “Government and Automotive Industry Development in a Peripheral
Economy: the Case of Nigeria” in Ikenga: Journal of African Studies, Vol.7,
No.12, 1985, 78-93.
12. D.E.Amiegbebhor, ”Evaluation of Intercity Road Passenger Bus Services In
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thesis in Transportation, Department of Transport Management Technology,
Federal University of Technology Owerri, August 2000, 18.
13. J.C.Anyanwu et.al, The Economic Structure of Nigeria, 1960-1997, (Onitsha:
Joanne Educational Publishers Ltd., 1997), 376.
14. J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Economic Structure…, 337.
15. Moji Fasai, “ Mass Transportation Under IBB” in Godswill Ogboghodo(ed.)
Seven Years of IBB, Vol.3, Labour and Social Development,( Lagos: The Daily
Times of Nigeria Plc, 1993), 81-94.
16. Moji Fasai, “Mass Transportation… 85.
xxxix
17. J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Economic Structure… 470.
18. Obiora Ugwuanyi, c.32, Operations Manager, Ifesinachi Transport Company.
Interviewed on March 8, 2004 at Jibowu, Yaba, Lagos State, Nigeria.
19. D.O.Ike, „ An Assessment of Public Transportation Problems and Intercity Road
Passenger Bus Services In Nigeria: A Case Study of Luxury Buses”, An
Unpublished Masters of Science thesis, Department of Transport Management
Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, June,2000, 9.
20. See Ebele Amali,” The Welfare Programme and the Poverty Alleviation
Programme in Nigeria-A Comparative Analysis of Two Economic Institutions” in
S.O.O.Amali(Ed) Consolidation and Sustenance of Democracy: The United States
of America and Nigeria, Ibadan: Hope Publications Ltd., 2002, 83-95.
21. “Road Pricing in California: Tolled You So” The Economist, June, 2000, 60-61.
22. Obiora Ugwuanyi, Interview cited.
23. Wilfred Isiwu, c.32, Yam merchant, oral data collected at Nsukka on August 17,
2004.
24. Harold Barger, The Transportation Industries, 1889-1946: A Study of Output,
Employment and Productivity, (New York: National Bureau of Economic
Research Inc., 1951), 11.
25. D.F.Pegrum, Transportation: Economics and Public Policy, Homewood, Illinois:
Richard D Irwin Inc., 1973, 3.
26. R.W.Faulks, Principles of Transportation, London: McGraw- Hill Book Co.,
1990, xi.
27. Benson and Whitehead, cited in O.Aluko, Rural Transportation and Development
Planning in Nigeria,Ibadan: Kins Books Publishers, 2000, 1.
28. J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Economic Structure… 333.
29. O.N.Njoku, “Development of Roads and Road Transport in Southeastern
Nigeria,1903-1939”, Journal of Africian Studies [UCLA],Winter 1978,Vol.5, No.
4,471-497. See also O.N.Njoku, Economic History of Nigeria, 19th
and 20th
Centuries, Enugu: Magnet Publishing Corporation, 2002.
30. R.Catillion, cited in R.F.Herber and A.H.Link, The Entrepreneur- Mainstream
Views and Radical Critiques, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1982, 17
31. J.Schumpeter, cited in R.D.Hisrich and M.P.Peters, Entrepreneurship, New York:
Mc Graw Hill, 2002, 9.
xl
32. R.C.Ronstadt, Entrepreneurship, Dover MA: Lord Publishing CO., 1984, 28.
33. E.M.Burns, Western Civilization: Their History and Culture, New York;
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34. B.Flyod, Eastern Nigeria: A Geographical Review, London: Macmillan, 1969, 31.
For details on the Igbo spirit of enterprise, see A.O.Okore,” The Political
Economy of Igbo: A Historical Overview” in D.I.Nwoga(ed) The State of Igbo
Studies, Nsukka: Institute of African Studies, 1982, No pagination.
35. A.O.Okore,” The Political Economy of Igbo: A Historical Overview” in
D.I.Nwoga(ed) The State of Igbo Studies, Nsukka: Institute of African Studies,
1982, No pagination.
36. S.Ottenberg,”Ibo Receptivity to Change” in W.F.Bascon and M.J.Herskovits,
(Eds.) Continuity and Change in African Culture, Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1959, 130-140.
37. E.N.Onwu, Uzo Ndu Na Eziokwu: Towards An Understanding of Igbo Religious
Life And Philosophy, Owerri: Ministry of Information and Culture, 2002, 31.
(N.B- This work is the 2002 Ahiajioku Lecture).
38. D.I.Nwoga, Nka na Nzere: The Focus of Igbo World View, 1984 Ahiajioku
Lecture, Owerri: Ministry of Information, 1984, 48
39. D.I.Nwoga, Nka na Nzere: The Focus of Igbo World View, 48.
40. O.N.Njoku.c.67, Oral data elicited from him in the course of supervising this
work.August 9, 2010.
41. Ekoli Clement, 51, Civil Servant, Interview conducted on 12th
April 2008 at
Amube Lejja.
42. G.T.Basden, Niger Ibos: A Description of the Primitive Life,Customs and
Animistic Beliefs of the Ibo People of Nigeria by One Who, for Thirty-five years,
enjoyed the priviledge of their intimate confidence and friendship,London: Frank
Cass & Co. Ltd., 1966,130
43. Fidelis Onu, c.86, Lineage head and diviner, Ugwogo Nike, interviewed on July
13, 2005 at his Ugwuogo Nike Residence.
44. Mazi Linus Kanu-Ogwe, c.61.Retired Lorry driver, interviewed on September 25,
2006 at Nsukka.
xli
45. Emmanuel Okechukwu Nnamani, Timber Dealer, Nsukka Timber Shade (first son
of the late Ugwu Nnamami of Lejja) interviewed at Lejja on September 27, 2006.
46. A.E.Okorafo, “Population” in G.E.K.Ofomata (ed.) A Survey of The Igbo Nation,
(Onitsha: Africana [First] Publishers Ltd., 2002),.131-145. See also Oha –Na-Eze
Nd Igbo, The Violations Of Human Rights Of Ndigbo in The Federation Of
Nigeria, (1966-1999),( Enugu: Snaap Press Ltd., 2002), 1.
47. Oha-Na-Eze Ndigbo,The Violations of…,56
48. Chief Adolphus Wabara-one-time Senate President, Federal Republic of Nigeria-
during his visit to the scene of the Ibadan –Ife road mishap of February 26, 2004
averred that the National Assembly would legislate against night travels by road.
On April 4, 2004, Uche Okafor (a staff of Radio Nigeria) wrote a news
commentary tagged “Road Accidents and Night Journeys”. In the said write up, he
argued that night journeys are dangerous and called on the National Assembly to
re-examine night journeys through the instrument of legislation.
49:. Rosalind Ferguson, The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs, (London: Market House
Books Ltd., 1983), 239.
50. Kelechi Obasi, “We Cannot Ignore The Igbo, - Chief Gani Fawehinmi Laments
the Plight of the Igbo Nation” The News, August 10, 1998, 20.
51.Harold Barger, The Transportation Industry…,New York: National Bureau of
Economic Research Inc., 1951, E.T.Halfele (ed) Transport As National Goals
,Washington D C: The Brookings Instutue,1969,D.F.Pegrum,Transportation:
Economics and Public Policy Homewood Illinois: Richard D. Irwin Inc., 1973,
R.W.Faulks,Principles of Transportation, London: McGraw-Hill Book
Co.,1990,O.Aluko, Rural Transportation and Development Planning in Nigeria
,Ibadan: Kins Books Publishers,2000.
52. David Bannister and Kenneth Button (eds.) Transport, the Environment and
Sustainable Development, London: Chapman and Hall, 1993.
53. See for instance G,Kraft et al, The Role Of Transportation in Regional Economic
Development ,London: Health and Co.,1971, M.E.Hurst (ed) Transportation
Geography- Comments and Readings, New York: McGraw-Hill Book CO.,1977,
S.A.Olanrewaju, “ The Role of Transport in African Economic Development “ in
African Development Studies: A Journal of African Development and Research
Association(ADRA) ,Vol.1., No.2, July 1977,37-56.
54: See J.C Anyanwu et al, The Economic Structure…, Alkasum Abba et al, The
Nigerian Economic Crisis: Causes and Solutions, Zaria: The Academic Staff
Union of Universities of Nigeria, 1985.
xlii
55: A.E.Afigbo, “Economic Foundations of Pre-colonial Igbo Society” in
P.A.Akinjogbon and S.O.Osoba (Eds.) Topics in Nigerian Economic and Social
History, Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press, 1980, 1-18.
56: Ikenna Nzimiro, Nigerian Civil War: A Study in Class Conflict, Enugu: Frontline
Publishing Co., Ltd., 1984, 122.
57. I.I.Ukpong, “Social and Economic Infrastructure…”, 69-79.
58:A.W.Obi, “Government and the Automative Industry … 78-93.
59:P.O.Obi-Ani, Post Civil War Social and Economic Reconstruction of Igboland,
1970-1983, Enugu: Mikon Press, 1998, 43.
60:D.E.Amiegbebhor, “Evaluation of Intercity…”18.
61::Financial Times Ltd., Nigeria: Twenty Years of …, 20-23.
62:K.E.Eririogu, “An Assessment of Cargo Handling in Road Haulage Industry in
Nigeria: A Case Study of Panalpine World Transport, Port Harcourt” an
unpublished First Degree Project, Department of Transport Management
Technology, Federal University of Technology Owerri,2002,2
63: D.O.Ike, “An Assessment of…,9.
64:Prof. A. Adalemo, “Challenges of Night Travels in Nigeria: Lessons from Other
Countries” Paper presented in Nigeria in 1998 during a Seminar on Night
Transportation in Nigeria.
65: S.I.Oni, “Towards an Improved Night-time Road Transport in the Next
Millennium” Paper presented during the 1999 24th
International Baltic
Conference.
66: Engr. E.O.Sawyer, “Road Accidents Trends in Nigeria, 1980-1984” in J.O.Asalor et
al,(eds) Road Traffic Accidents in Developing Countries, Vol.1, Lagos: Joja Press
Ltd,1986,91-106.
67:K.A.Baffour and K.S.W.Yahya, “Road Accident Statistics of the Various States in
Nigeria” in J.O.Asalor et al, Road Traffic…, 3-20.
68:L.O.Olanrewaju, Reducing Road Accident, Abuja: Safety Alliance, 2001.
69: Federal Republic of Nigeria, The Revised Highway Code, Lagos: Academy Press
Ltd., 1997.
70:S.A.Olanrenwaju, “The Nigerian Road Transport System” in Toyin Falola and
S.A.Olanrewaju (Eds.) Transport Systems in Nigeria, Syracuse: Maxwell School
of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 1986, 51-70.
71: Kunle Adeniji, “Urban Transport System in Nigeria” in ODU: A Journal of West
African Studies, No.28, July 1985, 81-97.
xliii
72. O.N.Njoku, Development of Roads and Road Transport in Southeastern Nigeria,
1903-1939” in Journal of African Studies, Vol. 5, 1978, 471-407.
73:P.C.Onokala, “Trade and Transport” in G.E.K.Ofomata (Ed.) A Survey of The Igbo
Nation, Onitsha: Africana [First] Publishers Ltd., 2002, 543-562.
74: A.I.Nwabughuogu, The Dynamics of Change in Eastern Nigeria, 1900-1960:
Indigenous Factor in Colonial Development, Owerri: Esther Thompson
Publishing Co., 1993.
75: S.B.Silverstein, “Socio-Cultural Organization and Location Strategies of Transport
Entrepreneurs: An Ethno- Economic History of The Nnewi Igbo of Nigeria” An
Unpublished PhD thesis, Boston University,1983 in U.O.A.Esse, “Road transport
in …”14
76. U.O.A.Esse,” Road Transport…” R. LeVine, Dreams and Deeds: Achievement
Motivation in Nigeria, London and Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1966.
77: Hendrix Oliomogbe, Uduma Kalu, Sylvester Ebhodagbe, Isa Abdulsalam, “75 Die
in Benin-Lagos Crashes” in The Guardian ,Friday, November 24,2000,1.
xliv
CHAPTER TWO
ANTECEDENTS TO THE RISE OF NIGHT-TIME ROAD
TRANSPORT INDUSTRY IN IGBOLAND UP TO 1960
This chapter addresses issues relating to the factors that gave rise to nocturnal
vehicular road transportation in Igboland from the earliest time that “records” permit
up to 1960. It also establishes the nexus between the views the Igbo hold about night,
their traditional economy, achievement orientation and the rise of night-time road
transport. The reaction of the people to the development of roads of Western
European models( Uzo nwa Beke , Uzo Oyibo or Uzo Onye Ocha), colonial
legislations that influenced the economy and road transportation in particular during
the colonial period are also examined.
Geography of Igboland and the Promotion of Nocturnal Commerce
In Nigeria, the Igbo homeland extends to three geo-political zones of the country -
South-east, South-south and North-central. They occupy the entire five states of the
Southeast. These states are Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states. In the
South-south, their homeland extends to two states- Delta and Rivers. For the North-
central, they are to be located in Benue and Kogi states and parts of Edo state in the
south-south. In all these states, they are found not as “strangers” but as “Indigenous”
occupants. Based on their spread in three geo- political zones, their homeland lies
astride three vegetation zones. These are the mangrove swamp forest, the rain forest
and the derived savanna. The Igbo climate is marked by two alternating seasons; the
wet and dry seasons, though differences exist in the distribution of rain fall within the
xlv
vegetation zones1.
The land of the Igbo is located roughly between latitude 5 and 7
degrees north of the Equator, and longitude 6 and 8 degrees east of the Greenwich2.
Based on variation in the vegetation, the occupation of Igboland varies. For instance,
those living in the mangrove swamp forest and very close to vast water bodies are
good at fishing, while those in the rain forest are good farmers. Those in the derived
savanna are not very good in farming but are very prominent as traders3.
Since variations exist in occupation, the Igbo had to resort to exchange of goods
and services. The time they moved to look for goods and services was dependent on
distance, urgency and importance attached to such goods, and temperature. Igbo land
records two periods of relative high temperature. The hottest months of the year are
February to April and temperature may be as high as 27oc
4. Under such a high
temperature, long distance traders who went on foot adjusted their times of
movement. For instance, Aku women who went as far as Ogurugu to buy fish and
local chicken always left Ogurugu late in the evening to save the chickens from
suffocating under the intense heat of the sun5. Even when vehicles were newly
introduced in the 1920s, some Igbo traders preferred to travel at night. The testimony
of Stalinus Mbamalu of Umuomaku, in Aguata, Anambra state who transported
traders from Otuocha to Onitsha brings out their reasons. He opined that,” most of my
passengers traded on fruits and always preferred to meet the market in session during
the day so as to meet with many buyers especially those who buy in bulk. Some of
these traders come all the way from Anaku and Igbankwu (very far away from
Otuocha). The distance from which they came denied me the opportunity of having
full load in time. By mid-day, when ordinarily I would have loaded, they complain of
heat and not meeting their customers. This forced me to adjust my take-off time to
around 6pm”6. Understandably, profit was uppermost in the mind of the traders and
xlvi
even the driver, but for them to see traveling at night as an opportunity to make
money is a pointer to their entrepreneurial spirit. More so, it would be surprising to
see an Igbo travel at night given some negative impressions they have about night.
Igbo Notions about Night
Among the Igbo, night as a part of a day is variously known uchichi, abali, nderi etc.
No matter the name given to it by any Igbo community, the Igbo are of the view that
night is loaded with good and bad. From the economic dimension, the history of Igbo
market days cannot be complete without linking it to night-time even if that is to be
classified as myth. According to M.D.W.Jefferys,
… the days of the week had no names, for there was no way of
counting the days because, the sun was always shining and no
one slept. Then four strangers arrived Aguleri with four
baskets. Ndri asked Chukwu where they came from. Chukwu
refused to say, but said he would send a person who would
divulge their names and tell where they came from. A wise
person (Okpeta) was sent to Ndri. Okpeta brought a rat (oke)
with him. At night, he tied a string round the rat and told the rat
to enter the first basket; the rat did and made a noise therein.
One of the unknown visitors shook the owner of the basket and
said, “Eke, Eke” and told him something was making a noise in
his basket. When Eke was about to get up to find out the cause
of the noise, Okpeta pulled the rat away. So when Eke looked
in, he saw nothing to cause the noise. Eke went to sleep,
Okpeta noted the name and sent the rat into another basket to
make a noise therein and the next man woke up and called the
owner of the basket saying “Oye,Oye something is in your
basket”. Okpeta did as before and so on for the other two
baskets and secured the names Afo and Nkwo….These four
men founded four markets, and that is how the Igbo got their
four-day week7
.
From the above quote, it is plausible for one to argue that the event that gave birth to
trading and the names of the days among the Igbo took place at night. Of greater
importance to this study is the message of the tale carriers: that answers to adversity
can be found at night. That answers to adversity can be found at night is illustrated by
xlvii
one of the folk tales of the Igbo. According to this tale, the tortoise was able to win
from God the unquestionable right to practice his pranks on all and sundry by utilizing
the opportunity offered by night. God was said to have given tortoise a hard task
which was neither to be accomplished in the morning, noon or evening. Tortoise
overcame the challenge by coming through a vent in the wall in the midnight and
carrying a mortar half-filled with white wine8.
Many assumptions emerge from this tale to support the Igbo notion of night
being a period of grace and victory. One of such assumptions is that night holds out a
lot of opportunities, especially when all hopes appear to be lost during the day-
time.This is suggested indirectly by the time God gave tortoise and when tortoise
scaled through the hurdle. A second view is that night-time is not always meant for
rest but is also a time for people to task their ingenuity and come up with solutions to
problems. Probably based on the last proposition, some Igbo communities especially
in the Nsukka area associate night with good luck and would only offer sacrifices to
their personal gods at night9a
. Among Ohafia people, the history of the consolidation
of their settlement is linked to a feat achieved at night. One of the people who posed
serious problem to the Ohafia was a group known as Ndi Ohaodu. The latter group
was driven out by the Ohafia people at around midnight9b
.
Notwithstanding these positive notions about night, the Igbo also are of the
view that night is dangerous. Hence, the word abali di egwu (night is dangerous), a
name given to night marauders by the Igbo. Some Igbo apothegms lay credence to the
notion of night being associated with evil, the ugly and uncertainties .For instance,
uchichi n‟amu nwa njo ( Night begets an ugly child),implies that night is ugly.
Incidentally, the Igbo spirit of enterprise found a compromise in the two opposing
views about night among the Igbo. There is an Igbo popular saying, agaghi ekwo
xlviii
mgbagbu ghara ogu (i.e. a war cannot be abandoned for fear of being shot). The latter
saying indicates that the Igbo acknowledge that there are risks involved in night-time
activities. That they are not deterred by potential risks is anchored on their spirit of
enterprise as encapsulated in the saying, Onye merie onwunwa O buru dike (he who
surmounts an obstacle becomes a hero), an indication that turning adversity to
advantage is seen as heroism. Therefore, for a people that believe in heroism, risk
taking-even at night-is seen as part of life as shown in their traditional economy. It is
the boldness of the Igbo to embark on night-time road transportation and the ability of
some of its‟ citizens to perceive, recognize and exploit the opportunity offered by
night in the road transport sector of the nation‟s economy that made those citizens
who offer night –time road services entrepreneurs.
Traditional Igbo Economy and the Promotion of Nocturnal Activities
Before the advent of colonialism and the subjugation and integration of Igbo land into
the global capitalist economy, the Igbo thrived on agriculture, fishing, hunting and the
manufacture of local crafts. Each of these sectors of the economy was linked with one
religious practice or the other and its attendant taboos. Even as the Igbo economy
could be said to be variegated, agriculture occupied and still occupies a prime position
as it employs the largest percentage of the population both on full and part-time basis.
Farming in traditional Igbo society was done using manual labor and making use of
hand tools made by local artisans. Even as farming is the chief occupation of the Igbo,
some Igbo groups are more pronounced farmers than others. For instance, in Ozalla
town of Igbo- Etiti Local Government Area of Enugu State, there are two popular
sayings that indicate the degree of farming done by villages in the town. One of such
sayings is that Ogwuu erijughi eho mee Ozalla n‟edo mbochi. This translates as
xlix
Ogwuu village is living on incomplete rations of food while other villages in Ozalla
are storing their excess food for the next day. The second saying has it that ihu oru
naa nyiru Ogwuu n‟Ozalla10
. (i.e. Ogwuu village found it difficult to complete one
mound). The above sayings portray that variations in the level of agricultural pursuit
and productivity exist even within villages in Igbo towns.
Being agriculturalists, the Igbo attach great importance to land. However, the
pressure on land is so high because of the dense population. This led to over
cultivation of the soil. It also led to the emergence of migrant tenant farmers. The
Eastern Region is acknowledged as the most densely populated area in Nigeria. In
fact, in some areas, the density is up to 1,000 people per square mile. This is opposed
to 200 people per square mile in the Western Region and some areas in the North, and
25 persons per square mile in the Middle Belt areas. A combination of poor soil and
high population density forced the Igbo to emigrate in large numbers to other parts of
Nigeria and even to other countries11.
For instance, the rate of movement of the Igbo
into the North made Alhaji Ahmadu Dantata, a member of the Northern Peoples
Congress (NPC) and Northern House of Assembly to argue in parliament that:
they (the Easterners) tended to settle in the North with their
families and relations, to take leases of land and, exploit the
services of Northern peasants in its cultivation, and to use their
official appointments to replace Northerners with their own
brothers and cousins brought over from the South12.
The above statement though loaded with prejudice arose from the fear that in 1953,
Easterners held eighty-two per cent of the clerical jobs and most jobs in the modern
sector of the economy in the North13
.
Differences in ecological conditions gave room for one part of Igboland to
produce more of one kind of goods than it could consume. The excesses were
exchanged for other goods that were not available or produced locally within such
l
localities. A study by L.C.Uzozie in 2002 indicates that in Ebonyi State, for instance,
yams account for 51% of the cropland area, rice 16% and cassava 13%. For the Izzi,
the figures are as follows; yams 62%, rice 8%, cassava 7%. In Anambra State,
especially along the Niger-Omambala lowland, rice accounts for 40% of the total
cropland, maize claims 25% and yam 22%. Thus, while the riverine and ogu ukwu
Igbo depend on yams and rice for cash, other Igbo groups rely heavily on the oil palm,
African breadfruit and, at times oil bean. Parkia and Irvinga species are limited to the
drier northern part, with the highest concentration in Nsukka area and parts of Isi-
Uzo14
. The variation in the level of production between Igbo communities gave rise to
inter-community trade in agricultural produce.
During the colonial period and before the introduction of mechanical means of
travelling by road, trade between communities was largely dependent on trekking.
Owing to distance between their homes and places of business, some of the long
distance traders resorted to travelling at night. This was to allow them meet the
market where they bought their goods in good time as that would create room for
good bargains in the midst of many sellers. For instance, Ugwu Nnamami of Lejja in
Nsukka who went to Uburu to buy salt, left his house late in the evening a day
preceding the market day he bought his goods15
.
The entrepreneurial spirit of these traders would be appreciated if we observe that
they travelled at night along narrow footpaths and sometimes across improvised
dangling wooden bridges. Mazi Kalu Uduma of Ebem village Ohafia, whose parents
lived at Amasu village, Arochukwu, while narrating the tales his parents told him of
how they crossed the Amasu River, said that they travelled in a convoy but when they
got to the river, the convoy broke. This was because the improvised wooden bridges
across the river to Itu could not support two people at a time. What the traders did was
li
to allow the most experienced to cross over to the Itu side first. The other traders
would follow on an agreed order with a trader who is noted to be good at swimming
coming last. He said that the logic of their movement was to avert danger. While the
person that crossed the “bridge” first serves as an exemplary trader, others emulated
him. The experienced trader also employed some art in crossing the river. He always
``travelled carrying with him powdered charcoal. When he and his convoy got to the
river, he would while crossing the “bridge‟ spread the charcoal on the wooden
improvised bridge. He made sure that the thickness of the charcoal is up to the length
of an adult‟s middle finger”16
.Other traders who came after him crossed the river
making sure that they did not match on the charcoal. On some occasions, especially
during the rainy season, the charcoal was easily washed away and here comes the
importance of the renowned swimmer- to rescue any one who missed his steps on the
``bridge‟.
The importance the Igbo attach to nocturnal commerce is often dictated by
exigency. For instance, in 1927, the contest for Aro patronage of their local markets
between the Uburu and Okposi people was settled through nocturnal visits to Aro
chiefs17
.In the Nsukka area, Oriakuja Ugwuanyi of Lejja who used to sell „eluu‟ (dye)
to textile workers at Akwete noted that their trading band moved in convoys and that
each trader left his or her house “ mgbe ndi shiri ekwukwo enyasi latagideru‟- when
those who went to fetch fodder for animals in the evening started coming back18
.In
her words, the rationale for departing in the evening is that we have to travel all night
to meet the Agbaogugu market in session. From the latter market, we bought owu
afiaraafia (cotton that had been turned into thread) which we sold at higher prices at
Akwete. The periodicity of Igbo markets equally encouraged night travels by road.
lii
To exploit the advantages offered by the distances between the markets, traders
who took to traveling at night as that gave them the ample scope to get to each of
them in time. This was what obtained under the Arochukwu trade system. Under the
Aro trade system, fairs rotated between Ozuakoli and Bende. These markets served
mostly inhabitants of Southern Igbo land. A second fair rotated between Okposi and
Uburu and served the Northern parts of Igbo land19
.
In Igboland, each village had a central market that was held once in every four or
eight days. Due to the nature of the occupation of some communities, their markets
held mainly in the evening and dispersed at night. In many communities, such
evening markets served only the kitchen needs of women after they had returned from
their farms. But this did not obviate the holding of day markets. Evening markets
were in most cases daily while daily markets were periodic in most places. Even at
that, there are some communities whose periodic markets held at night. For instance,
in Lejja, Nkwo market is periodic but it held in the evening hours until 1987 when
trading in the market in the evening was stopped through the instrumentality of
Umuada (women folk) Lejja20
. Being agriculturalists who priced morning hours
highly for farm work and regarding trade as secondary, they took to trading during the
evening and night-time.
Cultural practices helped in the promotion of night-time road transport among the
Igbo. For instance, in Lejja, Nsukka Local Government Area, the transfer of power
and symbol of authority to a new village-head was done at night by the Umuada who
were born in such a village. In places like Ogurugu, some masked spirits appear only
at night (mmonwu uchichi). Some items used in decorating highly revered and
ritualistic masquerades are not allowed to be exposed to sunlight. One of such items is
the fat derived from python (ebubara eke). Among the people of Aro-Ndizuogu, this
liii
item (ebubara eke) is used by very renowned traditional medicine men to safeguard
their mask from unknown and evil forces, especially during competitions. The job that
concerns the use of the python‟s fat is done at night while the masquerade could
display during the day21
.
Whatever be the case, it is obvious that right from early times, some activities of
the Igbo were tailored to take place at night. This may be due to distance and poor
means of transportation, cultural beliefs and practices or other factors. Therefore, that
the Igbo continued with night-time road transportation when the colonial masters
introduced vehicular road transport should not come as a surprise.
Development of Mechanized Transport and Night-Time Commerce in Igboland
Up to 1960
Any meaningful discourse of road development in Igboland has to take into
consideration the nature of roads and other means of transport available to the Igbo
before colonial rule and independence. This perspective becomes germane when one
takes into account Hawkin‟s assertion that “there was no call for roads in Nigeria
before the development of vehicular transportation” and that “the lorry came before
the roads”22
. This view is Eurocentric. Taxonomy is one of the criteria used in judging
if a society knew of a phenomenon or not. Among the Igbo, the term uzo stands for
road. They even made conceptual /definitional differences between paths, roads and
motorable roads. Thus, while uzo awara or ezi awara stands for paths, okporo uzo or
eshi ezi is for major roads, tarred or widened earth roads that were motorable are
refereed to as Uzo nwa Bekee or uzo oyibo. Therefore, except if Hawkin was alluding
to motorable roads, his assertion could be regarded as a fallacy. In 1896,
A.G.Leonard, the first European to venture into the Igbo interior up to Bende
liv
expressed his satisfaction with the broad tree-lined roads in Bende which he said were
“well kept”23
. This indicates that roads were in existence in various Igbo communities
before the Roads and Creeks Proclamation of 1903 that laid the framework for the
building of European model roads came into effect.
With regard to water transportation, Igboland is not favored by nature with many
navigable rivers. Though the Cross River was a major artery of trade and
communication among the peoples in its catchment area, the Niger River witnessed
heavier traffic. Other rivers like Imo, Anambra (Omabala), Ebonyi and Aba rivers had
snags, swamps and sand bars. These deficiencies made sailing on them for a long
distance without obstruction almost impossible. It was under the said 1903
proclamation that some of these rivers were cleared of obstruction to traffic. For
instance, Anambra River, which was a major link to the Niger was cleared of such
obstructions and rendered navigable up to Ogurugu, about 54 miles where it joins the
Niger. This new route of communication opened trade links between Ogurugu and
other Igbo communities along the Niger. It equally facilitated trade contact between
the Igbo and the Igala as Igbo traders began to use the route for trade in Idah. The
Igbo traders used canoes and small rivers steamers to travel to Idah which developed
as a major trading station24
.
Clearing the water ways of obstruction led to the development of markets
popularly known as beaches by the river sides. Most of these beaches were built by
British trading interests like the United Africa Company, the Royal Niger Company
and John Holt. The introduction of trading depots (beaches) along the water ways led
to the emergence of permanent centres that offered daily opportunities for exchange.
This contrasted with the traditional periodic markets. Prominent among these beaches
were those at Ogurugu, Aguleri, Oguta and Osamala25
. People from the hinterland
lv
exploited the opportunity offered by the beaches. Local traders bought goods from
markets in the interior in the day-time, left for the beaches at night and sold the goods
the next day or afterwards, depending on the distance. Palm produce was the chief
item and was sometimes exchanged for European goods like gun and gunpowder26
.
As most parts of Igbo land are not served by water transport, conveyance of
bulky items became a problem. This meant that the volume of goods was far short of
demand27
. Itinerancy helped to reduce the problem of transportation of bulky goods.
Iron wares, roots of plants, animal parts which were lacking in some communities
were supplied by itinerant smiths, medicine men and hunters. Ogbundidi of Obimo is
known in the Nsukka culture area for the latter (hunting) 28
. Some of these peripatetic
businessmen performed part of their duties at night either as a rule or as a device to
conceal the knowledge of their profession. Among those who as a rule
performed some of their duties at night were traditional medicinemen, especially
those knowledgeable in the art of exhuming charms, exorcism and control of some
evil forces29
. The volume of goods provided by the itinerant workers was however
reduced by cultural taboos. For instance, some of them who took titles like ozo on
becoming the oldest person in their lineages or villages are banned from living outside
their native communities or even engaging in such profession. For example, in 1993,
George Nwatu,a native of Mgbowo but resident in Lejja left his wine tapping
business and returned home to assume the position as the oldest man of his lineage
and never came back 30
.
Since the distribution of goods and services was hampered by inadequate means
of transportation, cultural rules and insecurity of some routes, the Igbo saw the
introduction of railway as a welcome development. The construction of the line from
Port Harcourt to Enugu in 1913, gave some Igbo towns that had no direct access to
lvi
navigable rivers the opportunity to trade their goods. This line passed through Aba,
Umuahia and Uzuakoli and got to Enugu Colliery on 27th
May 191631
. Later, the line
was extended to Northern Nigeria. However, the railway covered only a small portion
of Igboland. Indeed, as Onokala states, “Igbo land contains only 10 % of the railway
lines in Nigeria”32
.
In spite of its shortcoming, the railway led to the establishment of trading depots
in places like Aba, Uzuakoli, Umuahia and Enugu. All the towns where the railway
propelled trading depots existed grew into big commercial centres, magnetizing
settlers from far and near. The growth in population was such that places like Enugu
rose from nearly,13,000 in 1931 to 63,000 in 1952/53; an increase of over 300%33
.
This meant that the demand for food and other commodities to be moved from the
rural to emergent centres grew. Evidence from Umuahia station supports this
suggestion. The station which hosted upwards of ten trading companies bought about
5,508 tons of palm oil and 3,558 tons of palm kernels and railed them to the coast in
1918.The rise of the railway also led to the decline of water ways as a medium of
transportation. For instance, in 1918, Oguta, a major inland water way trading station,
lost 100 tons of its produce to Umuahia. The rising demand on the railway led to
increase in transport charges. For instance, between 1919 and 1922, rates for rail from
Aba to Port Harcourt was increased from 10s 6d to 18s 8d34
.
The hike in fares by the railway officials did not prevent Igbo traders from
making use of railway services. During the Second World War, traders from Aku in
Enugu State who, even before the introduction of rails, had gone as far as Uburu and
Bende,35
embraced the rail with vigour. This explains why they complained when the
colonial masters made rules that prevented traders from using the railways for their
business during the war. One of the traders, Mrs. Veronica Ezugwu, narrated how at
lvii
Agbani railway station market, her union (Gari Traders Union) were banned from
using the rail to export gari to places like Zaria and Kano. The goods they bought
from these markets were packaged and sent to Enugu on the evening of Eke day to be
railed to the North the following morning36
. Mrs. Ezugwu‟s account of the restriction
of the use of rail to transport goods agrees with many archival records37
and other
written accounts38
. For instance in 1944, the Resident Owerri Province issued a
proclamation to the effect that no person shall move by rail, salt of United Kingdom
origin. Exception was however given to anyone who had the permission of “the
competent authority”39
. The permission was difficult to get in most cases. To keep
their business afloat, the Igbo resorted to smuggling their goods to other provinces
during night hours.
This art of smuggling was more pronounced in Provincial border communities.
The people of Unadu in Igbo Eze South Local Government Area in the Eastern
Region provide a good example. They used a track road that passed through Ugwu
Areje to get to Akpanya, a town in the Northern Region. As it pertains to trade in
palm oil, rather than sell in tins, they resorted to retailing them in eburuebu (milk cup)
or containers of equivalent measurement made from coconut. They sold the oil in the
morning to local middle men/women who arrived early. The latter in turn sold this to
their people after. This gave rise to the saying “Oyibo kwuru n‟urua, Unyama
gbagaru” (when the white masters are asleep, traders would trade) 40
. It should be
understood that the Legislations by Britian during World War11 were meant to help
in their win the war efforts.
The Igbo trader‟s grievances and daring spirit would only be understood when
one realizes that there was paucity of vehicles and roads were bad. A schedule of
Native Authority Roads published in 1936 showed that there were at the time no
lviii
tarred roads in southeastern Nigeria. What existed were earth and gravel roads. While
a total of 3293 miles of roads existed in the Southeastern part of Nigeria, 424 miles of
the roads representing about a mere 12% were gravel roads, 2869 miles , that is about
87% ,were earth roads41
. What was more, majority of the roads were not safe for
motor vehicles during the rains. In fact, many of the roads that were developed in
Igbo land up to 1928 were built and maintained by local communities who lacked
qualified and experienced engineers to direct and guide them. Similarly, most of the
bridges were unreliable because while a few had metal, the majority were made of
timber42
. Unfortunately, the timbers were not treated to prevent termite from eating
them up. Some of the waterways had no bridges at their crossing points. For example,
the Niger River was bridged only in 192743
. Construction of a bridge over Njaba
River between Okwudor and Umuaka began in 1927 under Chukweke, a carpenter
from Owerri; Ogwa Bridge was constructed only in 1932. The absence of bridges that
could carry the weight of vehicles limited the spatial coverage of Igbo traders44
.
There were several impediments to road transportation in Igboland that
encouraged nocturnal commerce. One of these had to do with the peculiar geomorphic
and geological feature which makes it amenable to gully erosion. Igboland, being in
Southern Nigeria witnesses a lot of rainfall ranging from 60inches to 150 inches
annually. This is in sharp contrast with the Northern Region where annual rainfall
varies from 20 inches to 50 inches45.
Owing to excessive rain and poor drainage, the
roads are often waterlogged after heavy rains. This might take up to five to six hours
to drain. Even when the flooded roads were freed of water, the roads turn muddy and
slippery.Under such conditions drivers and passengers were forced to change their
traeling hours and quite often, they were forced to make their trips at night.
lix
Granted that rainfall in the South West is as heavy as (if not heavier) than in
the South East, the South West had the advantage of two alternative means of
transport that is not enjoyed in the same magnitude by people of the South East- rail
and water transport.
In accordance with their proverb which says that okuko nwa mgbenye bu efi ya, (the
fowl of a poor man is his cow), the Igbo resorted to the use of bicycles. Many factors
account for their resort to bicycles at the early stages of the introduction of
mechanical means of transportation. First, the cost of bicycles was far lower than
those of other modes of transport and was within the purchasing power of some
traders. Nicodemus Eze, one of the early bicycle traders, stated that in the 1920s, a
brand new bicycle did not cost more than £6, but in the 1930s, especially oge afia ndi
Oyibo churu ogwudage (when the European businesses went to fetch water in the
river that drowns all its visitors- possibly referring to the Great Depression), the price
went up above £8 in most markets in Igboland46
. This contrasted with the price of
lorry which, according to him, could only be afforded by only very influential and
wealthy merchants or warrant chiefs or by some few rich people who formed co-
operative societies.
A second factor is that bicycles not only carried more load than human beings
but also travelled faster. Bicycles could also reach many areas not accessible by
canoes or by motor vehicles. For these reasons, the Igbo were quick to embrace the
use of bicycles. Bicycles were used for nocturnal commerce in several Igbo
communities especially in communities located far from the rail stations. Traders
from such distant locations often hauled their wares to the stations at night using their
bicycles. For instance, between 1916 and 1922, it was reported that the colonial
masters increased the rates for rail transport from Aba to Port Harcourt from 10s 6d
lx
to18s 8d, representing an increase of about 43%47
.In response to this hike in rail fares,
Igbo traders took to taking their goods especially produce to multinational companies
and their agents who were stationed along the beaches. Such traders employed the
services of cyclists in what could be likened to relay traffic. In Nsukka District, where
even as at 1929, only 16 trucks of 25cwt served the entire district, relay cyclists
helped transport goods to Ogurugu. It is a common knowledge among Lejja elders
that between 1933 and 1945, Gabriel Omeke had relay cyclists who took his palm
kernel which he bought from Igbo Isii (Lejja, Ohodo, Ozalla, Opi, Obimo and
Ekwegbe) markets in Nsukka District to Ogurugu. After purchase and packaging at
the various markets, the bags of kernel were moved to Onu be Ogbo. From the latter
place, those who they handed over to would take them to Adani and stored them in a
house meant for that purpose at Uwelu Akpa also in Adani. From here (Adani), the
last group would move the goods to Ogurugu. As there were no packing stores except
at Adani, the cyclists worked even at night48
.
The Second World War contributed to the growth of night-time road
transportation in Igbo land. During that war, there was scarcity of spare such parts as
tyres and tubes, and this rendered many bicycles unserviceable. This in turn impaired
the mobility of traders. It was against this backdrop that the Chief Secretary to the
Government of the Eastern Provinces lamented the havoc caused by inadequate
transport facilities during the war period49
. The inadequacy of transport facilities
during this period can be accounted for by many factors. First, the war was a period of
emergency under which several laws were made to legalize what under non war
situations would be regarded as illegal. When the war began in 1939, the colonial
masters enacted the Nigerian Defense Motor Transport Regulation. Under this
regulation commercial vehicles were seriously restricted from offering passenger
lxi
services. Even private cars were restricted from being used for passenger services.
The law also empowered the Government to intervene directly in the sale of new
vehicles, tyres, tubes, motor spare parts and petrol50
. The Igbo had to resort to the use
of bicycles in a scale unknown before. For instance, in Owerri, there were 20,000
bicycles in service in 194251
.
To further worsen the transport dilemma of the Igbo during World War 11,
the colonial masters denied them quick access to existing vehicles. This, they did by
reducing the volume of petrol allocations. For example, in 1943, southeastern Nigeria
to which the Igbo belong received 417,000 gallons but in 1944, its allocation came
down to 375,300, a shortfall of 41,700 gallons. The latter figure represents a deficit of
about 10%52
. Bearing in mind that many ethnic groups are found in southeastern
Nigeria, the amount of petrol utilized by the Igbo out of these figures was such that
could not meet their demand. These restrictions on transport services were made when
the colonial masters were bent on massive production of agricultural produce by the
local people under the “Win the War “efforts53
. Therefore, even after production, the
means of disposing the products were limited. Even though petrol permits were
granted to lorries that plied routes where alternative transport was not available, the
permits were not enough to carter for the demands of the populace. According to an
informant, the volume of petrol issued through the permit was small and the
Controller often fixed the rates and fares for both passengers and goods. Delays
associated with obtaining fuel and the loading of goods often led vehicle drivers into
living their bases late in the evenings and plying at nightnot as a deliberate
arrangement but a response to existing reality54
. What was more; most of the vehicles
used during this period had planks as seats, and ran for months without servicing.
Accidents were frequent and common. I.R.A.Ozigbo painting a picture of the dangers
lxii
associated with road transport in Igboland at this early stage observed that, “the
dangers of the road transport were ill-mirrored by inscriptions like, “No Telephone to
heaven”, “God‟s Case, No Appeal”55
. The dangers notwithstanding, the Igbo
embarked on night travels by road using the same ill maintained vehicles.
The end of World War 11 in 1945 did not occasion any remarkable
improvement in the transportation dilemma of the Igbo. This was because; the
colonial authorities‟ legislated to regulate if not strangulate the operations of existing
vehicles. For instance, the Road Traffic Ordinance of 1947 provided that:
No (professional) driver in Nigeria may drive for more
than 5 hours in any one continuous period without an
interval of at least thirty minutes between any two such
periods, nor may such drivers spend in driving more than
ten and half hours unless he shall have had at least eight
hours of continuous rest within the twenty-four hours56
.
This legislation which was meant to ensure the safety of passengers and their goods
did not take into consideration the availability of vehicles that would render services
to people when a driver affected by it would be resting. Therefore, to impose a
compulsory hour of rest on a driver without considering the level of patronage he
would have enjoyed during the resting hours is to say the least, uneconomical.
Bearing in mind the dilapidated condition of roads in Nigeria then and the poor state
of vehicles used, drivers and passengers that travelled long distances could not avoid
travelling during night-times in a bid to evade this regulation.
The Macpherson Constitution which introduced regionalism in Nigeria helped
to increase the pace at which the Igbo embraced night-time road transport. Under this
Constitution, Southerners were banned from the civil service in the North. Those who
were already employed were summarily dismissed without compensation57
.To
survive, some of the affected workers resorted to trade in garri and palm oil from the
lxiii
East to the North. As the number of traders increased, so did the number of vehicles.
For example, 3 lorries were known to regularly convey passengers and their goods
from Ogbede to Kano. By 1951, the number of lorries plying the same route had
increased to 28. Igbo traders and drivers had an arrangement that has survived till
date. The traders established restaurants along major routes patronized by traders,
especially those dismissed from the services of the Northern region. The restaurants
entered into agreements with the drivers whereby the drivers used their business
premises as rest stations. In turn, the drivers and their aids enjoyed free meal from the
restaurateurs. The logic of the contract was that through this arrangement, the
passengers carried by the lorries were induced to patronize the restaurants58
. This was
because they had little or no option other than to eat in the premises as they normally
arrived late.
The post-World War 11 economic challenges also led to the rise of night-time
road transportation in Igboland. The number of commercial vehicles in Nigeria after
World War 11 rose so fast that by 1950, there were 7,300 commercial vehicles
registered59
. The rise in the number of commercial vehicles led to serious competition
among the transporters, thus reducing their profit margin. Some who could not
withstand the competition withdrew from the industry in search of other openings. Sir
L.P.Ojukwu was one of such people60
. As some transporters withdrew their vehicles
from service, passengers scrambled for spaces in the available vehicles. This was
because there was no corresponding reduction in the number of passengers. Based on
demand, some of the transporters resorted to subjecting their vehicles to several trips.
For instance, in Nsukka area, the saying went that “moto Nwokoro n‟eje Ogurugu
ugboro ebo n‟uboshi”-the lorry of Nwokoro went to Ogurugu twice daily61
. Even this
lxiv
sort of innovation could not make up for the shortages, and travelling passengers often
got stranded.
That the withdrawal of some of the transporters affected the Igbo people
could be appreciated from the fact that, according to the 1952-53 census, the Igbo
accounted for 31.2% of the 2.7 million Nigerians enumerated outside their home
region. This made the Igbo the most widely dispersed ethnic group in the country.
Even though 52.9% of Igbo migrants as recorded by that census lived in Eastern
Nigeria, they were found in the non-Igbo areas of Ogoja, Calabar, Ijaw and Bamenda.
20% of Igbo migrants were in the North while 27% were found in the West, Mid-
West and Lagos62
.
It should also be appreciated that the ratio of vehicles to human population in
Nigeria during the colonial days was so low. I.I.Ukpong posits that by 1957, there
were 39,000 registered vehicles in Nigeria and in the same year, the human
population per vehicle stood at 851 persons per vehicle63
. In the Eastern Region, to
which Igbo belong, the population per vehicle in 1957 was 1,066. This was against
what obtained in other parts of Southern Nigeria. Whereas the human population per
vehicles in Lagos was 33, in the Western Region, the figure for Eastern Region was
612 persons per vehicle. Whereas the national average was 848 persons per vehicles
in 1957, that of Eastern Region to which the Igbo belong was 1,066 persons per
vehicle64
.
The burden on existing vehicles was so heavy that some private cars were
used as commercial vehicles and were known locally as”kabu kabu”.The gains made
by these ad hoc commercial drivers must have been substantial . One of such drivers,
an employee of Union Trading Company Limited, Enugu was able to buy Opel
Caravan for £360 out of his “kabu kabu” runs. Most of the people who patronized
lxv
these drivers were dealers on agricultural produce who needed to move their goods
quickly from the rural to urban areas65
. The scarity of vehicles (cars and lorries) in the
Eastern Region must have prompted some people in the zone to use bicycles in
carrying passengers and goods in return for cash payment66
. The dearth of vehicles
continued up to the 1960s, and this must have accounted for the astronomical rise in
the number of bicycles imported into Nigeria in the early 1960s. Bicycles import
increased from 14,935 in 1945 to 75,675 in the early 1960s representing an increase
of more than 400%67.
It was against this backdrop that one can understand why the
Government of Eastern Region decided to embark on night-time road transportation
as a deliberate policy and how the Igbo came to dominate the industry.
lxvi
NOTES AND REFREENCES
1. N.T Nwaezeigwe, The Igbo and their Nri Neighbours: A Study in the Politics of
Igbo Culture and Origins, Enugu: Snaap Press Ltd., 2007, 1-2.
2. Edmund Ilogu, cited in N.T Nwaezeigwe, The Igbo and their Nri..., 1.
3. See R N C Anyadike,”Climate and Vegetation” in G E K Ofomata (ed.) A Survey of
The Igbo Nation, Onitsha: Africana [First] Publishers Ltd., 2002,73-82., M.A
Onwuejeogwu, “Early Peopling and Cultural Diversity of Igboland” in G E K
Ofomata (ed.) A Survey of The …,117-130.
4. R N C Anyadike, “Climate and Vegetation” in G E K Ofomata (ed.) A Survey…, 73.
5. Oyima Unodiaku.c.87, retired trader, oral data sourced on July 25th
2004 in her
residence in Samaru, Zaria.
6. Stalinus Mbamalu, c.72, interviewed at Onitsha Main Market on February 7th
,
2004.
7. M D W Jefferys, “The Umundri Tradition of Origin” in African Studies, vol.
15.No.3, 1956, 124-125.
8. Mokwugo Okoye, Embattled Men: Profiles in Social Adjustment, Enugu: Fourth
Dimension Publishing Co. Ltd., 1980, 15.
9a. Edoga Ugwuja Opata, c.96, eldest man in Umuda-eze village, Lejja interviewed in
his residence on 6th
February 2006.
9b. O.N.Njoku et al, Ibeku in History, Ibadan: Spectrum Books Ltd., 2006, 34.
10 Edoga Ugwuja Opata, c.96, eldest man in Umuda-eze village, Lejja interviewed in
his residence on 6th
February 2006..
11. A B Akinyemi, Foreign Policy and Federalism: The Nigerian Experience, Ibadan:
Ibadan University Press, 1974, 12-13.
12. Alhaji Ahmadu Dantata, [member] Northern Nigeria House of Assembly,
Northern Nigeria House of Assembly Debates, Official Report, February-March,
1957, 76-77.
13. F A O Schwarz Jr., Nigeria: The Tribes, The Nations or The Race; The Politics of
Independence, Cambridge: M.I.T.Press, 1965, 71.
14. L C Uzozie, “Igbo Agriculture” in G E K Ofomata (ed.) A Survey….,482-499.
lxvii
15. Nwachukwu Nweze, c.71, wife of Late Ezeja Igwe of Amelu village, Lejja. Oral
data sourced in her residence on 12th
of March, 2006.
16. Mazi Kalu Uduma, 63, Motor parts business mogul, Ugwu Agbor Obosi,
interviewed on 16th
September, 2005.
17. F E Ekejiuba, “The Aro System of Trade in the 19th
Century” Ikenga: Journal of
African Studies, vol.1, No. 1 1972, .11-26.
18. Oriakuja Ugwuanyi, c.94.Retired long-distance trader, interviewed at Lejja on 6th
April, 2004.
19. P C Onokala, “Trade and Transport” in G E K Ofomata (ed.) A Survey of…, 543-
562.
20. Onyugwu Agu, c.103, the most senior citizen of Dunoka village Lejja and also the
most elderly member of Umuada Lejja. Interviewed on 14th
January, 2006.
21. Sylvester Ndiokwelu, 63. Arondizuogu renowned traditional medicine man,
interview held at Enugu Trade Fair Complex on 26th
March, 2007.
22. E K Hawkins, Road Transport in Nigeria: A Study of African Enterprise, London:
Oxford University Press, 1958, 12.
23. A G Leonard,”Notes of a Journey to Bende” in Elizabeth Isichei, Igbo Worlds,
London: Macmillan, 1977, 212-222.
24. National Archives Enugu (N A E) ABADIST. 13/7/39, File 15/1923, Divisional
Agent to Niger Company to D O Aba, June 28, 1923.
25. P C Onokala, “Trade and Transport” in G E K Ofomata (ed.) A Survey…546.
26. Ohazuluike Ofokansi, c.86, He is one of the few existing /surviving traders who
had direct contacts with the Trading agents of John Holt at Otuocha Aguleri. Oral
interview conducted in his Enuogbu Abattete residence on 6th June, 2007.
27. Polycarp Onuzulike, c.58, blacksmith, interview conducted in his workshop at
Opanda on 16th
December, 2006. This informant hails from Awka but claim that
his relocation to Opanda was based on popular demand by farmers in the area
who came to Eke Awka to buy hoes and traps.
28. Ugwutikili Nwokpe (alias Agu n‟awa edu) c.85, renowned hunter and presently
the only Ozo title holder in his village. Interview conducted in his Umuakpo-
uwani, Lejja home on 23rd
February, 2007.
29. Charles Eze, 52.He is a traditional medicine man from Ohodo town of Igbo-Etiti
Local Government Area who is regarded around his catchment area as an expert
lxviii
in exhuming charms. Oral data gotten from the informant on the 16th April,
2008, at Lejja while performing his duties.
30. Ogbonna Nwokpe, 65.Farmer and a wine tapper. He was a brother to the Landlord
of George Nwatu.interviewed on September 18th
, 2003 at Lejja.
31. P C Onokala, “Trade and Transport” in G E K Ofomata (ed.) A Survey… ,549.
32. P C Onokala, “Trade and Transport” in G E K Ofomata (ed.) A Survey…,550.
33. T O Okoye, “Urban Life and Urban Development in Igboland” in G E K Ofomata
(ed.) A Survey…,78-194.
34. Gloria Chuku, Igbo Women and Economic Transformation in Southeastern
Nigeria, 1900-1960, New York and London: Routledge, 2005, 156.
35. A E Afigbo, “Economic Foundations of Pre-colonial Igbo Society” in I A
Akinjogbin and S O Osoba (eds.)Topics in Nigerian Economic and Social
History, Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press, Ltd. 1980, 1-18.
36. Veronica Ezugwu, c.81, retired Gari merchant, interview held on September 18th
,
2003 at Lagos.
37. See for instance UDDIV 9/1/24, File No. 185 Vol.III “The Traders‟ Union
Agbani-A Petition”, The Traders Union Agbani to Chief Secretary to the
Government, Lagos,25th
September 1994, “Railment of Gari by Station Master,
Agbani Contrary to the Resident‟s Order”, D.O. Udi Division to Resident
Onitsha Province, September 4th
,1944.
38. Among major works on the issue of banning the use of rail in trading between
Provinces and Districts are, Sydney Emezue, “Managing Wartime Shortages:
The Salt Palaver in Okigwe Division of Eastern Nigeria, 1934-1945” in Nsukka
Journal of History, Vol.2, June 1990, 1-26, O.N.Njoku, “Trading with the
Metropolis: An Unequal Exchange” in Toyin Falola (ed.) Britain and Nigeria:
Exploitation or Development?, London: Zed Books, 1987, 124-141.
O.N.Njoku,”Export Production Drive During the Second World War”
TransAfrican Journal of History,Vol.10,No.1&2,1981,11-27, L.O.Amadi,”Trade
on Local Foodstuff between the Eastern and Northern Provinces of Nigeria,1939-
1945: A New Dimension in the Assessment of Colonial Policies in Nigeria”
TransAfrican Journal of History, ,Vol.10,No.1&2,1981,87-95
39. Sdyney Emezue,” Managing Wartime Shortages…,” 13.
40. Onu Nwaoguche, 68, Coconut trader, interviewed at Nkwo Ibagwa on July 26th
,
2006.
lxix
41. O.N.Njoku,” Development of Roads and Road Transport in Southeastern
Nigeria,1903-1939” in Journal of African Studies, Vol. 5,No. 4,1978,471-491.
42. Gloria Chuku, Igbo Women…,158.
43. The East- Central State Census Committee, Historical Event Lists of Local,
Regional and National Significance, Enugu: Government Printers, 1973, 52.
44. ____________ Historical Event …,86.
45. West Africa Annual, 11th edition, Lagos: John West Publications Ltd., 1981, 270.
46. Nicodemus Eze, c.79. A former bicycle trader and a retired school teacher,
interviewed at Lejja on 27th
March, 2005.
47. Gloria Chuku, Igbo Women… ,156.
48. Ugwu Nwaugwuogoroh, c.82, Farmer and one of the relay cyclists that served
Omeke Gabriel, interviewed at Lejja on 16th
March, 2004.
49. NAE 18038/65, Vol.1, CSE. 1/85/8612, Chief Secretary to Government to
Secretaries, Eastern Province, May 28, 1942.
50. U.O.A.Esse,” Road Transport In Nigeria…” ,74.
51. Gloria Chuku, Igbo Women…,160.
52. NAE, MINIWORKS, 8/1/2555, File 19318, Memorandum on Staff Position of the
Oil and Transport Control Units, June 8, 1944.
53. For details of Nigeria‟s‟ contribution to the success of World War 11, see
O.N.Njoku, “Export Production Drive in Nigeria during the Second World War.”
in Trans African Journal of History, 10,1981,11-27.
54. Dominic Udeagu, c.94. Is the first driver of Lejja extraction, who drove a lorry
during the Second World War. Interviewed on February 18, 2007 at Amube
Lejja.
55. I.R.A.Ozigbo, A History of Igboland in the 20th
Century, Enugu: Snaap Press Ltd,
1999, 86.
56. Gilbert Walker, Traffic and Transport in…,108.
57. Mokwugo Okoye, Embattled Men: Profiles in Social Adjustment, Enugu: Fourth
Dimension Publishing Co., 1980, 113.
lxx
58. Mrs Rosemary Izundu, c.93. Retired Restaurateur and Manager of Chibuike
Restaurant (now extinct) located along Lafia- Akwanga Road. Interviewed at
Nkpor, March, 16, 2005.
59. U.O.A.Esse, “Road Transport…” 106.
60.U.O.A. Esse, “Road Transport…”107.
61. Uguwja Opata interviewed cited.
62. M.I.Iro, “Population Redistribution and National Integration in Nigeria, 1940-
1980” The Nigerian Journal of Social Studies, Vol.2, No.1, 1985, 1-11.
63. I.I.Ukpong, “Social and Economic Infrastructure” in F.A.Olalokun et.al. Structure
of the Nigerian Economy, London: Macmillan, 1979, 68-99.
64. See Table 4 in E.K.Hawkins, Road Transport in Nigeria: A Study…, 18.
65. Chief Basil Okagbue, 94, Retired trader who specialized in the sale of smoked
fish, interview conducted at Umuahia on June 16th
, 2006.
66. Deji Olugunna, The Story of Transport, Ibadan: Evans Brothers Ltd., 1964, 13.
67. See Gloria Chuku, Igbo Women…, 161.
lxxi
lxxii
CHAPTER THREE
EARLY BEGINNINGS OF NIGHT-TIME ROAD TRANSPORT IN
IGBOLAND, 1961-1969
Lynn White (Jr.) observed that necessity explains nothing until the need is felt1. The
need for vehicles to transport people and goods within and outside Igboland
compelled the Igbo to adopt what might appear as an unusual approach in combating
the problem. Some of the forces at play in Nigeria around 1960 were to inform the
decision of the Igbo. For example, by 1960, Nigeria had about 46,173 kilometers of
roads. A breakdown of this figure by regions indicates the Western Region had
12,147 out of which 2,144 kilometers were tarred. The Eastern Region had 14,026
kilometers out of which 1,060 were tarred, while the North had 20,000 kilometers out
of which 1,800 were tarred. This translates to 17.65% of the roads in the West as
tarred; 7.58% of roads in the East as tarred, and 9.00% of roads in the North as
tarred2. This shows that the Eastern Nigeria of which the Igbo were part had the least
total length of tarred roads in the country then. Allied to the above predicament was
the number of vehicles available. By 1964, the ratio of human population per vehicle
was 556 persons to a vehicle. If the figure is distributed according to regions, the
Eastern and Northern Regions were the worst hit by paucity of vehicles. Whereas
Lagos had 14.0 vehicles per 1000 persons in1964, the Western Region had 2.5per
1000 persons, the Mid-West had 2.6 per 1000persons; Eastern Region had 1.9
vehicles for every 1000 persons, while the Northern Region had 0.8 per 1000
persons3.
lxxiii
The predicament of Eastern Nigeria viz a viz that of the North is appreciated
when one realizes that the use of pack animalsin the North was not hampered as in
the East by the prevalence of tsetse fly. Incidentally, in 1960, road transport carried
62% of the freight-traffic (ton miles) and more than 90% of the passengers4.Even as
Eastern Nigeria was very badly off in terms of road transportation, it remained the
most densely populated area in Nigeria. The number of persons per square kilometer
based on 1963 data shows that the then Eastern Region (including most of Igboland)
had a population density of 164 persons per square kilometer while the Western
Region had 132, the Mid-Western Region(including some parts of Igboland) had 66.
The Northern Region had 41 persons per square kilometer.5 It was the bid to tackle
the deplorable state of vehicular transport in Igboland that spurred the government
and private operators to take to nocturnal road transport business, even though their
efforts were confronted by many obstacles.
Government Initiatives
In 1959, a year before Nigeria got her independence, the National Economic Council
sought for a centralized economic planning6.This was not to be as economic planning
and development was heavily skewed towards the regions7. This gave the government
of the regions the impetus to forge their own development policies and plans.. As it
relates to road transport, it was part of what fell under the concurrent list in the
nation‟s constitution. The Government of Eastern Region, aware of the predicament
of the region in vehicular road transport, took a number of measures aimed at
improving the situation. Such measures needless to stress, were to touch the lives of
the Igbo. Part of the measures was to improve the condition of existing roads. In 1960
lxxiv
alone, no less than 14 major road and bridge contracts valued at £2½million were
awarded and signed8.
The effort of government of Eastern Nigeria deserves to be commended. This
is because during the First National Development Plan (1962-1968), it had the least
allocation of N 24 million from the federation account. The Northern Region had
N58.2 million while the Western Region got N 39.8 million. The Eastern Region also
had the least federal allocation in terms of expenditure on roads. It has been estimated
that between 1960 and 1961 N6.6 million was spent on road projects in the North as
against, N4.8 million spent in the West. The Eastern Region came last with N3.4
million9. Even as the East received the least allocation on roads, it had been observed
that it is one of the areas where the cost of constructing transport facilities is generally
high due to its difficult topography and ecology10
.
Even as the transportation problem in the East persisted, increasing waves of
urbanization helped to make more demands on the existing transport facilities. By
1963, Igboland had recorded over a 30% increase in the population of all its
Administrative towns. Table 1 below gives a clue to the rate of population growth in
the Administrative towns.
Table 1: Population Data on Some Administrative Divisions in Igboland Between
1952 and 1963.
S/NO. DIVISION 1952
POPULATION
1963
POPULATION
PERCENTAGE
INCREASE
1 Onitsha 446,193 797,386 71.o%
2 Nsukka 449,345 689,353 53.4%
3 Awka 295,048 694,396 135.4%
4 Okigwe 442,706 743,832 68.0%
lxxv
Sources: A.E.Okorafor,” Population” in G.E.K.Ofomata (Ed.), A Survey of the Igbo Nation,
Onitsha: Africana [First] Publishers Ltd., 2002. 131-145 and C.Okonjo , “A Preliminary
Medium Estimate of the 1962 mid-year population of Nigeria” in J.C.Cadwell and C. Okonjo
(Eds.) The Population of Tropical Africa, New York: Columbia University Press,1968,88-
89.
However, the rise in urban population was not matched by a corresponding rise in the
number of motor vehicles available for use. In Nsukka Division, for instance, “ by
1963 and up to the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War, there were not more than 37
commercial vehicles serving over 72 communities”11
.
It was in a bid to redress these inadequacies in the transport sector that
motivated the government of Eastern Nigeria to float a motor transport company
known as Outlook Transport Service (OTS). Government directed OTS to engage in
night-time road transportation as shown in Table2.
TABLE 2: Outlook Transport Service (OTS) Schedule
Depart From Through Destination Departure Time
Enugu Owerri-Aba Port Harcourt 10 p.m daily except
on Saturdays
Enugu Oji-River- Okigwe-
Umuahia-Ikot
Ekpene-Uyo.
Oron 11 p.m except on
Saturdays.
Enugu ---------- Abakaliki 4a.m daily except
on Saturdays
Source: Nigerian Outlook, February 7, 1961, 7.
Even a casual perusal of the above table would show that many communities in
Igboland were not covered by OTS. The entire Nsukka Division was among places
not served.
The spatial limit of OTS‟s coverage could be accounted for by many factors.
In 1954, the government of the Eastern Region was financially disadvantaged. While
the federal government had a surplus of N8.32 million, the Northern Region, a surplus
of N3.08 million, the Western Region N8.98 million; Eastern Region had a deficit of
lxxvi
NO.92million12
. It should therefore occasion no surprise that the Eastern Regional
Government was in no position to provide enough vehicles for OTS. Mr. Lazarus
Iwuagwu told the present writer that OTS had only 13 motor vehicles, made up of five
Ford buses and seven lorries13
. The deficit apart, it is not conceivable that
government alone would have provided enough vehicles to service the population of
the region. Competing sectoral demands on government coffers would have
discounted that.
Another factor that impeded the fortunes of road transport in Eastern Nigeria
was the way and manner the federal government ordered its priorities. The River
Niger which was something of a communication barrier between the people of
Eastern and Western Nigeria was not bridged until 196614
.Given the strategic
importance of the Niger Bridge as the major link by road between Igboland and Lagos
which was then the industrial and political capital of Nigeria, it is expected that the
bridge should have been built earlier.
In spite of the paucity of vehicles and the poor state of roads, OTS played a
big role in assuaging the transportation problems of Igboland. Mr. Fidelis Akubuiro,
one of the beneficiaries of OTS‟s services, insists that OTS exposed him to the gains
of rural urban trade. He used to buy garri from Nkwo Ibagwa market, Nsukka and
sent this to Port Harcourt through an OTS driver called Molokwu. Molokwu on
getting into Port Harcourt would hand the garri over to Akubuiro‟s brother there for
sale. Through Molokwu, the brother sent the money realized from the sales back to
Akubuiro within an interval of two days. Within the two-day interval, Akubuiro said
he would buy and package another consignment of garri for Port Harcourt. According
to Mr. Akubuiro, a 50kg bag of garri at Ibagwa market in 1963 which cost not more
than six shillings sold for between eleven shillings and one pound in Port Harcourt at
lxxvii
the same time. The cost of transporting a 50kg bag of garri from Ibagwa via Enugu to
Port Harcourt was four pence. This translated to a net profit of about four shillings,
six pence per a 50kg bag of garri. Through this trade, Akubuiro was able to raise
enough money with which he bought a Ford lorry. He then used the lorry to carry his
goods and that of other passengers from Nsukka to Kano15
.
The establishment of OTS assuaged but did not fully satisfy the transportation
needs of Igbo. One of the major shortcomings of OTS was not keeping to scheduled
time. Though OTS had official departure time, in most cases it never kept to the
schedule. A trader who patronized OTS in the course of his many trips to Aba said he
had to join private operators on more than twenty occasions due to such delays.16
.
OTS was equally affected by the unhealthy competition from private commercial
vehicle operators. Private operators tactically siphoned drivers employed by
government to their businesses by offering higher wages to their drivers. For instance,
between 1962 and 1966, government drivers on Grade levels 1 and 2 were paid £129-
177 per annum; while drivers/mechanics F1, 2, 3 got between £156-342 per annum.
Senior drivers/mechanics F4 earned between £349-397 per annum. Motor drivers in
private firms paid £120-230 while lorry drivers were paid £200-280 per annum17
. Due
to the more attractive wage differential, some government drivers left OTS for private
businesses or got absorbed by private firms. Mr. Stephen Akaeze was one of those
who left the services of OTS as a driver‟s assistant to work for Benson Moghalu as a
lorry driver because of wage differential18
. To augument their wages, drivers of OTS
resorted to charging unofficial and unapproved exorbitant fares, especially in respect
to luggage. For instance, according to Ezugwuja Okoro, in 1962;
they charged three pence from Abakaliki to Enugu and passengers
with light goods were not made to pay extra fare. By 1964, I was
forced to pay for half a bag of yam seeds (about sixty of moderate
lxxviii
size). What annoyed one most was that they had no weighing
machines and that left the passengers at the mercy of the driver‟s
discretion19
.
As a result of all these shortcomings, many people resorted to patronizing privately
owned vehicles.
Despite its difficulties, the company managed to stay afloat until the outbreak of
the civil war in 1967. The war put the knell on the company as some of its vehicles
were commandeered by the Biafran soldiers to execute the war.
Private Sector Involvement
The road transportation problem of Eastern Region in general and Igboland
specifically caught the attention of the organized private sector very early. As early as
1918 and1919, two expatriate transport companies were operating in Igboland. These
were Messrs Summer Transport and Engineering Services and Armels Transport
Services. Each of these companies used Aba as either a base or branch office. They
were involved in the haulage of goods and carrying of passengers. Armels had the
monopoly of carrying coal from Enugu to Onitsha. It also carried passengers,
especially during periods of low production. Records show that during World War 11,
Armels conveyed an average of 216 passengers daily from Enugu to Onitsha20
. This
high figure carried by Armels is understandable given the fact that a lot of restrictions
were placed on passenger traffic. Emphasis was on evacuation of produce and only
government approved transport operators were permitted to carry passengers.
What is not clear is whether Armels engaged in night transport as a deliberate
policy or not. However, one account avers that at Enugu, Armels had a loading station
somewhere between Iva Valley and the present New Market from where it
lxxix
occasionally conveyed passengers to Onitsha in the evening based on demand and
availability of passengers21
.
The private sector also helped in the training of drivers who later went into
night –time road transport22
. In this case, Union Trading Company (UTC), a Swiss
firm, was prominent. UTC conducted a motor training school in Enugu, taking boys
from all over the federation who had spent between six to eight years in school23
.
Some of the drivers who were trained by UTC established businesses outside
Igboland. For instance, Jonas Obute ( alias Jolly Joe) while on his many night-time
trips to the Northern Nigerian cities of Lafia, Akwanga, Jos and Kano discovered that
Igbo passengers and traders were not comfortable with the food cooked by the people
of those localities. He then set up an eating joint along Lafia-Akwanga road.24.
As
patronage grew, he expanded the business to include a bar, and always stopped
passengers there for a brief rest before heading for Kano.
There is evidence to show that during the First Republic, many Igbo
transporters were engaged in night-time road transportation, using Igboland as their
base and take-off points. However, their services extended to other parts of Nigeria.
Godwin Okoro said that:
Okereke Ihiala(possibly referring to Michael Okereke)plied from Azia in Anambra
State to Benin, Ibadan and Lagos during the period 1963 to 1967. In most cases the
vehicles left Azia late in the evening. During their return trips they carried passengers
down to Nsukka. Due to delays associated with loading and unloading, too many
stops to pick or drop passengers and their goods, the vehicles always came into
Nsukka around 2am. On 19th Febuary, 1967 which was a Sunday, one of the vehicles
came in around 3am. The following day, Monday 20th February 1967, I withdrew
from Okereke‟s transport business due to an armed robbery attack at Awka25
.
Of importance is the fact that private operators served areas not covered by OTS as is
evident from the immediate quote above. Private operators also had an advantage over
OTS in terms of picking and dropping passengers. In fact, private operators had no
lxxx
parks of their own during this period and were not under any instruction to stop or not
to stop at specified locations. They stopped anywhere there was a passenger to pick or
drop.
The importance of night-time road transportation in the development of agriculture
in Igboland cannot be contested. In Nsukka Division, Adani, Opanda, Ogurugu and
Adaba are known to be the abode of migrant tenant farmers. Most of these farmers are
from Aku, Ede Oballa, Ovoko and Lejja. Drivers like Ugwoke Okonkwo (alias Oyi
Umuaka) made a living by conveying these farmers from their towns of origin to their
farm stations at night26
. This was to enable the farmers trek into their farms that were
located many miles away from where they disembarked the vehicles during the day.
More so the paths to their farms were narrow and bushy and some were snake
infested.
Some of these farmers were successful and could boast of between five and
twenty big barns of yam. Some were even contracted to supply yams and garri to
Adada Grammar School from 1965 to 196727
. The importance of night-time road
transport to these farmers cannot be overemphasized. Some of them came from
communities where not up to six vehicles plied their roads regularly on daily basis.
There were also no vehicles that could carry them from their native towns to their
farms except that of Oyi Umuaka. Incidentally, by this time there were only two
lorries that offered commercial services from Nsukka to Uzo Uwani28
The private sector through offering night-time road transport services helped in
the development of rural to urban trade. Thanks to there services, their emerged some
inland depots in some rural communities where goods were assembled and later
evacuated to urban areas in the evening. In the 1960s,some of the notable inland
depots that arose as a result of night travels using vehicular road transport were
lxxxi
found at Mgbidi, Obehia, Iboko, Aku, Otuocha, Ogbunamiri‟s house Nsukka to
mention but a few29
. Some of these stations still witness heavy traffic at night as
transit stations. At these stations, passengers heaps of locally produced goods are seen
on daily bases waiting to be transported to various urban centres in Nigeria. Also,
passengers and those engaged in selling food and drinks to transporters and
passengers are seen daily.
Table 3: Oyi Umuaka’s Night-Time Travel Chart
S/N Depart
from
Time Transit
Stations
Catchment Area of
Passengers
Destinations Times of
arrival at
destinations
1 Echara-
Nsukka
8-8:30
pm
Orie Eboo,
Lejja
Aku, Ozalla,
Ejuona/Uwani Lejja
Opanda,
Adani
5:18-6:15 am
2 Orie Eboo,
Lejja
9:30-
10:15
pm
Nkwo Lejja Ozalla, Ejuona and
Amagu Lejja.
Opanda,
Adani
5:18-6:15am
3 Nkwo
Lejja
11-
12:30
am
Onu Mgbugbu
Ugwuezeja
Ozor, Lejja
Okekwuma- Lejja,
Amaegbu-Ede
Oballa, Obuegu-
Ohodo
Opanda,
Adani,
Ogurugu
5:18-6:15 am
and 8:27 -8:45
am
4 Onu
Mgbugbu
Ugwuezeja
Ozor, Lejja
1-
1:45am
Ukwu ala
Ugwu Idikiyi
(a hill
standing
between Lejja,
Ede Oballa
and Nsukka
Abakuru-Ede
Oballa, Amagu
Idike and Odimegu-
Nguru Nsukka
Opanda,
Adani,
Ogurugu
5:18-6:15am
and 8:27–
8:45am
5 Ukwu ala
Ugwu
Idikiyi
2-
2:15am
Oba Echara,
Nsukka
Umuakashi,
Echara,Isakpu,Amae
ze Nsukka
Opanda,
Adani,
Ogurugu
5:18-6:15am
and 8:27-
8:45am
6 Oba
Echara,
Nsukka
3-30am Ikwuoka-
Obimo
Akpotoro, Ikwuoka,
Ishielu Obimo.
Opanda,
Adani,
Ogurugu
5:18-6:15am
and 8:27 -
8:45am
Source: Based on Oral data from the driver (Ugwoke Okonkwo alias Oyi Umuaka). He is
presently the chief priest of Idenyi Nsukka. Interviewed at Nsukka on 18/8/2009.
The Nigerian civil war provided a unique business opportunity for Igbo night-time
transport providers. They deployed their vehicles into the various sectors of the
economy where they served many purposes. This ranged from carrying of soldiers
and their ammunition to carrying people and their goods. The importance of nocturnal
road transport became more manifest in towns occupied by Federal troops. As bombs,
lxxxii
shelling, bullets and rockets landed on many towns, the people were forced to
evacuate their communities en mass. During their movements, some employed the
services of drivers to convey them to their new places of temporary settlement. For
example, when the Federal troupes came into Awka, transporters like Fidelis
Akubuiro used his lorry to carry people at night from Awka to Nnewi which
incidentally was never occupied by the Federal troupes. According to Akubuiro,
what made my trips easy was that I always went in company of
some Igbo women and young girls who spoke Hausa fluently and
were ready to quench the sexual urge of the soldiers. These ladies
would always plead with the soldiers who got enraged whenever
they saw Igbomen. It would seem that the smiles from the ladies
softened their hearts. I also resorted to buying locally brewed gin
for them but they insisted on my tasting it before handing it over
to them30
.
The sheer courage of transporters like Akubuiro to risk their lives during the war is a
clear evidence of Igbo spirit of enterprise in the night-time road transport industry.
Provision of food was another area where night-time road transport service providers
helped the Igbo during the war. Most of the drivers went in search of food at night to
avoid commandeering of vehicles by soldiers. Mr. Albert Udenta made a living from
nocturnal road transport during the war. He carried people in his 404 Peugeot wagon
from Olokoro to Ikwuano. In some cases, he squeezed upwards of twelve passengers
at once in his vehicle31
. In places like Ohafia, Chief Ugoji Eke donated three of his
lorries to help in the distribution of relief materials. Oral data support the claim that
relief materials were brought into some refugee camps at night by vehicles. Ibeku
people were said to be fond of going to the refugee camps in the early hours of the
morning to wait for their ration of pounded yam and corn called “formula two” that
always came late at night33
. Night trips became an auspicious way to move relief
materials as the drivers of vehicles used in their distribution tried to avoid running
lxxxiii
into federal troops who mounted road blocks during the day in some places with the
aim of making motorists their special target of dispossesion34
. Passengers, especially
traders also resorted to traveling at night in order not to get stranded when soldiers
who commandeered vehicles discharged the passengers in the commandeered
vehicles. This was because they noticed that even though the sound of vehicles
travelled very far at night and the light from the vehicle alerted the soldiers that a
vehicle was approaching, the soldiers on night duty were not as many as those on duty
during the day as the soldiers on night duty alternated their duty hours to enable each
soldier have some hours of sleep before day break. What was more, the soldiers
would normally not beckon on their sleeping partners so as to corner the gifts offered
them by the drivers. The latter experience was more on the Biafran side, especially
when the war was coming to an end35
.
During that war, some parts of Igboland were occupied by federal troops.
What remained of Biafra faced economic blockade. Hunger and malnutrition were on
the increase. Kwashiorkor was endemic, resulting in high demand for salt and food
with high protein content. To combat the incidence of hunger and malnutrition, the
Igbo resorted to “attack trade”-afia ataku-which was done mostly at night. There were
two categories of “attack traders”: those who traded within Biafra held territories and
those who sneaked through the war fronts and traded behind enemy lines. Those who
traded within Biafra held territories in most cases bought some of the items they sold
from those who traded behind enemy lines. This was because, the population in Biafra
held territories was alarming and the resources available were not in any way near
commensurate with the population. This forced the traders to source some of the
goods they sold from outside. Those who traded within Biafra enclave made use of
vehicles. For instance, in 1968, before Ozalla was attacked by the federal troops,
lxxxiv
some Ozalla people who spoke Hausa, especially women who worked as commercial
sex workers in Northern Nigeria went to Aku to buy goods either stolen or confiscated
by soldiers. Some even went as far as stealing any food item they found in abandoned
villages; hence the names “attack trade”. This group of traders would normally have
their vehicle stationed at Ujoma village, Ozalla. After their exploits at Aku, they came
back and boarded their vehicle at mid-night and drove straight to their boundary with
Lejja. Here, they sold their goods to traders from people of various communities that
inhabited Lejja then36
.
The ingenuity of Igbo transporters was brought to bear on the “attack trade”
during the war. Mellitus Igbonagu who conveyed attack traders from Nnewi to Ojoto
enlarged the size of his vehicle by extending its wooden part to accommodate more
passengers. The floor of the vehicle had a small wooden box under knit. Inside the
box he loaded locally produced gun powder and cannon. The box in the vehicle was
placed very far from the engine to avoid the gun powder catching fire. The attack
traders sat on the wooden plank floor of the vehicle where the box was concealed.
When they got close to Ojoto, some of the traders who knew the terrain very well
would disembark. Those traders who disembarked would carry the gun powder and
the cannon and sneak into Ojoto at mid-night. In the dead of the night, they would
plant the cannons which they had loaded gunpowder into in an area very far from
where the Federal troops were stationed. When they were sure that their mates must
have made their entry into Ojoto, they would ignit the cannons. The sound of the
cannon threw the ssoldiers into confusion and would cause them to scamper towards
the direction from where the sound of the cannon was coming. Amid this confusion,
the attack traders would transact their business. Those who remained with the driver
lxxxv
while the first set that loaded the cannons left went with the driver into the town using
the main route where the military check point stood37
.
The ingenuity and inventive spirit of the Igbo notwithstanding, as the civil war
prolonged, so did it become more difficult for the government to solve the vehicular
transport problem. This was epitomized in the demise of OTS during the war. The
prolongation of the war inevitably stifled the effort of private transporters. Lack of
spare parts was a critical factor. Maintenance was also problematic as most
technicians and experienced mechanics were either in the war front or in hiding.
Many vehicles became unserviceable due to many years of over-use and neglect.
Worse still, the shooting war resulted in the destruction of many vehicles. At the end
of hostilities, the Igbo were confronted with the huge problem of starting life anew
and with nothing to hang on to.
lxxxvi
lxxxvii
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. Lynn White (Jr.) Medieval Technology and Social Change, London: Claredon
Press, 1962, 144.
2. H.Robinson et al, The Economic Coordination of Transport Development in
Nigeria, California: Stanford Research Institute, 1960, 137.
3. I.I.Ukpong, “Social and Economic Infrastructure” in F.A.Olaekun et al, Structure
of the Nigerian Economy, London: Macmillan, 1979, 68-99.
4. Alan Sokolski, The Establishment of Manufacturing in Nigeria, London: Fredrick
A Praeger Publishers Inc., 1965, 96.
5., Alan Sokolski, The Establishment of Manufacturing…, 20.
6. Federal Ministry of Economic Planning, First National Economic Development
Plan, 1962-1968, Lagos: Ministry of Economic Development, 1962, 5-6.
7. O.Aboyode, “The Relations between Central and Local Institutions in the
Development Process” in Nigerian Opinion, February and March, 1968, 297.
8. National Archives Enugu (N.A.E), Box 15, Speech by His Excellency, the
Governor of Eastern Nigeria, Sir Francis Akanu Ibiam, K.B.E to the Third
Session of the First House of Chiefs and the Fifth Session of the Fourth House
of Assembly, Thursday, March 2, 1961, 17-18.
9. O. Nnoli, Ethnic Politics in Nigeria, Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1980,
198-199.
10. I.I.Ukpong, “Social and Economic…” , 84.
11. Ichie Aloysius Anyaegbuna, c.102. He is one of the pioneer commercial drivers in
Nsukka Division who alternated his trips to various communities based on
market days, seasons of local festivals and planting seasons. Interviewed at
Nsukka on July 12th
, 2003.
12. O.Nnoli, Ethnic Politics…, 204.
13. Mr. Lazarus Iwuagwu, C.94. He is reputed to be one of the early mechanics that
serviced government vehicles and made use of Coal Camp, Enugu as his base.
Oral data elicited from this informant on March 16th
, 2004 at Lagos. He hails
from Amagu in Ngwa area of Abia state Nigeria.
lxxxviii
14. I.R.A.Ozigbo, A History of Igboland in the 20th
Century, Enugu: Snaap Press Ltd.,
1999, 25.
15. Mr. Fidelis Akubuiro, c.93, is a retired lorry driver and garri trader. Interviewed at
Awka on May 26, 2005.
16. Mr. Boniface Nnorom, 87, Trader (specialized in the sale of Nigerian wax brand
of cloths). Interviewed at Onitsha on July 21st, 2003.
17. E.C.N.Okan , Careers in Nigeria, London: Evan Brothers Ltd, 1996, 259.
18. Stephen Akaeze, 72, Retired lorry driver and member of Nigerian Union of Road
Transport Workers, Upper Iweka branch, interviewed on April 3rd
, 2005.
19. Ezugwuja Okoro,c.71, migrant tenant farmer, interviewed at Lejja on March
18th
,2004.
20. N.A.E, CSE,1/85/8614,File No. 18038/65. Vol.111. C.J.Pleas to Deputy
Controller of Motor Transport, A.M.Muir, October 2, 1943.
21. Gabriel Okoroafor,C.81, member National Union of Road Transport Workers,
New Market , Enugu, Enugu, January 25,2004.
22. Patrick Ozota, C.72, Driver who is into night travels and posits that he was trained
by UTC, Lejja, January 17, 2004.
23. Alan Sokolski, The Establishment…, 75.
24. Jonas Obute(alias Jolly Joe), C.73. Retired lorry driver. Interviewed at Lejja on
January, 17, 2004.
25.Godwin Okoro, C.68. Formerly a driver‟s assistant with Okereke Ihiala Transport
Company. Interviewed at Nibo, July 21, 2004 at Lejja.
26.Ugwoke Okonkwo (alias Oyi Umuaka) c.86, Retired lorry driver and chief priest
of Idenyi Nsukka. Interviewed at Nsukka, September27, 2006.
27. Elias Njogo, c73.Retired Security Officer (Night Watchman) Adada Grammar
School, Nkpologu, interviewed at Lejja on May 13, 2006.
28. Ezugwuja Okoro, interview cited.
29. Jonas Nwodo, 73, Driver. He traveled from Nsukka to Sapele and Oron.
Interviewed on July 17, 2009 at his Nsukka residence.
30. Mr. Fidelis Akubuiro, interview cited.
31. Felix Nzeako, 73, Trader interviewed at Owerri on January 2, 2004. He claimed to
be one of Udenta‟s passengers n the early months of 1969.
lxxxix
32. N.O.Okore, “Ohafia and the Nigerian Civil War” unpublished Bachelor of Arts
Project, Department of History, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, August 1992,
48.
33. F.Nzeako, interview cited.
34. Ben Gbulie, The Fall of Biafra, Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishing Co. Ltd,
1981, p.248.
35. Felix Nzeako, interview cited. See E.C.Obiezuoju-Ezeigbo, The Biafran War and
the Igbo in Contemporary Nigerian Politics, Lagos: Genius Press, 2007,.130.
I.R.A.Ozigbo, A History of Igboland in the 20th
Century, Enugu: Snaap Press
Ltd., 1999, 168.
36. Bernard Igwe, c.63, A renowned “Attack Trader”, Interviewed at Ozalla, July29th,
2008.
37. Festus Mmoneke, c.75, Trader (he is referred to Oji abali atu mgbo – i.e, one who
threw bullets or bomb at night), was one of the regular passengers of
Igbonagu. Interviewed at Nnewi,on 16th August, 2005.
xc
CHAPTER FOUR
THE SITUATION IN POST-CIVIL WAR
IGBOLAND, 1970-1988
All wars are tragic occurrences. It has become somewhat of a truism
that civil wars are even more so1.
The tragedy that came with the Nigerian civil war and the hardship the Igbo faced was
captured in Phillip Effiong‟s statement that:
Biafra is a child of circumstance, like a premature baby born
by caesarean section, anemic and sustained by blood
transfusion, destined, like the original Caesar for great
works. His existence and survival are always a marvel,
sometimes bordering on miracle.2
The survival of Igboland to the end of the war was a real miracle. With their means of
livelihood destroyed and psyche traumatized, the Igbo faced enormous obstacles
making a new beginning.
Condition of Roads and Communication Facilities in Immediate Post-Civil War
Igboland
In immediate post-war Igboland, movement of people and their goods was a
nightmare. With an estimated population of 7.5 million at the end of the war, most
Igbo, especially in the rural areas, had no access to vehicular transport. To compound
the nightmare, the Igbo were required to obtain “passes” before they could travel
freely in East Central State. For the Igbo, traveling to other parts of the federation
immediately after the war was a risky gamble. This was partly because of the level of
xci
suspicion, if not xenophobia other parts of the nation regarded them with. To worsen
the situation, the “passes” (travel permit) were issued to them by a resident Sarki
(Hausa chief), especially in places occupied by federal troops3. To obtain such “pass”
was very problematic. Some Sarki did not understand any other language other than
Hausa. On the other part, some Igbo people neither spoke nor understood Hausa and
could not speak any other language save Igbo. The very few Igbo people who spoke
both Hausa and Igbo made a living out of this confused state.
Basil Nwizu, who spoke Igbo and Hausa fluently, had his lorry loaded before
any other lorry that travelled to Zaria and Shika from Abagana. He would collect
money from the passengers and take all of them to the Sarki where he explained the
purpose of their missions to the Sarki. The Sarki would always be heard interrupting
Nwizu by saying kwereyi Kwa (correct) intermittently4. To earn a living like Nwizu,
other drivers who could not speak Hausa resorted to giving Nwizu commissions to
load their vehicles. For each lorry, Nwizu was given five shillings which was
equivalent to the fare paid by a passenger with bulky good. As a result of the delay in
explaining the missions of the passengers, loading their goods, negotiating fares, the
drivers always left late in the evening5.
Travelling by road in the immediate post-war years was a nightmare. Many
roads were so bad that many pot- holes and chain gallops made them death traps. For
instance, Owerri-Aba road, Awka-Agulu-Nnobi-Nnewi road and the Enugu-Ukwu-
Agwu roads had so many pot-holes and broken culverts. The Owerri-Aba road was a
Trunk A road, but the rest were Trunk B roads. The Umuahia-Bende road was equally
damaged, and was riddled with obstacles and poor drainage. One bridge B.9/1-
measuring ninety-six feet was blown up. On the Aba- Opobo road excessive use by
the military led to serve damages6.
xcii
Another problem that confronted the road transport sector was scarcity of
drivers. In 1971, the East Central State Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport
were authorized to employ a total of 13 senior drivers. They only found 6, a shortfall
of over 50%7. Even private transporters suffered the same experience. Jeremiah
Agwuncha spent close to two months trying to recruit a driver to drive his
refurbished lorry after the war8.
The dilapidated state of public utilities was regarded by the government of
East Central State as a serious problem. However, what to do about 23,000 disabled
persons, 44,000 orphans and 89,000 destitutes in Igboland was a more compelling
problem9. The problem of taking care of this helpless lot was compounded by food
scarcity. It had been observed that in Igboland “you could hardly buy one cup of
garri for £20 in the months before the end of the war”10.
Under this situation, both
the government and the citizens were in a fix. The dilemma the Igbo found
themselves in was made worse by paucity of vehicles. Even if they had the money to
buy food from places outside Igboland, the vehicles with which to transport them
were virtually not there.
That there was dearth of vehicles in Nigeria as a whole and Igboland in
particular after the war is not in doubt. Records show that human population per
vehicle stood at 2 vehicles for every 1,000 persons in Nigeria as at 197011
. In that
year, a total of 3,455 commercial vehicles were registered in East Central State
(Igboland,the main theater of the civil war). In 1971, the number fell to 2,727. Even
privately owned vehicles declined in number. This is made evident by the number of
newly registered vehicles. In 1970, a total of 16,831 vehicles were registered in
Igboland but in 1971, the total was 10, 27212
. One of the main reasons why the Igbo
could not easily buy vehicles to supplement existing ones was that the Biafra currency
xciii
they used was declared an illegal tender after the war. Following this declaration, any
one who operated an account in any bank in the Old Eastern Region was paid only
£20, irrespective of the amount he/she had before. Even those who had no account
were made to go through the painful experience of changing the Biafra currency. In
some cases, they never got any thing back. The Igbo lost upwards of £4million to this
exercise; a whooping amount of moneyin the early 1970s13
. Among the people of
Nsukka, this particular experience gave rise to the saying; Ego ala Udi (money has
gone to Udi), implying loss of money14
.
The government of East Central State (which constituted greater chunk of
Igboland), was in serious financial distress. Between 1970 and 1973, it recorded a
deficit of N7.8million15
.The financial standing of the East Central State government
did not allow for the provision of many vehicles that would have reduced the pressure
on existing vehicles. The pressure on existing vehicles was aggravated by the sordid
state the Eastern Line of the Nigerian Railway saw itself during and after the war. The
Eastern Line was destroyed during the war. Unfortunately, development plans after
the war stressed highway construction at the expense of an aging, narrow-gauge
railway. The neglect of the railway led to eventual demise of that transport sector. By
1979, when it was handed over to an Indian firm, it had 219 main line diesel
locomotives out of which only 97 were functional. Of the 7,000 wagons in its stock,
only 3,300 were serviceable, while a third of the 650 passenger coaches were
unusable16
. With very few motor vehicles and a collapsing rail service, much pressure
was brought to bear on available motor vehicles. It was under this state of limited
transport service, that the burden of addressing the anomaly fell on both the
government and the private sector.
xciv
Government and Private Sector Intercessions up to 1976
The governments of East Central State and of the Federation saw the transportation
problems in Igboland as a challenge. The Federal Government concentrated attention
on repairing damaged roads. For instance, the Niger Bridge damaged during the war
was reconstructed within a period of three months after the war. The importance of
the Niger Bridge to Igboland as, indeed to the Eastern and Western states is immense.
It has remained the shortest and most direct land route between the Igbo east of the
Niger and Lagos17
. The repair of the Niger Bridge created an opportunity for Igbo
transport service providers engaged in nocturnal road transport. Using Onitsha either
as take off or transit stations, Igbo transporters carried traders and non- traders to
Western Region of Nigeria. The Western Region was a centre of commerce and
politics in Nigeria then. Lagos which was part of the region was the nation‟s capital.
Lagos was the main centre of economic and commercial activity because
manufacturing in Nigeria even after the 1967 state creation exercise by the Federal
Government was disproportionately concentrated in Lagos metropolitan area. By
1971, people from East Central State, West and Lagos dominated the trade in
manufactured products18
. Traders from various Igbo communities would always
converge at the Upper Iweka area of Onitsha at different times of the day. They
waited for vehicles that would take them to Lagos for business. Due to the poverty
occasioned on the Igbo by the war, it took a lot of time for a lorry to have full load as
not many people had the money to embark on long distance trade. Due to delays
during loading, the vehicles usually took off from Onitsha late in the evening and
arrived in Lagos early in morning the next day19
.
This pattern of movement helped the Igbo traders in many ways. Most urban
markets in Igboland were destroyed during the war and stalls were not readily
xcv
available after that war. Igbo traders then resorted to selling to retailers by day and
travelling at night to buy their wares and meet the markets in session during the day.
Through this means that was made possible by night-time road service providers of
Igbo extraction, the Igbo re-established themselves as big time traders in Lagos.
Today, the result of their risk is seen in the dominance of the Igbo in the commercial
activities of markets like Alaba (electronic business) Idumota (clothes and sell of
home videos) and Ladipo (motor parts) 20.
Ogbonna Oluoha is a living example of one
of those who made it in life through the services of Igbo drivers that offered night-
time road transport services in the immediate post-war period21
.
In Owerri, the provision of night-time road transport service helped in
breaking the monopoly established by some Igbo traders in the immediate post- war
period. In 1971, at Owerri, a group of yam and garri traders prevented local food stuff
producers from bargaining directly with buyers other than themselves and went as far
as forcing the producers out of market by offering them very low prices for their
goods even when other people were ready to offer higher prices. This they did by
refusing to give way for another person to bargain, insisting that they had not finished
their bargain with the producer22
. In response, some of the producers resorted to
contributing money to help them compete with these monopolists. The money they
contributed was to enable them send their products to Lagos and Port Harcourt where
these monopolists sold their goods. Using Oriental Line Buses, these traders departed
Owerri at about 11pm for Port Harcourt. Those for Lagos found it a little bit more
difficult as there was then no vehicle that traveled from Owerri to Lagos directly.
What they did was to scout for other traders that were Lagos bound and arranged for a
vehicle to convey them and their goods. The fares charged was high as drivers argued
that once they are on charter, it was not safe to pick passengers intermittently along
xcvi
the way as this might result in their picking bandits. The argument was that should
they be attacked on the way by one of the passengers, the blame would lie squarely
with the traders instead of with the driver. Then “lorry driver used to charge us £2,
6shillings” a passenger said. After every trip, depending on the demand for the goods
one went to sell, one may make a net gain of £1.6 shillings per 50kg bag of garri
which the monopolist would always buy at between £1- £1.6 shillings in Owerri23
.
Road rehabilitation in Igboland by the government was so slow that even four
years after the war, many roads and bridges in the area were rehabilitated. These
included the Bende-Ohafia, Awka- Nnewi, Umuahia-Okigwe and Onitsha-Ozubulu
roads24
. Part of the reasons for the non-rehabilitation of roads in Igboland was that
Igboland was not put into consideration in The Second National Development Plan.
This was because, by the time the planning was done, the Igbo under the name of
Biafra were at war with the rest of Nigeria. The level of resistance put up by the Igbo
who fought with the rest of the federation for thirty months did not help matters. Their
resistance was a signal that they were out to become independent of the federation.
The Federal Government on its part did not see any wisdom in investing in a battle
field as it would still be their responsibility to rehabilitate damaged infrastructure in
the war-torn zone after the guns went silent. Probably to let the Igbo feel the brunt of
their defeat and to cow them into submission, rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure
in their area was delayed.
Another area where the government contributed to the promotion of night-time
road transportation after the war was in the establishment of transport companies. One
of such government owned transport companies was the Oriental Line (formally
Enugu Passengers Transport Company). This company was owned by the
Government of East Central State and was established in 1971 to provide the much
xcvii
needed transport assistance to a people just returning from the Nigerian civil war25
.
At inception, Oriental Line was engaged in passenger transportation both by day and
at night. Its night travel schedules were as follows:
Table 4: Oriental Line’s night travel schedule
Depart From Through Destination Departure Time
Enugu Asaba-Benin-Ijebu
Ode
Lagos 8p.m daily
Enugu Agwu- Okigwe-
Owerri-Aba
Port Harcourt 9p.m daily
Enugu Udi-Awka-Onitsha-
Mgbidi-Owerri-
Mbaise
Orlu 11p.m daily
Enugu Awgu-Okigwe-
Umuahia-Uyo
Oron 10p.m daily
Enugu Abakaliki Afikpo 11.30p.m daily
Enugu Nsukka-Obollo Eke Obollo Afor 1a.m daily
Source: The Renaissance, December 2, 1972, 8.
From the table above, it is obvious that the Oriental Line service excluded the
Northern parts of Nigeria at its early stage. Despite the increasing movement of the
Igbo back to North, it took Oriental Line four years to start plying to the region. Even
then, its operation did not go beyond Jos where it managed to establish an office in
1975. In that year (1975), it also established offices in the southern Nigerian cities of
Lagos and Asaba. Oriental Line also had intercity stations in Igboland at Aba,
Onitsha, Umuahia, Owerri and Nsukka. By 1975 the company carried an average of
about 500,000 passengers‟ annually26
.
Oriental Line was confronted by many problems which had adverse effects on
its performance and growth. Mr. Emma Bosah, the company‟s Public Relations
Officer, noted that at a stage, the company had 400 workers and only 35 buses. The
number of buses was later reduced to eight (8) vehicles following constant
breakdown. The company owed the foreign firm that supplied it vehicles the sum of
xcviii
N211, 000. Consequent on the debt, the foreign firm stopped to supply Oriental Line
spare parts for the maintenance of its broken down vehicles27
. From July 1974 to
January 1975, it had to grapple with the problem of sourcing petrol. This was because
in those months oil tanker drivers were on strike. The January 1975 strike was the
fifth in six months28
. Due to fuel scarcity, many petrol stations had no petrol. Most
drivers resorted to buying petrol from clandestine petrol sellers called Black
marketers. Incidentally, some of them sold adulterated petrol. Ofoma Silas lamented
that on September7, 1974, he spent a night at Awka because the Oriental Line bus that
was to convey him to Onitsha from Enugu got spoilt. By, the time the problem was
rectified, it was noticed that the petrol used in the bus had some kerosene in it29
. Most
of us who travelled in that bus swore never to patronize Oriental Line. Probably due
to the campaign of calumny carried out by some passengers of the ill-fated bus and
their cohorts, the level of patronage enjoyed by Oriental Line began to reduce. That
there was a reduction in the level of patronage for Oriental Line night-time services
could be inferred from the evidence of Agomuo Paulinus. He stated that:
Up to September 1974, we struggled for a space in Oriental
Line buses but from then onwards, those of us who like
travelling at night found it easy to get a space because the
number desirous to use it had reduced. Some argue that it was
because of the Udoji salary award but I do not subscribe to that
idea as not many were civil servants and not many civil servants
used the money from the award to buy commercial vehicles30
.
Oblique evidence suggests that the Udoji salary award may have contributed to the
decline in the number of passengers that utilized the services of Oriental Line. This is
because, those civil servants who bought private cars but originally travelled in
Orientals vehicles no longer formed part of their passengers, especially with respect to
inter city travels within Igboland.Equally accountable for the decline of Oreintal Line
xcix
was the fact that some of the civil servants bought commercial vehicles which
engaged Oreintal line in competition.
Oriental Line struggled to keep afloat through a variety of measures. One of
these was that it hiked its fares. For instance, in 1975, it increased its fare from
Onitsha to Enugu from 50 kobo to 70 kobo31
.Fare hikes and delays irritated
passengers who had often complained of the poor services of Oriental Line. Oriental
Line also adopted a new measure to ensure passengers‟ comfort. As at January 1975,
they played one form of music from Enugu to Aba, a journey of five hours. This was
to change as they introduced music from East and Central Africa popularly called
Makossa and high-life by musicians like Goddy Ezike, Ali Chukwuma etc, In spite of
these changes, passengers kept complaining, One of such complaints had to do with
reckless driving which sometimes led to avoidable accidents. For instance, on
February 4, 1976, a bus belonging to the company that was destined for Lagos, in an
attempt to overtake a Peugeot car, ran into another vehicle coming from the Opposite
direction. This left four people dead and ten others critically ill and hospitalized32
.
Following persistent break-down and possibly low patronage, Oriental Line in the
Daily Star of March 30,1976, advertised the sale of nineteen of its unserviceable
vehicles as indicated below:
Table 5: List of Oriental Line Vehicles advertised for sale
S/No. Vehicle Type Registration Number
1 Steyr 1 Karus Bus ECE 9605
2 ,, ,, ,, ,, ECE 9607
3 ,, ,, ,, ,, ECE 9608
4 ,, ,, ,, ,, ECE 9610
5 Bedford Bus ECC 9410
c
6 Steyr Borsani Bus ECC 37
7 ,, ,, ,, ECC 38
8 ,, ,, ,, ECC 648
9 Steyr 1 Karus Bus ECE 9609
10 Steyr Bosani Bus ECE 652
11 ,, ,, ,, ECE 653
12 Bedford (Med) Bus ECE 1410
13 Steyr 1 Karus 696 Bus ECE 4335
14 Russian Truck LR 3720
15 ,, ,, LR 3774
16 ,, ,, LR 3777
17 Land Rover Pick-up LR 7393
18 Willy Jeep ECC 4865
19 Bedford Lorry ECC 4864
Source: Daily Star, March 30, 1976, 8.
This was the helpless condition of Oriental Line when the state creation exercise of
1976 happened.
The 1976 State Creation Exercise and the Rise of Night-time Road
Transportation in Igboland up to 1988
Following the state creation exercise of 1976, the East Central State was split into
two: Anambra and Imo States. The governments of both states saw part of the answer
to the road transport problem confronting their citizens in floating state- owned
transport companies. Anambra State reacted quickly by collaborating with the Daily
Star Newspaper Company to float the Daily Star Transport Service (DSTS). DSTS
ci
began operations in 1976 and engaged in night travels as evident from the table
below.
Table 6: Schedule of The Daily Star Transport Service Night Operations
Point of Departure Through Destination Time of Departure.
Enugu Asaba-Ijebu Ode Lagos 4p.m daily
Enugu Oturkpo Makurdi 5p.m daily
Enugu Onitsha- Benin Warri 6p.m daily
Enugu Okigwe-Owerri-
Aba
Port Harcourt 8p.m daily
Enugu Okigwe-Umuahia-
Uyo
Oron 11p.m daily
Enugu Udi-Awka- Onitsha Mgbidi 9p.m daily
Enugu Awka-Ekwulobia-
Orlu
Mbaise 10: 30p.m daily
Enugu Abakaliki Afikpo 12p.m daily
Enugu Nsukka-Obollo Eke Obollo-Afor 1a.m daily
Makurdi Nsukka-Obollo-
Eke-Obollo-Afor
Kaduna 11p.m daily
Ijebu- Ode Ibadan Ilorin 11p.m daily
Source: The Daily Star, Thursday, March 18, 1976, 2
Daily Star Transport had more than 143 buses of various makes in its operations. The
company also kept to time, especially in its Enugu- Lagos route which it designated as
“Express service”33
. This company was operational till the regime of Robert Akonobi
as the Military Administrator. The importance of this company to the Igbo and the
Nigerian economy cannot be overemphasized. The birth of the company coincided
with a period of increase in the prices of vehicles and a reduction in the number of
existing vehicles. For example, the show-room price of the Volkswagen Beetle 1500,
which was the least expensive car assembled locally, rose from about N2, 400 in 1976
to about N6, 400 in 1984, which translates to 37.5% rise. In 1978, Audi GLS sold for
about N7,000:OO but by 1984, the Santana GX which replaced Audi sold at over N
14,000:00; that is almost a hundred per cent increase34
. Also by 1977, the total
cii
number of commercial vehicles in the country stood at 69,292 but by 1979, the
number declined to 29,382, representing a shortfall of about 42.4%. The down turn
did not spare private cars. While in 1977 a total of 118,386 private cars were in
Nigeria, this number had gone down to 49, 173 in 1979; a decrease of 41.50%35
.
As the number of vehicles in the country kept declining, night-time road
transport service providers increased in their numbers. For instance, at Aba, before
1979, there were only eighteen (18) road transport service providers who were known
to be involved in nocturnal services, but from the tail end of 1979, the number grew to
about twenty-eight (28) in 1980 and as at 2005, they are over sixty36
. The increase in
the number of night-time road service providers could be accounted for by the decline
in the number of vehicles, a situation that tempted transporters to subject existing
vehicles to several trips in a day. Also responsible was the rate of turn-over. As
passengers were readily available, drivers were ready to take the risk of traveling at
night to make money. More so, those who braved it made more money because of the
number of trips they made. What even helped to encourage night-time road
transportation during this period was the high rate of inflation which prevented many
people from buying new vehicles. By 1979 inflation stood at 12.0% but was to rise
to23% in 198337
. Unfortunately for the Igbo, the chances of buying more vehicles by
their state governments (Anambra and Imo) were very slim as both were groaning
under huge financial crisis. Anambra State was indebted to the Federal Government to
the tune of N270.6 million while Imo owed the Federal Government N302.09 million.
These debts were internal loans. As for debts owed to contractors, Anambra owed
N339.07 million while Imo owed N 356.85 million. In terms of external loans
Anambra had N279.84 million to grabble with while Imo owed N 306.10 million38
.
What was more, inflation continued to soar from 23.2% in1983 to 39.6 % in 198439
.
ciii
In a bid to confront the transportation problems in the road transport sector of
the economy the government of Anambra State toyed with the idea of floating a
transport company. When the debate on the matter came before the State House of
Assembly, members welcomed the idea but were quick to observe that the idea of
borrowing money to actualize the dream was unacceptable. This, the members
argued, was because in 1983, a total of N8, 178,623.13 million was paid out as
interest on external and internal loans while the sum of N3, 109,504.27 million was
paid out as principal repayment on internal development stock. This brought the total
amount paid out by the State to N11, 288,136.4040. Thus, under the yoke of huge
debts, the civilian administration of both Anambra and Imo States were not in a
position to buy more vehicles to augment the existing ones. All hopes and plans by
the civilian regimes to tackle the transportation problem were dashed by the military
following the intervention of the latter in the administration of the country on 31st
December, 1983.
The financial predicament of the states in Igboland forced the new military
regime to take some measures that were later to promote night-time road transport
services. One of the measures was to retrench their states (Anambra and Imo)
workforce. No doubt, this measure was not initiated with the aim of promoting
nocturnal road transport; however one of its consequences was the rise in the number
of vehicles that engaged in night-time road transport within the period (1983-1987) as
a part-time. In Akokwa, the number grew from six (6) in 1983 to twenty-four (24) in
1987; an increase of about 400% 41
. Except for thirteen (13) buses owned by real
transporters, the rest belonged to those who lost their jobs due to massive
retrenchment in the State civil service. For instance, by May 1984, Anambra State had
retrenched 1,642 of its workers42.
The retrenchment fever affected even the private
civ
sector in the nation generally. Between 1983 and 1985, the private sector retrenched a
third of its work force and sent several others on forced leave due to downturns in the
economy43
. Some retrenched or sacked workers who had vehicles resorted to night
travels not out of choice but as a quick survival strategy. Night-time operators, unlike
those who operated during the day, had no union that required a new entrant to
register with the sum of N1, 200 and a carton of Premier Beer as was the case with
those who operated during the day. This amount was not easy to come by then. To
elude registration and avoid confrontation from the union, most of them took to night-
time operations44
.
Another reason why some of the retrenched workers took to night-time road
transport had to do with ego. Some thought that it was shameful for them to be seen
driving commercial vehicles during the day time as that would make people have a
wrong impression that they never saved while they were working. Such egocentric
characters resorted to making private arrangements with traders. Under such
arrangements, they carried the goods of traders from places of purchase to points
where they were sold. One of those who made this type of arrangement was Marius
Nnamdi Ochiabuto who was disengaged by Guinness (Nigeria) Limited. The latter
arranged with some Igbo traders in Makurdi, Gboko and Lokoja to use his Peugeot
504 wagon to carry their goods from Aba and Onitsha to their various bases. Most of
the deliveries were done at night as the traders in most cases did not finish their
transactions in Aba and Onitsha till about 4:30pm. Profit he made via this means
enabled him to buy three Nissan Urvan buses in 1987.These buses were used in the
delivery of goods. Most importantly, his drivers opted to do their travelling at night45
.
Even though the number of transport service providers engaged in night-time
road transport increased, that sector of the economy witnessed some set backs. One of
cv
the problems was the spate of car thefts experienced by those in night operations46
.
The table below speaks volumes.
Table 7: List of Stolen Vehicles and the Transport Companies that own them
S/No. Name Of
Operating
Company.
Vehicle
Types
Year
Stolen
Time Stolen Number
Stolen
Night Day
1 Chima
Line
Transport.
Mitshibushi
L300 (3)
and (1)
Peugeot 404
Pick-Up
Van.
1984/85 Between
11pm And
3 Am( 2
Mitshibshi
L300 And
1 404
Peugeot
Pick-Up
Van)
Between
9am and 11
am(I
Mitshibushi
L3000
4
2 Onye
Iwena
Iwe
Transport.
Mercedes
308 Buses
1987 Between
7pm And
12 Am( 1
Mercedes
308 Bus)
Between
3pm and
5:30 Pm(2
Mercedes
308 Buses
Stolen At
Gun Point)
3
3 Urunna
Motor
Transport
(4) Nissan
And (3)
Mazda
Buses.
1985/1986 Between
5pm And
2am.(3
Nissan
And 1
Mazda
Bus)
Between
1pm And
4pm(1
Nissan And
2 Mazda
Buses)
7
4 Chijekwu
Transport
1 Mercedes
308 Bus
And 2
1984/1986 Between
7pm And
11
3
cvi
Nissan
Urvan
Buses.
Pm.(All
Stolen At
Night)
5 Molokwu
Transport.
Mazda
Buses
1987 Between
8pm And
10 Pm(1
Mazda
Bus)
Between
2pm And 4:
47 Pm(3
Mazda
Buses)
4
Sources: Based on Oral information from the employees of four of the Companies
and minutes of one of them.
Evidence from the table above indicate that out of a total of twenty-one (21) vehicles
stolen from five (5) transport companies, twelve( 12) were stolen at night while
nine(9) were stolen during the day. One would have thought that transport service
providers would on account of the spate of car thefts being more pronounced at night
debar their drivers from engaging in nocturnal services. However, this was not to
be.Even vehicles not used for commercial transport services at night were not free
from the clutches of car snatchers. For instance, a pick-up van with plate number KD
3115 BA, belonging to Damian Anyanwu was stolen at Ogbaru , allegedly by a police
man. A Peugeot 504 salon car with plate number GG 1474 YL belonging to Chief
Angus Ilonze (Igwe of Abagana) was stolen at about 7 pm47
.
The other problem that confronted road transport service providers during the
period was lack of spare parts, such as tubes and tyres. The scarcity of spare parts
gave rise to a new business called Afia Mgbuka among spare part dealers. The latter
involved the piecing of old vehicles or new ones that had major faults that the cost of
repairing them was not economical and selling same to those in need48
. Some vehicles
that were abandoned by their owners for upwards of ten years were sold to those
engaged in Afia Mgbuka during this period (1984-1991). What is instructive is that
this business is seriously linked to the provision of spare parts to night-time service
cvii
providers and by extension night-time road transport. Most of the business men in the
trade, especially those that sell luxurious buses and mini bus spare parts were of the
view that night-time road transport service providers constitute over 62% of their
customers49
.
Even in the face of the odds mentioned above, many Igbo transporters stuck
to the business of night-time road transport. Through their services, the Igbo were
able to source some commodities that were in short supply in their immediate
environment. For instance, among Nsukka traders who specialized in the sale of
onions, beans, millet, cattle and yam, the general consensus is that over ¾ of their
commodities arrived Nsukka early in the morning because the trucks that conveyed
them always took off late in the evening from the venues where the purchases were
done50
.
The volume of goods and passengers carried by night-time road service
providers in Igboland between 1970 and 1988 is not known. However, evidence from
some of the major service providers like Austin Ejikeme Ilodibe and Igwe James
Ogbonna Mamah indicate that night-time operations accounted for over 62% of their
companies‟ activities and the gains they made from the time Oriental Line collapsed
to the launching of the Federal Mass Transit Scheme in 198851
. If their evidence is
cross-checked with written evidence, especially in respect of delivery of goods, there
appears to be some measure of truth in their account. It is on record that by 1984, the
productive capacity of the five heavy commercial assembly plants in Nigeria stood at
75,000 vehicles on two shifts. It should be remembered that in 1975, the Third
National Development Plan predicted that about 34,000 heavy commercial vehicles
would be required in Nigeria in 1983, but the actual number sold was a mere 14,00052
.
This represents a shortfall of more than 242 %.
cviii
Unfortunately for the road transport industry, the shortage in the number of
heavy commercial vehicles was complicated by the scarcity of raw materials in vital
industries that were relevant to the road transport industry. For instance, in 1984, the
Road Master Industry Limited located at kilometer 4 on the Onitsha-Owerri road that
specialized in the manufacture of vehicle tyres retired 200 of its workers due to non-
availability of raw material such as rubber53
. The scarcity of such raw materials had
adverse effect on the road transport industry, as fake and sub-standard tyres swarmed
many markets in urban cities of Igboland. At Onitsha, traders devised a means of
rethreading old tyres and selling them as new ones to the unsuspecting public. At
Nnewi and Aba fake motorcar batteries became the order of the day54
. Due to the
incidence of fake spare parts and other accessories, many companies suffered huge
losses due to constant break down of vehicles. Passenger vehicles were not spared of
the anomalies of fake and sub-standard vehicle parts; the result of which was decline
in patronage. For instance, in Nsukka, Tobechukwu Transport Service used to serve
as an alternative for those who were going to Lagos but would not join Ifesinachi
because Ifesinachi always delayed its passengers by stopping at its Onitsha Office.
With constant breakdown of Tobechukwu‟s vehicles, many passengers resorted to
patronizing Ifesinachi rather than get stranded on the way by following
Tobechukwu55
. Corroborating the latter evidence, Chief Emeta56
, M/D Tobechukwu
Transport Service opined that low patronage caused by mistrust and constant
breakdown of vehicles, competition with other transporters, among others, were some
of the factors that led to the collapse of his company.
As a result of the low patronage suffered by Tobechukwu, other transport
companies like Genesis came in to fill the gap created by the demise of Tobechukwu.
Part of the reasons that gave rise to many Nsukka people traveling to Lagos at night
cix
during this period (1985 -1988) was the lucrative industry introduced in the area by
yellow pepper farmers who found out that even in the face of high cost of
transportation, the net profit made by sending their produce to Lagos was higher than
what obtained at Nsukka markets57
. In Igboland generally, the collapse of some
transport companies that offered night-time services between 1985 and 1988,
introduced a new phenomenon into the business of night-travels. Transporters who
had no garage of their own resorted to alternating their days of work. This they styled
sharing of turns. This arrangement was pronounced in Aba, Upper Iweka in Onitsha,
Ninth Mile, Mgbidi Junction and Obollo Afor, to mention but these few58
.The
rationale for this arrangement is questionable on the grounds that the decline in the
number of vehicles would have meant the availability of passengers that would serve
existing functional vehicles. Those who made the arrangement have a different view.
Their mission was profit oriented as going in turns and in alternate days created
artificial scarcity of vehicles. The latter logic forced passengers into accepting the
fares charged by the transporters which they normally hiked.
Night-time road transport also received unanticipated patronage from those
who ordinarily had not subscribed to travelling at night by road. These were mostly
wealthy businessmen and senior administrators and top civil servants who usually
travelled by air. Between 1979 and 1983, many air crashes were recorded in Nigeria.
Of all the crashes, none exposed the gross incompetence of the Airways like the crash
of Fokker F-28, on an internal flight from Enugu to Lagos. Sixty-five people died in
the plane crash. What caused a big shock to those who patronized the airways was
that:
The emergency exit doors rather than open inwards opened
outwards which helped smoke to close in after 15 seconds. The
Enugu Airport, which was the main Airport in Igboland was
cx
claimed to have not been equipped with better navigational aid.
Worse still, the radar at the Airport was reported to have broken
down a year after installation in 1980 and had not been repaired
since. Thus, the dysfunctional radar in the airport could not
detect if the plane had not been lined up with the runway or
not59
.
Based on the incompetence of the Nigerian Airways some people resorted to
chartering vehicles to take them to their various destinations in Igboland and many of
them left at night. Chukwudi Ejikeme who owned more than 13 Peugeot 504 salon
cars and was based in Lagos posited that between 1980 and 1986, every Friday was
pre-booked by Igbo people who went to the East for various reasons during the
weekend. He further stated that most of them were civil servants and businessmen
who had engagements in different government offices during working hours. Among
his customers were Michael Ebosi, a contractor, Jude Nwankwo, a consultant
engineer, Felix Nsofor, a computer maintenance expert and many other Igbo business
men60
.
The factors that prompted some Igbo to take to car hire services and travelling
at night were many. For those of them who had been traveling by air, the services of
the Nigerian Airways was nothing to write home about. Even in the face of poor
services, those who ordinarily would have continued to travel by air could not due, to
the strikes. In 1984, Nigerian Airways workers embarked on a national strike which
made their 30 aircraft fleet redundant. During the strike many flights were cancelled.
Cancellations caused many disappointments, one of which was inability to keep
appointments on schedule. People also abhorred getting stranded at the airports after
flights due either to lack of vehicles or their inability to pay the fares charged by
airport taxies. Economically speaking, it was more cost effective to hire a taxi direct
cxi
from Lagos that would take one to one‟s destination in Igboland than to make a
second arrangement on landing at the airport at a time cab drivers were not sure of
business and therefore not always available. What was worse, by 1987, the number of
vehicles in Nigeria declined from 700, 000 in 1983/84 to 500, 00061
.
The decline in the number of vehicles had adverse effect on the Igbo. In 1980,
the United States Census Bureau observed that there were approximately 15,081,000
Igbo. This number placed the Igbo population higher than 153 countries of the world
and lower than only 47 countries62
. With high population and the adversities imposed
on the nation through the Structural Adjustment Programme63,
survival became
difficult due to competition. In the road transport sector, Igbo traders and transport
service providers adjusted their services to favour night-time road transport. This was
done to cut cost. For instance, Chibueze Asogwa, a staff of Alagram Holdings,
Onitsha observed that most umu ahia (trade assistants) at Ose Okwuodu and Ariaria
Markets were compelled by their masters to travel to Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and
other places at night so that they would not be lodged in hotels as they would have if
they travelled by day64
. It was recourse to night travels by road that helped the Igbo
confront the challenges of paucity of vehicles, scarcity of some food items like yam,
beans, cowpea, goat, cattle etc. At Ugwuoba cattle market, Mallam Salihu Ndaka65
observed that majority of the trailers that conveyed cattle to the market from various
parts of the North took off at night and got to the market by day. This, he argued, was
to make sure the animals were not suffocated by heat from sunlight during the day. At
Orie Orba, Pius Mbah66
noted that both yam, beans cowpea dealers travelled at night
after purchasing their wares to wait for their consignments which came in the
following morning.
cxii
Although night-time road transportation served the Igbo well in times of
adversity and need, the industry was saddled with many problems between 1982 and
1988. In 1982, the industry was faced with its first major challenge. This came from
the transport providers themselves as there were allegations and counter allegations of
unhealthy rivalry between some firms. This unhealthy rivalry sometimes degenerated
into passengers of a rival company being attacked by robbers ostensibly arranged by
their rivals. This was the case between Genesis Transport Company and Tobechukwu
Transport Service both based in Nsukka. The problem of rivalry forced the
management of the two companies to resort to the use of traditional medicine in their
attempt to undo each other. Tobechukwu called his medicine Egbe Igwe (Thunder),
Genesis called his Osu Agbadi, (Proffessional traditional medicine man). It was
unhealthy rilvary between the two companies‟ that led to the collapse of Tobechukwu
sTransport Service and the dwindling of the fortunes of Genesis67.
The second
challenge came in the form of coping with the challenges posed by paucity of vehicles
vis –a- vis upsurge of freight and passengers. In 1987, when the number of vehicles in
the nation had declined to 500,000, road transport accounted for 60.5% of all goods
evacuated to the seaports. This was against 3.1% for the railway, 20.3% for water
transportation and 16.2% for the other modes of transport68
. Probably because of the
burden on the road transport sector of the economy, the Federal Government in 1988
came up with the idea of Mass Transit Scheme. Under this scheme, night-time road
transport blossomed as would be seen in the next chapter.
cxiii
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. Ola Balogun, The Tragic Years: Nigeria in Crisis, 1966-1970, Benin: Ethiope
Publishing Corporation, 1980, v.
2. Phillip Effiong cited in Nigerian Quotations, Owerri: Book- Konzult, 2006, 42.
3. P.Obi-Ani, Post- Civil War Social and Economic Reconstruction of Igboland;
1970-1983, Enugu: Mikon Press, 1998, 14-20.
4. Mrs. Cordelia Uzondu, 64.Onions seller, Nkwo Nnewi, interviewed at Nkwo
Nnewi, August 16th
, 2005.
5. Mr. Dennis Ugbaja, 71, Trader, interviewed at Nkwo Nnewi, August 16th
, 2005.
6. For details of the state of roads in Igboland after the war see East Central State of
Nigeria, Statistical Digest 1970 ,Enugu: The Government Printers, 1972, p.73
and Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport, Report on War Damages to
Roads, Bridges, Waterworks and Equipment in the East Central State of
Nigeria, Official Document NO.3 OF 1970 ,6-12.
7.East Central State Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport, 1971 Annual Report,
Official Document No.2 of 1972, Enugu: Government Printers, 1972,6.
8. Mr. Dennis Ugbaja, Interview cited.
9. P.Obi-Ani, Post-Civil War…, 21.
cxiv
10. Ola Balogun, “Eastern Nigeria Revisited-Yesterdays and Tomorrows”, New
Nigeria, Friday, October 8, 1971, 5and 7.
11. I.I.Ukpong, “Social and Economic Infrastructure” in F.A.Olalokun et al, Structure
of the Nigerian Economy, London: Macmillan, 1979, 68-99.
12. East Central State of Nigeria, Statistical Digest, 1970, Enugu: The Government
Printers, 1972, 73.
13. Chinua Achebe cited in Paul Obi-Ani, “Post- Civil War Nigeria: Reconciliation or
Vendetta”, Paper presented at the 45th
congress of The Historical Society of
Nigeria,Uyo, Akwa Ibom State,13-15 November 2000,11.
14. Mathais Eze, 62, Market Superintendent, Ogige Market, Nsukka, interviewed on
19th
February, 2001.
15. Dr. Ukwu I. Ukwu, “ECSG Proud of its Resource Utilization”, The Renaissance,
Sunday, January 13, 1974, 16.
16. Financial Times Ltd, Nigeria: Twenty Years of Independence, Ibadan: Spectrum
Books Ltd, 1980, 24.
17. National Archives Enugu (N.A.E), A Loyal Address of Welcome presented to H.E
Major General Gowon, at a Civic Reception by H.E Ukpabi Askia,
Administrator of the East Central State of Nigeria, January 25, 1971 during the
official visit of H.E Major General Gowon, Head of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria to the East Central State,25-31 January,1971. Box 149, 8.
18. Okwudiba Nnoli, Ethnic Politics in Nigeria, Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishing
Co. Ltd., 1980, 266.
19. Phillip Unegbu, 81, is a retired lorry driver who took Igbo traders from Onitsha to
Lagos between 1970 and 1975. Interviewed on 18/3/2005 at Onitsha.
20. Ogbonna Oluoha, 68, is a vehicle spare parts seller at Ladipo market, Lagos.
Interviewed at Lagos 16/3/2004.
21. Ogbonna Oluoha, interviewed cited.
22. Felix Nzeako, 73, Trader, interviewed at Owerri on 2/1/2004.
23. Felix Nzeako, interview cited.
24. Federal Republic of Nigeria, Third National Development Plan, 1975-1980, 96-
101.
25. Daily Star, Wednesday January 21, 1976, 5.
26. Daily Star, Wednesday January 21, 1976, 5.
cxv
27. “Oriental Line Staff Rejects Wages” Nigerian Observer, Friday, March 7, 1975,
13.
28. Quarterly Economic Review of Nigeria, No. 2, 1975, 11.
29. Silas Ofoma, 68, Luxurious Bus driver, interviewed at Upper Iweka, Onitsha,
18/3/2005.
30. Mr Paulinus Agomuo, 71 is a cattle merchant at Owerri. He sold potatoes before
switching to cattle in 1989 and always used Oriental Line buses. Interview
conducted at Owerri January 2, 2004.
31. Onyebuchi M Obitoro, “Oriental Line: Just How Useful” The Renaissance,
Monday, January 6, 1975, 4.
32. Richard Nnaram and Noel U Obiora, “4 Killed, 10 Critical in road Accident”,
Daily Star, Thursday, February 5, 1976, 16.
33. Raymond Nzeadu, 63, member National Union of Road Transport Workers,
Upper Iweka branch, Onitsha, Interviewed May 6, 2004. He claimed he was a
staff of Daily Star Transport Service).
34. A.W.Obi, “Government and Automotive Industry Development in a Peripheral
Economy: The Case of Nigeria” Ikenga: Journal of African Studies, Vol. 7,
Nos.1&2, 1985, 78-93.
35. _____________, 87.
36. Pius Uzoegwu, c.61, Member, National Union of Road Transport workers, Ariaria
Market branch, Aba. Oral data collected at Aba on 31st January 2005.
37. J.O.Osakwe (Ed.), Seven Years of IBB, vol.2. The Economy, Lagos: The Daily
Times of Nigeria Plc, 1993, 1-36.
38. Innocent Okoye,”Second Republic Spent on Credit: Debts of States” Satellite,
Sunday, April 1, 1984, 1&6.
39. Central Bank of Nigeria, Statistical Bulletin, vol. 5, No. 1, June 1994, 142.
40. Chief (Hon.) Cletus U Opata, 71, member, Anambra State House of Assembly,
1979-1983. Interview conducted in his Nsukka residence on 4th
January, 2007.
He latter backed his argument with official records cited in John Anamaleze
(Ed.) 3rd
Twelve Months of Civilian Administration, 45.-
41. Daniel Ilonze, 56, Driver, interviewed at Amanachi, Imo State on August 17,
2005.
42. George Nweke, “Anambra Retires 1,642 Workers” Satellite, May 25, 1984, 10.
43. Newswatch, October 5, 1987, 45-50.
cxvi
44. Daniel Ilonze, interview cited.
45. Mr. Marius Nnamdi Ochiabuto, 64, Driver, interviewed at Onitsha on May 6,
2004.
46. The table was based on evidence drawn from the Minutes Book of Chima Line
Transport which was made available to the present researcher after paying for
the service on many occasions and oral sources.
47. “Robbery Suspects Attack Police” Satellite, April 6, 1984, 6.
48. Otaka H Omeke, 43 A former vehicles spare parts dealer Ugwu Agbor, Obosi,
currently serving as a Security Staff in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Lejja,
19th April 2009.
49. Mondestus Nweze, 48, Linus Ufoh, 62, Bernard Ngerem, 52, Vehicle spare parts
traders, Oral data sourced through group interview at Ugwu Agbor Obosi, on
January 13, 2008.
50. Wilfred Isiwu, Raphael Obetta, Donatus Eloka, Titus Ogwo, interviews cited.
51. Chief A C Ilodibe, 76. MD Ekene Dili Chukwu Motors and Igwe James Ogbonna
Mamah, c.61, MD Ifesinachi Transport Nigeria Ltd. Oral data gotten from them
in their Lagos offices located at Oregun, Ikeja and Jibowu, Yaba- Lagos on
March 17,2004.
52. Israel Udomisor, “Auto-Assembly Industry: A way out” Daily Star, April 19,
1984, 6.
53. “Tyre Industry Retrenches 200 Workers” Daily Star, April 13, 1984, 3.
54. Chief James Ogbonna Mamah, interview cited.
55. Gilbert Nwandu, 58, Business man, Interviewed in Lagos on March 17, 2004.
56. Chief Tobechukwu Emeta, 55, Businessman and former M/D Tobechukwu
Motors, interviewed at Nsukka in February 23, 2008.
57. Pius Nweze, 48, Yellow pepper farmer, interviewed at Ifesinachi car park,
Nsukka, February 23, 2008.
58. Raphael Eze, 62, M/D Nwayo Nwayo Motors, Interviewed April 3, 2006 at Lejja.
59.” Nigerian air crash could have been prevented” African Business Day, May, 1984,
11.
60. Chukwudi Ejikeme, 51, Transporter specializing in executive car- hire services,
Lagos, March, 13, 2004.
61. D.E.Amiegbebhor, “Evaluation of Intercity Road Passenger Bus Service in
Nigeria (A Case Study of Aba- Lagos Route” an unpublished master‟s degree
cxvii
project, Department of Transport Management Technology, Federal University
of Technology Owerri, August 2000, 18.
62. See United States Bureau of the Census, World Population 1979- Recent
Demographic Estimates for the Countries and Regions of the World,
Washington D C: U S Bureau of the Census, 1980, 25-27 and United States
Bureau of the Census, Demographic Estimates for Countries with a population
of 10 million or more, 1981, Washington D C: U S Bureau of the Census, 1981,
2.
63. For a detailed account of the effect of SAP on Nigerians see A.OK. Eze,
Economic Structure and Organization in Nigeria, Nsukka: Jobus International
Press, 2002, 136-159.
64. Chibueze Asogwa, 42 Head Boy Alagram Holdings Onitsha, Onitsha, June 26,
2010.
65. Mallam Salihu Ndaka, 58, Cattle Merchant,Ugwuoba Cattle Market, Ugwuoba,
September 13,2007.
66. Pius Mbah, 61, Grains Dealer, Orie Orba market, Orba, March 13, 2006.
67. Richard Anioke, 62, Driver, interviewed at Nsukka May 13, 2005.
68. See Table 19x in J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Structure of the Nigerian Economy
(1960-1977), Onitsha: Joanee Educational Publishers Ltd., 1997, 376.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE ERA OF GOVERNMENT SPONSORED
MASS TRANSIT SCHEME, 1988-1993
Rationale for the Scheme
It was Erasmus who opined that fruitless is the wisdom of him who has no knowledge
of himself.1 The Federal Government of Nigeria in 1988 took into consideration the
nation‟s transportation problems and also weighed the contribution of each of the
modes of transport service to the overall growth of the economy. They recalled that in
1985, road transport service contributed 14.3% to service GDP (Gross Domestic
Product) relative to water, air, rail transport which accounted for 1.2%, 0.9 and 0.6%
respectively2. It was also observed that there was dearth of vehicles in the urban areas.
cxviii
The dearth was worrisome given the fact that urban population growth had risen from
3.4% to about 9% between 1982 and 1990, but the level of motorization was projected
to fall from 6.4 vehicles per thousand populations to 3.4 within the same period3. Also
the government noticed that by 1983/84, the number of vehicles in the nation stood at
about 700,000 but by 1987, it declined to under 500,000. Ironically, the decline was
against the backdrop of rising national population which then stood at about 80million
but projected to hit 91million in 19914. In Lagos state, for instance, government
observed that the number of newly registered buses fell from 72,264 in 1982 to
10,079 in 1988 while the total number of available buses for both public and private
use in the state (Lagos) fell from about 39,288 in 1983and was projected to further
reduce to about 9,576 in 19895.
The Federal Government also considered the chances of buying new
vehicles to complement existing ones and also the ability of individuals to buy spare
parts to maintain their vehicles. In 1986, the prices of vehicle and their spare parts
sky rocketed. In that year, the prices of Peugeot Station Wagon and its‟ spare parts
rose sharply that it was regarded as a luxury car6. What was more, the chances of
buying new vehicles was made slim by the inflationary trend in the economy. From
9.9% in 1980, inflation jumped to 39.6% in 1984 and was projected to rise to 40.9%
by 19897. Owing to hardship imposed on the nation by the inflationary trend in the
economy occasioned partly by the political leadership- civilian and military, optimism
gave way to despondency. Akin Aina expressed the prevalent view when he surmised
that most workers in Nigeria were convinced they were riding their last cars8.
The transport situation in the country was made worse by the condition of
other modes of transportation. The Nigerian Airways Limited (NAL) had a total of 7
F.28 aircraft in 1981 but by 1987 none of them was functional9. Even water transport
cxix
was confronted with lack of sea vessel. In 1987, it was observed that the Nigeria
National Shipping Line (NNSL) had accumulated so much debt that it owed £3.16
million in Liverpool and Dm 22.6million in Hamburg. This indebtedness resulted in
the seizure of the line‟s few operating ships while others were docked for their sea
unworthiness10
. The railway which could have provided an alternative means of
transportation for the masses had its own tales of woes. Its deficit grew from N 2.7
million in 1965 to N 135.8 million in 198711
. From the foregoing evidence, it was
glaring that all sectors of the nation‟s transport economy needed urgent attention. It
was in the bid to redress the crisis in the transport sector of the economy, especially
road transportation in urban areas, which gave rise to the launching of the Federal
Urban Mass Transit Programme.
The date for the launch of the Mass Transit Programme (MTP) is debatable
and on this opinions are varied. While some argue that it was launched in 1987 by
Kalu Idika Kalu, Minister of Transport12
, most writers are agreed that it was launched
in 198813
. The Mass Transit programme was designed to affect other modes of
transport viz: road, rail and water. For the purpose the sum of N91million or 60% of
the total disbursement on the MTP was allocated to road based projects14
. What may
be considered as undue preferential treatment given to urban road transport under the
scheme could be accounted for by many factors. First, Road transport was given
special attention because over 70% of Nigeria‟s estimated population then travelled
by road15
. As for Urban centres and the attention given to them, the nation‟s
population was said to grow at an average of 2.9% per year from 1980 and the growth
rate was projected to remain so in 1993; a year that was critical to Nigeria‟s economy
and politics. This was the year that IBB was expected to hand over to a democratically
cxx
elected civilian administration. However, urban population grew at an average of
5.5% in 199316
.
To solve the problems in the road transport sector, especially in the cities, the
Federal Government introduced the Mass Transit Scheme. The sum of N91 million
was earmarked for the scheme‟s take- off in 198817
. From the said amount, the federal
government bought 939 buses, spare parts and workshop equipment which it
distributed to states. With this initial help from the federal government, many states
launched their own mass transit companies. Under the scheme, Local Governments
were equally encouraged to float mass transit companies. In Igboland, Anambra State
launched the Transport Corporation of Anambra State (TRACAS). This was on
September 12, 1988. Seventeen (17) buses and five (5) pick-up vans were used in
launching the scheme18
. Imo State also launched Imo Transport Corporation (ITC). In
the subsequent years many Local Governments Areas in the two states floated their
own mass transit companies.
Night-time road transport under the Scheme
The organization of night travels by road under the mass transit scheme witnessed
some changes. It had been observed that before the launching of the mass transit
scheme, transport operators or drivers of buses and motor cars provided rough
treatment to passengers. They arrogated to themselves the right to dictate whom to
pick, routes to ply as well as determine arbitrarily what fares to charge. In the old
order, the fare, route to ply was determined by the members of the National Union of
Road Transport Workers (NURTW) 19
. Mass transit is defined as “those transport
systems with fixed routes and schedules available for use by all persons who pay
established fare”20
. Transport Service providers jettisoned the old order
cxxi
by.introducing ten major innovations that were to change the face of the road
transport industry under the scheme. The innovations were as follows:
1. Ticketing and numbering of tickets was introduced to maintain
order.
2. Routes were assigned to Tickets.
3. All loading was done at depots of each transport company.
4. Picking of passengers along the road was outlawed.
5. To ensure compliance to 4 above, Road Supervisors were
appointed. Their duty was to ensure that drivers did not pick
passengers indiscriminately.
6. Regarding the maintenance of vehicles, drivers were authorized to
buy materials like spare parts and other accessories but on the
condition that they should first get approval to do so from their
branch managers.
7. Money was given to drivers daily to fuel their cars rather than the
old system where drivers fueled their cars. This they did by using
part of the proceeds of their individual daily transactions.
8. A means of accommodating individual transporters who had no
depot was introduced. Under this arrangement, vehicles were
classified into three viz; jointly owned vehicles, loaned vehicles
and company vehicles. Inscriptions were made on the body of
vehicles especially in the front and back using abbreviations to
denote the class of each vehicle. While JV stood for Joint Venture
Vehicles, LV stood for Loaned Vehicles and CV stood for
Company Vehicles.
9. In the case of accidents or repair of any damages, the owner of
the vehicle shouldered 85% of the cost while the company he was
operating under took care of 15%.
10. In the event of litigation, the management stood for the suit while
the owner of the vehicle payed the cost21
.
To reduce competition and maximize profit, private transport service providers
entered into agreements with major transporters on a loading formula. The terms of
the agreements differed according to the type of vehicle used. Two factors were
paramount in reaching a compromise on the loading formula. These were the number
of vehicles belonging entirely to the company and the number of passengers carried
by each vehicle22
. Where the company boasted of many vehicles of the same make
and capacity with those owned by outsiders, the company loaded three times before
those not owned by them. The contracting parties also agreed on method of payment
cxxii
and how commission should be given to the company and the members of NURTW
who own and manage the park.Some companies insisted that down right payment be
made at the end of every month. For mini buses, the compsany that shielded the
private operator charged between N1, 500 to N2, 500 monthly depending on the
availability of passengers. Amount received as commission in most cases amounted to
about the fare of two passengers if it was a mini bus, four passengers if it was a
luxurious bus and one passenger if it was a taxi23
. The above rules apply to all
vehicles whether or not engaged in night travels.
Regarding the methods adopted by night-time service providers under the
scheme, some informants observed that even though competition existed, it was not as
pronounced as before. What accounted for the reduction in the level of competition
were the strategies used under the scheme. One of such strategies was assigning
specific routes and destinations to a group of vehicles and prohibiting any vehicle
from operating in an area not assigned to it. The distinction made within a route based
on destination helped to reduce competition as what counted most in route allocation
was destination. Based on the latter, vehicles that plied the same route did not
compete for passengers among themselves because passengers would always travel
with the vehicle that would take them to their destination. This practice also facilitated
the loading of vehicles as the haggling by touts who lived on commission after
loading each vehicle and as such resort to confusing passengers by sometimes forcing
them to follow vehicles that were not their choice was reduced24
. In terms of route of
vehicles, routes were coded based on the number of passengers generated by each
route. For instance, Ifesinachi Transport Limited‟s night services covered the
following routes:
Table 8: Ifesinachi Transport Ltd night travel schedule
cxxiii
From Through Destination Take-off Time
Lagos Benin- Asaba-
Onitsha-
Enugu 7pm
Lagos Benin- Asaba-
Onitsha
Nsukka 7pm
Lagos Benin- Asaba-
Onitsha-Owerri-
Aba 7pm
Lagos Benin- Asaba-
Aba-
Port Harcourt 7pm
Lagos Benin-Enugu Abakiliki ** 7pm
Lagos Ijebu Ode- Ore-
Benin
Asaba ** 8pm
Lagos Benin-Onitsha-
Nsukka
Enugu-Ezike ** 6pm
Lagos Benin-Asaba-
Onitsha-Ninth Mile
Obollo –Afor ** 6pm
Abuja Lokoja- Obollo-
Afor
Nsukka 7pm
Nsukka Ninth Mile-
Onitsha-
Lagos 7pm
Ibadan Aba Port Harcourt 7pm
Aba Onitsha- Benin-
Ijebu Ode
Lagos 7pm
Onitsha Ninth Mile- Lokoja Jos 7pm
Owerri Ninth Mile- Lokoja Kano ** 6pm
Port Harcourt Aba-Umuahia Enugu 7pm
Abakiliki Enugu- Onitsha **
6pm
Enugu Lokoja-Abuja-
Kaduna
Kano ** 6pm
Jos Lokoja-Enugu Onitsha 7pm
Markurdi Obollo-Afor- Ninth
Mile-
Enugu 8:30pm
Gboko Obollo-Afor-Ninth
Mile-Umuahia
Aba 8pm
Kaduna Abuja- Lokoja-
Obollo-Afor-Ninth
Mile-
Onitsha ** 7:30pm
Abuja Lokoja-Obollo-
Afor- Ninth Mile-
Awka
Onitsha 7pm
Umuahia Enugu-Onitsha-
Benin
Lagos 7:30pm
Source: Based on field data and partly from evidence of the company‟s advertorial in
on their bill boards. (NB: Some of the routes marked ** are designated as irregular
routes; meaning that they did not generate passengers on regular basis to warrant
vehicles being assigned to them regularly).
cxxiv
Government owned mass transit companies also had designated routes. For instance,
Enugu Transport Company ((ENTRACO) had intra and inter-state services. What
differed in their operational strategy with that of the private sector was that they had a
rule that specific depots must serve specific routes. This order was limited to intra-
state services. The table below shows the rural depots and the routes they served.
.
Table 9: ENTRACO Rural Depots and Routes
Ukehe Depot 9th
Mile, Abor, Okpatu, Awhum, Ukana,
Umulumgbe route
Affa Depot 9th
Mile, Egede, Affa, Akpakume and Nze
route
Oji River Depot 9th
Mile, Nsude, Amokwe, Abia and
Nachi route
Ikwo Depot Ikwo, Noyo, Ndeagu and Echara route
Mgbo Depot Ezzamgbo, Mgbo and Effium route
Nsukka Depot Ogbede and Adada route
Obollo-Afor Obollo-Eke and Ikem route
Oghe Abakpa-Olo route
Oji Inyi Achi-Awlor route Source: H.B, Okibe, , “ A Critical Assessment of the Urban Mass Transit Scheme- The Case
of ENTRACO” in E O, Ezeani, and N.N. Elekwa,(Eds.) Issues in Urbanization and Urban
Administration in Nigeria,Enugu: JAMOE Enterprises,2001,522-536.
The Imo Transport Company had four categories of routes and vehicles were
allocated to each route based on the volume of passengers generated by each mode.
The table below shows the company‟s distribution of route and vehicle allocation to
each route.
Table 10: ITC Route Distribution and Vehicle Allocation
Route Vehicle(Bus) Allocation Percentage of vehicles
allocated
Urban 20 41.7%
Inter-Urban 10 20.8%
Inter-State 12 25
Rural 6 12.5%
Total(48)
cxxv
Source:< http://www.kfupm.edu.sa>
Another major innovation that was introduced under the mass transit scheme to boost
night travels by road was the use of police escorts. Ifesinachi Transport claims to be
the first to introduce this security measure24
. Speaking of this innovation, the
Managing Director,Ifesinachi Transport Services posited that:
adopting this measure was informed by complaints from
passengers who warned that they may stop patronizing night-
time road service providers because of insecurity. So serious
was their outcry that they even insinuated that the robbery
attacks appears to be engineered by we service providers.
Then to restore costumer confidence, I had to introduce the
use of police escort for my company26
.
This strategy paid off as some robbers who never knew of the arrangement were
arrested by security men attached to the buses of two luxurious bus drivers (Alhaji
and Theo alias Eke) in 1993 as they attempted to attack passengers between Okpanam
and Umunede and between Ore and Sagamu. The news of their arrest spread to the
advantage of the company. Between April and May 1993, the company never had a
full load in its night services from Nsukka to Lagos. What the company did was to
stop at Onitsha and complete the loading. From July, passenger patronage began to
change to the extent that on some occasions two luxurious buses were loaded. Each
luxurious bus carried 72 passengers as its normal load27
.
Another innovation introduced under the mass transit scheme was the
establishment of private workshops for the servicing, maintenance and repair of
company vehicles. Major transport service providers built private workshops and
employed mechanics, electricians, vulcanizers and Panel beaters whom they paid on
regular basis. Some like Ifesinachi, Ekene Dili Chukwu, The Young Shall Grow,
Chisco and C N Okoli alternated the working hours of the technicians to ensure that
cxxvi
vehicles were attended to at any time of the day. These technicians as a rule
performed routine checks on all vehicles slated for night operations to minimize the
incidence of vehicles breaking down before they got to their destination28
. As
transport service providers found out that vehicles did break down even after being
certified to be on good condition by the technicians, they introduced a new strategy to
combat the incidence of break down. C N Okoli, for instance, made it compulsory that
any drivers‟ attendant (Conductor) in all its night buses must be a mechanic with a
minimum of five (5) years experience on the job29
.
Some drivers were not very comfortable with this arrangement. They argued
that the sitting position of such attendant whose services were only needed if the
vehicle developed a fault, which happened irregularly, was a means of depleting the
resources of the company. They canvassed the view that the seating positions of the
attendenant be mapped out especially through an arrangement that would be very
official and the seat tagged as “attach”. They strengthened their argument by positing
that it was better for the company to have a telephone line dedicated to emergency
and drivers would call when there was a need. In their view, this would allow the
company to generate more income through the sale of the seat to prospective
passengers. On the surface, this appeared economical but it would appear that the
drivers had a different plan. In many transport companies, what obtained and still
obtains was/is that the “attach” were/are seat sold to passengers at a reduced price
when there were/are no competition for seating spaces in the vehicle by passengers or
selling it at the same price to desperate passengers30
. This turned to be an opportunity
for drivers to make extra money at the expense of the management whose idea of
introducing the innovation had been defeated through the activities of drivers who do
not carry special skilled technicians to help in times of need.
cxxvii
Owing to multiplicity of transport companies and vehicles that offered night-
time road transport services, some companies devised strategies to attract more
passengers than their rivals. This was more pronounced among transport companies
that used luxurious buses. One of the new strategies was the installation of television
and video facilities in the vehicle. They always looked for the latest and very
entertaining films to keep passengers awake and happy. This was the case of
transporters like Ekene Dili Chukwu, P N Emerah, Dan Dollar, Izu Chkuwu, New
Tarzan, and Ifesinachi31
.Izu Chukwu went as far as providing tooth paste and tooth
brush to its night passengers to help them clean their mouth in the morning before
embarking on their various businesses32
. Some transport service providers went into
agreement with commercial food vendors to sell food to passengers that arrive very
late but are in need of food. Some, like Ifesinachi, built open pavilions and provided
seats in them for passengers. At night, passengers were allowed to seat there and
watch films while waiting for their vehicles to be loaded. Passengers who arrived late
were equally allowed to use there as a place of rest, especially those that could not
further their journey immediately33
.
Changes were also witnessed in the safety arrangement of goods. Due to
several complaints that came from passengers over loss of goods, transport companies
introduced tagging and secret identification of goods. The bulk of the job of securing
passengers goods fell on the loaders. Companies like P N Emerah, tagged the goods
of each passenger using his/her number in their manifest. Photocopies of the manifest
were made available to the drivers‟ assistant that accompanied each vehicle to its
destination. On getting to a transit station or the final destination, passengers were not
allowed to take their goods at will. The inscription on each good was crossed checked
with the name on the manifest. When the inscription was certified to match the name
cxxviii
on the manifest, the drivers‟ assistant handed the good over to the rightful owner. This
method helped the company in many ways. First, it helped reduce the chances of
passengers losing their baggages which more often than not led to either verbal
quareels or fighting between drivers and passengers that may have missed their goods.
It equally became a means of checking the sharp practices of those who loaded the
goods into the vehicles. This was possible because the drivers‟ assistant crossed
checked the goods with the information in the manifest. During the cross checking
process, he can hazard a near accurate guess of the amount of money made through
loading of goods as there were standard charges for some goods. For instance, among
all luxury bus operators, the charge for a 50kg bag of rice from Onitsha to Lagos
between 1988 to 1992 was N 100:00 and N 150:00, for four liters of palm oil or honey
the same prices obtained34
. They also introduced the use of metal detectors in
searching all passengers to make sure they did not have dangerous weapons. This was
done to make sure that armed bandits did not form part of the passengers. The latter
approach prevented passengers from sudden attack by fellow passengers.
Another measure introduced during the glorious- days of the mass transit
scheme by night-time road service providers was the provision of some workshop
tools and spare parts deemed to be very essential to each night bound vehicle.. Such
spare parts included fan belts, fuel pumps, bulbs of various sizes, etc. The tools
included spanners (both flat and ring) of various sizes, screw drivers (flat and star –
headed) of varied sizes, bearing and corn rod metals, hydraulic jacks, wheel spanners
aomng others. James Mamah of Ifesinachi fame informed the present writer that his
company and that of Izu Chukwu were the first to adopt this measure.He said that the
essence of this measure was to ensure that in the event of minor faults developing
along the way, such faults could be rectified easily with those items. This measure had
cxxix
a positive effect on the public image of the company. Passenger came to believe that
the company‟s vehicles could hardly leave passengers stranded35
. Corroborating the
latter‟s argument, some traders who specialized in the sale of fruits bought from
Nsukka in Lagos opined that they patronized Ifesinachi because each time his vehicles
developed a fault, his mechanics that travelled along with passengers always fixed
them quick. This was because in most cases, they did not go about scouting for where
to buy the parts that needed to be replaced as they always carried some spares with
them36
.
One other innovation made during the glorious days of the mass transit
scheme by night-time road service providers was opening new channels of sourcing
fuel. This move was vital because 1988(the year the mass transit scheme was
launched) witnessed serious fuel scarcity to the extent that Nigerian students staged
protests over fuel scarcity. During one of such protests, Mr Kunle Oshinowo, a
student of University of Lagos was killed by the police. In 1992, the nation was
treated to several scenes of fuel scarcity riots and demonstrations by students of
higher institutions37
. Probably because of the incidence of fuel scarcity, the
contribution of the transport sector to the economy declined from 6.0% in 1981 to
3.1% in 1991. Even after this date, fuel scarcity continued. It is on record that in 1992,
the share of petroleum products in total energy consumed was 54.2% but by 1993, it
had fallen to 47.6% and by 1996 it came as low as 37.4%38
. Between 1986 and 2003,
there was sustained devaluation of the naira. The latter was on account of the
implementation of the IMF Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), in addition to
the criminal non-maintenance of the four refineries in Nigeria. The refineries could
not produce the required quantity of fuel needed locally as they operated below their
installed capacity. Consequent on the low operations of the refineries, domestic
cxxx
production was overtaken through the imperative of petroleum imports. Given the low
capacity utilization, excessive unit of operating costs, low productivity among other
factors, petroleum shortages became the order of the day in spite of substantial
increases in the prices of products since 199039
. It was the scarcity of fuel that forced
some companies to adopt new means of sourcing fuel to sustain their vehicles. Some
of them resorted to building filling stations and buying fuel direct from Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). For instance, Ifesinachi Transport built
Filling Stations in Obollo Afor, Enugu Ezike and Onitsha. Thanks to this
arrangement, the company never complained of fuel scarcity hampering its business
except in relation to passengers‟ reactions40
.
Passengers‟ did not take kindly to the hikes in fuel prices and scarcity. Igwe
Mamah affirmed that during this period, 1990 to 1995, there were several upward
changes in the fares charged41
. Due to the inconsistencies in the price of fuel and the
accompanying scarcity, in general, service providers tended to hike fares at will. For
instance, Izu Chukwu that used to charge N750:00 from Onitsha to Lagos in the early
months of 1992 charged N900:00 from April of the same year42
. The increase may
sound callous but one has to bear in mind that the federal government changed the
pump price of fuel from 60kobo per liter in 1990 to 70kobo in 199243
. For transport
service providers engaged in night services, the problem of fuel scarcity was
compounded by fuel marketers and petrol station managers by selling fuel, especially
petrol and gas mostly at night in what was known as “black market”. The black
marketing business was conducted mostly at night to evade government monitoring
teams. The time of the sales gave the operators undue advantage to exploit
transporters. For instance, the price of one liter of fuel rose from 30 kobo in 1989 to
N2:50kobo in 1993, an increase of about 733.33 percent. The federal government
cxxxi
responded by introducing a two-tier pricing system for gasoline in 1989. Under the
arrangement, private cars operator bought gasoline at 60 kobo per litre while
commercial vehicles bought at 42 kobo44
. Government‟s intention of using the two-
tier pricing to cushion the effect of increase in the price of fuel on public
transportation was messed up by fuel dealers. Petrol station attendants resorted to
creating artificial scarcity by day and selling fuel to all classes of vehicles at between
70kobo and N100. Sales were conducted very late at night, often between 10pm and
2a.m45
. Consequent on the delay in getting fuel and high price, transport service
provider built the cost into the fares to keep afloat46
.
Decline of the Mass Transit Programme
The National Urban Transport Policy for Nigeria, a draft policy document prepared
by the Federal Urban Mass Transit Agency in 1996, outlined the problems that
bedeviled urban transport activities. Their findings could be said to be true of the
mass transit programme in general. The policy document is worth quoting at length
states as follows:
This has clearly created overlaps and conflicts in the provision
and management of urban transport infrastructures and services
and the enforcement of traffic laws and regulations. The
various governmental bodies involved have been unable to
respond to the functions which they are supposed to be
rendering due to certain human, technical and financial
constraints. Previous recommendations on institutional reforms
have been largely ignored. The present federal system
arrangement puts urban transportation predominantly under the
control of the local government; local government manages
67% of urban roads, state government 27 % and federal
government 6% only. Whereas, the local government is grossly
under-funded and itself lack fund generating drive, technical
expertise and other resources to provide for efficient urban
transport infrastructure and service delivery. The function and
level of involvement of the three tiers of government are not
clear. Their roles overlap, are duplicated and confused.
Whereas, successful implementation of urban transport policy
cxxxii
can only be meaningful within the context of an effective,
coherent and well-coordinated institutional framework47
.
The observation above is germane, even though there are other factors outside these
that contributed to the failure or poor performance of the mass transit scheme. One of
such factors has to do with the rise in urban population. By 1988, when the mass
transit scheme was launched, about 30% of the nation‟s population lived in the urban
centers. It was also projected that by 2000, the proportion of the population living in
the cities would increase by 50%48
. The increase in urban population meant that the
demand for urban transportation would increase also. Incidentally, it is confirmed
through research that more than 75% of the urban population in Nigerian cities
depended on public transport while about 25% depended on private transport
system49
. Unfortunately, the number of vehicles in the nation kept declining. From
about 700,000 in 1983/84, the number of vehicles in the country declined to below
500,000 in 1987. Worse still, due to the excruciating effects of the SAP, the decline
was projected to hit an all time low of 350,000 in 199150
. The decline in the number
of vehicles affected the performance of mass transit companies as it led to a reduction
in their fleet number. For instance, ENTRACO‟S fleet declined from 61 buses to 9.
This excluded private owned buses on contract and this invariably led to the
withdrawal of services in most of its depots. For instance it had been observed that:
Out of the major depots and routes, Onitsha and Amawbia
depots and Enugu- Onitsha routes, Abakaliki -Onitsha route,
Nsukka-Onitsha route are now moribund. In addition, out of
the whole rural depots and routes, only Ukehe depot-serving
9th
Mile, Abor, Okpatu, Awhum, Ukana, Umulumgbe route
and Oghe-Abakpa-Olo routes are drily functional.It must be
noted that the surviving depots and routes are sterile, as
it would naturally seem, as they are maintained with a
paucity number of unserviceable buses51
.
cxxxiii
Part of the reason for the failure of the road mass transit scheme is the inability of
government to take a firm decision as to whether the system should be
commercialised or not. This created a problem for the companies as the fares they
charged did not make for profit. Evidence from various transport companies and those
who patronized them indicates that government vehicles charged lower fares. The
table below speaks for itself.
Table 11: Fares of various Government transport companies, 1991-1994.
Company Route Year Fare in Naira
and kobo
Fare
differential
ENTRACO
TRACAS
ONYEWENAIWE
Nsukka-
Onitsha
1991 1:50
1:50
2:00
50kobo
ITC
ONITSHA
SOUTH MASS
TRANSIT
CHIDIEBERE
Onitsha-Aba 1992 3:00
3:00
3:50
50kobo
TRACAS
GENESIS
Nsukka-Aba 1993 5:00
8:00
3 naira
ITC
Umanko Motors
Owerri-
Nsukka
Owerri-
Nsukka
1994
1994
7:00
8:00
1 naira
Source: Based on field work.
As a result of their non-commercial charges, government companies were running at
a loss. Unfortunately, the runnig expenses of the companies were not subsidized52
.
Incidentally, most of the vehicles used in Nigeria were imported. In the face of little
or no profit, the companies were not able to import new vehicles to replace their aging
vehicles or buy from manufacturers in the country. Their condition was worsened by
the rising exchange rate. In 1993 the United States dollar exchanged at $1 for N
1.5kobo, in 1993 a dollar exchanged for N 88.00. By 1994, the exchange rate was
N115.00 for a dollar and by 2000 it was a dollar for N120.0053
. The exchange which
cxxxiv
tilted against the naira meant high increases in the prices of vehicles, as evident in the
table below.
Table 12: Trend in the cost of mass transit buses (1988-1995) in Naira Vehicle
type
Capacity(No.
of Passenger
carried)
1988/89 1990/91 1993 1994 1995 Difference
b/w
1988/89
and 1995
and 1993
and 1995
Peugeot J5 17 67,455 183,600 641,000 1,220,402 1,612,7(sic) -51,328
MBL608D 33 240,600 460,400 2,086,126 4,163,596 5,390,000 5,149,400
MB O365 39 290,000 1,850,000 NA(Not
Available)
NA NA 1,560,000
MB 809 38 - - 2,212,854 4,349,166 5,390,000 3,177,146
MB 0911 56 - - 2,560,36 5,741,324 6,900,000 6,643,964
M 1414 61 - - 2,834,2 6,065,482 7,480,000 7,451,658
BD
D12000
42 - - 1,757,196 3,900,000 5,460,000 3,702,804
Nissan
Civilian
26/30 - - 1,800,000 5,063,034 6,800,000 5,000,000
Source: Adapted from Table 3 of H.B.Okibe,”A Critical…” p535. This table when translated
into a graph brings to limelight the intensity of the rise in the prices of vehicles.
Graph indicating the rise in the prices of Mass transit buses in Nigeria, 1988-
1995
cxxxv
The failure of government owned mass transit companies could also be attributed to
politics of patronage. The managements of the companies were changed by every new
administration. This led to inconsistency in policy. The changes made include both
the General Manager and the board members. For example, ENTRACO had more
than seven General Managers within a space of nine years (1991-1999)54
. This trend
is in contra-distinction to the principles of organization theory which conceives stable
organizational leadership as the pivot and catalyst for change and achievements of
organizations‟ goals. Knowing that their positions in the company were for a while,
their primary concern was personal profit. Quite often they colluded with drivers of
the companies to defraud their companies. For instance, H.B.Okibe observed that for
one to understand the inability of ENTRACO to procure new vehicles since its
inception or even to maintain existing ones, financial mismanagement and
embezzlement of funds earmarked for policy implementation must be considered
seriously. He noted that in ENTRACO,
Fraud is not confined to those in the upper echelon of the
organizational hierarchy but characterize the behavior of those
cxxxvi
in the field work. No doubt, much money is lost annually
through forged tickets, frequent replacement of spare parts and
its pilferage and several other unaccounted passenger/goods
loaded and off-loaded along highways. The general effect of
this ruthless dissipation of the company‟s fund is the
abandonment of the transit buses on mere account of
unavailability of fund55
.
Under the above condition, ENTRACO‟s annual internally generated revenue which
on the average is less than N1 million per month could not take care of its operational
costs, loans and procurement of new buses56
.
What all these meant for night-time road transport was that one of the
companies noted for night travels by road owned by government was on the brink of
collapsing. On observing that the problems of government owned mass transportation
companies in Nigeria were man-made, the private sector dominated by the Igbo
especially in respect of passenger services decided to add to the exisisting problem
through the creation of artificial scarcity of vehicles.
Another factor that made the collapse of government owned mass transit road
based companies inevitable was increase in the prices of operational inputs like tyres,
tubes, fuel and lubricants. The prices of some of the inputs rose to over 5000% within
a space of ten years. For instance, tyres for mini-buses mainly used for passenger
services under the mass transit scheme rose by 913% during the period 1991-2000,
while prices of petrol, diesel and engine oil(drum) rose by 3142.9%, 5714.3% and
1050% respectively, over the same period57
. Following the hike in the prices of these
operational inputs, most companies could not replace some of their very old and
unserviceable vehicles. As a result, the fortunes of ENTRACO in terms of fleet size
began to reduce. Probably because of the high cost of operational inputs, some of the
companies neglected other issues that were very vital and tangential to the success of
night-time road transport. One of such issues was the provision of public convienence
cxxxvii
in the parks and ensuring that they were kept clean regularly. For example, in
Anambra state, a community score card that harped on socio-economic conditions
noted that as at 2007, an assessment of the conditions of toilets in the motor parks of
five local governments (which incidentally were used as operational bases of the
Local Government‟s Mass Transit Companies), indicated that responses gotten from
users of the parks hinted that little or no attention was paid to public convenience like
toilet. The table below shows the opinion of the respondents on the availability or non
availability as well as the hygienic state of the toilets in some LGA Parks.
Table 13: Passengers Opinion of the condition of Toilets in some LGA Parks
Status of
Toilet.
Aguata
LGA
Anambra
East LGA
Ogbaru
LGA
Nnewi
North LGA
Idemili
South LGA
Clean 0% 0% 4% 3% 5%
Dirty 0% 0% 4% 15% 14%
None
existent
86% 91% 75% 82% 81%
Source :< www.sriping.org>
In the words of Mark Udeh,
night –travels using Idemili South Mass Transit especially from
Onitsha was not welcomed by my people because when you
got down from the vehicle and wanted to ease yourself, you
had virtually no provision made for that in their park. Neither
was provision made for where people were to stay in case of
rain or to stretch themselves‟58
.
Bad road was another major factor in accounting for the collapse of mass transit
programme operated by government. One major result of bad roads is the loss of
human lives due to road accidents. The picture below shows the number of burnt
vehicles and those not burnt but had serious damages in a mulitiple road accident that
occurred at about 11pm along the Benin-Ore road on the 16th
of December 1999.
cxxxviii
An accident scene along Benin- Ore road involving commercial vehicles on night journey.
(Photo courtesy of Bredan Ugbordihe who claimed that his own vehicle was burnt during this
incident )
This very road had remained a nightmare of sort for years due to the number of
potholes on it and in some cases very wide gullies that stretched for half a kilometer.
A study done by Kunle Shonike indicates that potholes cause premature damage to
suspension and steering components. Quite often, tyres and rims can also be damaged
by potholes. Shocks and struts take the biggest brunt of the damage.Large potholes
can cause the shock or strut to bottom out within itself. The shock is then transferred
to the coil or leaf-spring of the vehicle. In addition to these, suspension components,
control arms, ball joints, tie rods, idler arms, wheel bearings, axle shafts and several
others are suspectile to pothole damages. Potholes are the leading contributors to
vehicles needing alignment.59
. The degree to which bad roads frustrated transporters
could be gleaned from the lamentations of Patience Aguma, a commercial vehicle
operator. In her words,
cxxxix
The potholes are too big, too bad. It destroys my motor
[vehicle]. If I work 2,000 naira [about $15] a day, I spend
6,000 naira [about $40} every time. So I am even tired of the
work because of bad roads. Before when the road was good it
will take me one hour 30 minutes to Asaba, but now if I am
coming from Ughelli to Asaba, it will take me two hours
thirty minutes because of bad spots on the road60
.
The effect of bad roads on vehicles and the environment cannot be overemphasized. A
study done in Canada indicates that hitting potholes and consistently driving on
poorly maintained roads throws out wheels alignment and diminishes the treads on
tires, making it harder to steer in bad weather. In turn, this increases the risk of
puncturing a tire. Bad and congested roads according to the study lead to a need for
increased braking, causing premature wear on the brakes and decreasing safe stopping
distances. This triggers what auto experts call collateral damage61
.
Bad roads often led to traffic congestion. Congested roads lead to idling
vehicles, which produce 77 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions than vehicles not
caught on congested roads. Every ten minutes of idling costs at least one-tenth of a
litre in wasted fuel. A vehicle with poor wheel alignment and worn-out tire treads
caused by poor road conditions or potholes increases fuel consumption by three per
cent and also increase its greenhouse gas emission. Dioxide emissions double when
car speeds drop from 55 to 30km/hour. Hydrocarbon emission triple at speed less than
60km/hour compared to a constant speed of 80km/hour62
. Incidentally, the roads in
Nigeria had remained in sordid state for years. The bad roads in Nigeria force vehicle
owners to spend a staggering sum of about N450 billion. To maintain a vehicle in
Nigeria on the average requires about N90, 000 per annum (apart from the normal
running costs of tyres, fuel, oil etc) due to bad roads63
. The Central Bank of Nigeria
reported that the annual loss due to bad roads in Nigeria is valued at N80 billion,
cxl
while additional vehicle operating cost resulting from bad roads is valued at N53.8
billion, bringing the total loss per annum to N133.8 billion.This figure does not take
into account the man-hour losses in traffic due to bad roads and other emotional and
physical trauma the people go through plying the roads and the consequent loss in
productivity64
. Therefore, it would appear that the nations‟ road transport sector needs
serious attention. Unfortunately, government was not forth coming. The inability of
government to handle these deficiencies identified in this chapter forced the private
sector into action as would be captured in the next chapter.
cxli
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1: Erasmus cited in A.P.Castle, Quotes and Anecdotes: An Anthology For Preachers
and Teachers, Mumbai: The Bombay Saint Paul Society, 1998, 241.
2: T.A.Oyejide and A.S.Bankole, “Liberalization of the Services Sector in Nigeria:
Implications of Unilateral and Multilateral Approaches” being the text of a
paper prepared for the African Economic Research Consortium on Services
Sectors liberalization in Nigeria, 6.
3: H.B.Okibe,” A Critical Assessment of the Urban Mass Transit Scheme- the Case of
ENTRACO” in E.O.Ezeani and E.E.Elekwa (Eds.) Issues in Urbanization and
Urban Administration in Nigeria, Enugu: Jamoe Enterprises, 2001, 522-553.
4: J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Structure of the Nigerian Economy (1960-1997), Onitsha:
Joanee Educational Publishers Ltd., 1997, 328.
5:J.R.Aworemi and M.O.Ilori, “An Evaluation of the performance of Private
Transport Companies in selected Southwestern States of Nigeria” in Pakistan
Journal of Social Sciences Vol.5, No.6, 2008,545-550.
6: , J.R.Aworemi and M.O.Ilori, “An Evaluation of the performance of Private
Transport Companies in selected Southwestern States of Nigeria” in Pakistan
Journal of Social Sciences Vol.5, No.6, 2008 546.
7: D.E.Amiegbebhor, “ An Evaluation of Intercity Road Passenger Bus Service in
Nigeria: A Case Study of Aba- Lagos Route” unpublished Master of Science
Degree Project, Department of Transport Management Technology, Federal
University of Technology, Owerri, August 2000, 18.
8: Akin Aina, cited in Segun Maitanmi, “Labour under IBB” in Godswill Ogboghodo
(Ed.) Seven Years of IBB, Vol.3, Labour and Social Development, Lagos: The
Daily Star of Nigeria Plc., 1993, 2-31.
9: J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Structure…, 359.
10:J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Structure…, 371.
11, J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Structure…, 345.
12: <http:// www.nigerianworldpages.com>
13: J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Structure…, J.R.Aworemi, I.A.Abdul-Azeez,
O.B.Olaogun, “ A Study of the Performance of Public Transport Company in
Niger State, Nigeria” in International Journal of Business Management, Vol. 4,
No., 11. 2009, 73- 80, C. Ekwudayo, “The Mass Transit Programme” Daily
Times, February 10, 1988, 11, B.Ikeakanam, “First Batch of Mass Transit
Buses Arrive” National Concord, April 11, 1988, 21.
14: J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Structure…, 337.
cxlii
15: Moji Fassai, “Mass Transport et al under IBB‟ in Godswill Ogboghodo (Ed.)
Seven Years of …, 81-94.
16: J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Structure…, 571.
17: J.C.Anyanwu et al, The Structure… ,337.
18: C.O.Okafor, “An Analysis of the Factors Militating Against Government
Sponsored Mass Transit Companies in Anambra State” An unpublished
Masters degree project, Department of Marketing, University of Nigeria, June
1998, 19.
19: R.N.Edebe, “Comparative Analysis of Local Government Mass Transit Systems
Operating From Awka” An unpublished Bachelor of Science Degree Project,
Department of Geography, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, June, 1999, 2.
20: V.R.Vuchi, “Transit Operation” in G.E.Gray and L.A.Hoel, Public Transportation
Planning, Operation and Management, London: Prentice –Hall Inc., 1979, 527.
21. R.N.Edebe, “Comparative Analysis….” ,22.
22: Daniel Akor.48, Driver, Labour Mass Transit. Obollo Afor interviewed August
28, 2010., Anthony Ezema,,51, Driver, Ezike -Oba Mass Transit, Ogurute,
interviewed May 3, 2008 , Hillary Nweze,29, Driver, Enugu State Transport
Corporation( ENTRACO) , interviewed at Onitsha, June 26,2010.
23: Hillary Nweze, Daniel Akor, interviews cited.
24: Anthony Ezema, interview cited.
25: Igwe James Mamah, interview cited.
26: Igwe James Mamah, Interview cited.
27: Igwe James Mamah, Interview cited.
28: Obiora Ugwuanyi, interview cited.
29: Bredan Ugbordihe, 43, Drivers assistant with C N Okoli Transport Limited,
Interviewed at Ojota New Garage, Lagos,March 8,2004.
30: Daniel Akor, Hillary Nweze interviews cited.
31: Igwe James Mamah, interview cited.
32: Augustine Nwadinobi, 52, Trader and one of the regular passengers of Izu
Chukwu, interviewed at Onitsha May 17, 2010.
33: Obiora Ugwuanyi, interview cited.
34: Michael Okpe, interview cited.
cxliii
35: Igwe James Mamah, interview cited.
36 Brendan Adonu, 56, Matthias Ugweze, 43, Appolonia Mba, 48, Titus Mbamalu,
38- Traders, interviewed at Nsukka on September 23, 2004.
37: <www.unilorin.edu.ng/Students%20> , See P.F.Adebayo‟s article in this website
tagged “Students‟ Crises:The Dimension of Student- Police Relations in
Nigeria”
38: <www.cenbank.org/out/efr/2002/efrvol38-3-2.pdf>.
39: <www.pak-nigeria.org/pdfs/19-chapter3.pdf>.
40: Igwe James Mamah, interview cited.
41: Igwe James Mamah, Augustine Nwadinobi, interviews cited.
42: Augustine Nwadinobi, interview cited.
43: <www.nigerdeltacongress.com/farticles/fuel-price-increases-and-distrib.htm>.
44: <www.tamn-ng.org>.
45: Michael Igwe, 53, Petrol attendant, Texaco Filling Station, Onitsha, interviewed
May 6, 2007 at Nsukka.
46: Daniel Akor, interview cited,
47: <www.thredbo-conference-series.org/downloads/.../Thredbo6-theme5-Oni.pdf>
48: <www.ajol.info/index.php/ejesm/article/view/41565/8865>
49: E.F, Ogunbodede,” Urban Road Transportation in Nigeria From 1960to 2006:
Problems, Prospects and Challenges” in Ethiopian Journal of Environmental
Studies and Management, Vol.1, No. 1, March 2008,7-18.
50: _____________11.
51: H.B.Okibe, “A Critical …” in E.O.Ezeani and N.N Elekwa (Eds.) Issues in…,
533.
52: A.A.Ogunsanya, cited in H.B.Okibe,”A Critical…” in E.O.Ezeani and
N.N.Elekwa (Eds.) ____________ 533.
53: E.F, Ogunbodede, “Urban Road Transportation …” ,11.
54: H.B.Okibe, “A Critical…” in E.O.Ezeani and N.N.Elekwa (Eds.) _____________,
531.
55:_____________, 532.
56:_____________, 534.
cxliv
57; J.R.Aworemi, I.A.Abdul-Azeez, O.B.Olaogun, “ A Study of the Performance of
Public Transport Company in Niger State, Nigeria” in International Journal of
Business and Management, Vol. 4, No. 11, 2009, 73-80.
58: Mr Mark Udeh( alias Nwakaibe) 61, Member National Union f Road Transport
Workers, 9th
Mile Corner Branch, interviewed at Ninth Mile on 3rd
May 2003
59:Kunle Shonaike, “Effects of potholes on life and vehicles”
<http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic>.
60: Gilbert da Costa,” Nigeria,s Bad Roads Are Getting Worse”
<http://www.voanews.com/english,news/africa/Nigerias-Bad-Roads>
61:http://www.caasco.com/community/worst-roads/basic-facts.jsp
62: <http://www.caasco.com/community/worst-roads/basic-facts.jsp>
63: Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, “Still on Infrastructure Deficits (1)
<http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/nasir-el-rufai/still-on>
64: Central Bank of Nigeria Research Department Occassional Paper No.27, April
2003, 2.
cxlv
CHAPTER SIX
THE ERA OF PRIVATE OPERATORS, 1993-2000
Brennan Kraxberger rightly observed that in Nigeria one aspect of urban
transportation is the notable lack of public transportation. He observed that while
there have been several different programmes and agencies established in the post-
1988 period, government efforts to provide public transportation have been mostly
failures.The result is that those without cars requiring long-distance urban
transportation are forced to turn to the private sector1.That the private sector
responded to the stress in the nation‟s road transport industry and in Igboland in
particular is evident in the rise in the number of privately owned road based transport
ventures since 1993.
The Rise of Private Operators
The year 1993 saw the beginning of the emergence of new names in the road
transport history of Nigeria. As it relates to Igbo entrepreneurs, one name that is
outstanding is ABC Transport. This company began operation in road passenger
transportation on February 13, 1993 as an off-shoot of Rapido Ventures with a view
to running a modern road transportation system in Nigeria2. ABC Transport Company
was incorporated in Nigeria on 5th
April 1993 as a private Limited Liability Company.
In 1994, another Igbo entrepreneur, Chief (Dr.) Sam M Onyishi established Peace
Mass Transit Company (PMT). At inception, the company had only two Hiace buses
but today it is a leading name in road passenger service in Nigeria. On daily basis, the
company carries an average of about 30,000 passengers3. PMT from inception made it
cxlvi
as a policy that its vehicles must not operate at night4 but many other transport
companies took to night travels solely. Some others had defined routes that they
offered night trips only, even as they offered day-time services in others. The
companies listed below began night travels by road on a large scale starting from
1993 and above5.
Table 14: List of Transport Companies engaged in Night travels by road after
the collapse of government mass transit programme in 1993 Name of
company
Main
Terminals Destinations Departure Time Remark
Caleb
Motors
Jibowu-
Maza-
Maza,
Lagos
Owerri, Onitsha,
Enugu, Aba, Port
Harcourt
9.00 pm Offer night
services only
Chidiebere
Transport
,, ,, ,, Owerri, Onitsha, Aba,
Agbor-Benin
9.00 pm Offer night
services only
Early Bird ,, ,, ,, Owerri, Onitsha,
Abuja, Aba,Port
Harcourt,Enugu,
Abaliliki, Umuahia,
Mbaise
8.00 pm Night trips only
P N Emerah ,, ,, ,, Owerri, Onitsha, Aba,
Port Harcourt
9.00pm Night services
only
Ekesons
Motors
,, ,, ,, Port Harcourt, Abuja,
Onitsha, Aba, Owerri,
Nnewi, Abakiliki,
Enugu
8.00am
8.00pm & 8.30pm
Offer both day-
time and night-
time services.
Oha Motors ,, ,, ,, Owerri, Onitsha, Aba,
Port Harcourt, Enugu,
Awka
9.00am
8.30pm
,, ,, ,,
Ekene Dili
Chukwu
,, ,, ,, Owerri, Onitsha,
Enugu, Aba, Port
Harcourt
7.30am, 8.00am, 9.00am
9.00pm(Night Flyer)
,, ,, ,,
ABC
Transport
,, ,, ,, Owerri, Enugu,
Abuja, Port Harcourt
7.00am-8.00pm(Abuja)
7.30am-8.45pm(Enugu)
7.15am -8.00pm(PH)
8.30am-9am
8.30pm-9.15pm(Owerri)
Offer both day
and night
services
Chisco
Motors
,, ,, ,, Owerri, Onitsha,
Abuja, Enugu, Aba,
Port Harcourt,
Abakiliki
7.30am
6.30pm
,, ,, ,,
The Young
Shall Grow
Motors
,, ,, ,, Owerri, Onitsha, Aba,
Enugu, Abuja, Port
Harcourt
8.00am
8.30pm
Offer night
services to
Abuja
passengers
cxlvii
only.
Source: <http://www.ngexcom/lifestyles/travels/bus>, Oral Interviews and the
companies bill boards.
All these transport companies used Lagos as their major terminals as well as take-off
points. However, there are other transports companies that serviced night passengers
who had northern Nigerian cities as their destinations. Some of the companies and
their operational bases and schedules of movement are as follows:
Table 15: Schedule of Transport Companies offering services to Northern
Nigeria
Name of company Take-off base Destination(s) Depature Time
GUO Motors Onitsha Maiduguri 6.pm
New Tarzan Onitsha Kaduna-Kano 7.30pm
Dan Dollar Aba Yola 7.30pm
E.M.I.Transport Owerri Jos 6.30pm
God Bless Ezenwata Onitsha Kano 8.pm
Iyida Motors Obollo -Afor Lafia--Akwanga No specific time.
Source: Based on Field work.
Accounting for the small number of transport companies offering night-time road
services to Northern Nigeria from Igboland, one of the members of National Union of
Road Transport Workers noted that the north is always volatile. He posited that crisis
could and did erupt at any time over very minor issues. He maintained that killing
people was like drinking pepper soup for the Northerners especially their Muslim
members6. That this view is true to a large extent is supported by the table below.
Table 16: List of Crises in Northern Nigeria within the period 1987-2000
Crisis Year City(cities) involved Reason for the crisis
Religious 1987 Maidugiri,Gombe,
Katsina, Kano
Maitasane riots
cxlviii
,, ,, ,, 1991 Kano
Bauchi
Protest over Reinhard Bonke‟s
proposed crusade.
Protest over the sale of pork to a
Muslim
,, ,, ,, 2000 Kaduna Sharia Law controversy
Source: <http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-71720.0.html>
What is true is that no ethnic group has a monopoly of violence. It is common
knowledge that no investor is happy and willing to invest in an environment riddled
with crisis. To some of transport services providers, the excuse given by their
counterparts for not plying the northern routes is not convincing since, according to
them, it does not agree with the Igbo spirit of enterprise. For Jonas Ughamadu, a
luxurious bus driver with Dan Dollar Motors, a real Igbo entrepreneur would always
have two things in mind- profit and safety- but he always sought for an opportunity to
exploit. He argued that those of them who travel there at night even during crisis
periods are doing so to save the Igbo and as well make profit. The Igbo saying that
ego di n‟ogwu – money is in thorns connotes that making money involves some risks.
Therefore, running away from risk is against the Igbo spirit of enterprise7. Ughamadu
observed that the number of transport companies that serve northern routes are on the
increase. He recounted that as at 1996 when he was a driver assistant with New
Tarzan, not up to 20 vehicles left Igbo cities of Onitsha, Enugu, Aba, Owerri and
Umuahia for northern cities but as of today( March 3,2009) they are so many that no
one can state their number with precision.
Consumer Response, Rise of competition and changes in organizational
strategies
A pertinent question that awaits anybody researching on night-time road
transportation in Nigeria is the reason for the increase in the level of patronage of
night-time road transport service providers. One major reason is the growing rate of
poverty. The Review of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) observed that
cxlix
Nigeria was one of the 50 richest countries in the early 1970s but had retrogressed and
became one of the 25 poorest countries at the threshold of the twenty first century.
The Review lamented the irony that Nigeria is the sixth largest exporter of oil and yet
at the same time hosts the third largest number of poor people after China and India.
Statistics show that the incidence of poverty (using the rate of US $ 1 per day)
increased from28.1% in 1980 to 46.3% in 1985, 65.6 % in 1996 and 69.2% in 19978.
The number of those who lived in poverty in Nigeria was put at more than 70% of the
population in 1999.Consequent on the rising level of poverty in the nation, the
government of Olusegun Obasanjo in November 1999 declared that N470 billion
budget for year 2000 was “ to relieve poverty”9. But little of substance changed in the
poverty index. With a steady increase in the poverty level, increasing number of
people who hitherto used their private cars resorted to the use of public vehicles to
reduce travel expenses.
The level of increase in the use of public transport and night-time road
transport could be gleaned from the manifest of some transport companies, especially
those engaged in nocturnal services.
Table 17: Trends in the rise of patronage of road passenger transport service
providers Serial
No.
Name of
Transport
Company
Month/year of
operation
Numbers
of
passengers
conveyed
Destination Difference Time of
departure.
1 Chidiebere December 1998
January,1999
1,862
1,624
Lagos-Onitsha 238 9.00pm
2 Ifesinachi December,1996
December,1996
1,733
1,869
Nsukka-Lagos
Lagos-Nsukka
136 7:00pm
3 God Bless
Ezenwata
April 1998
December 1998
415
1042
Onitsha-Kano 627 8:00pm
4 Dan Dollar July 2000
December 2000
271
936
Aba-Yola 665 7.30pm
Source: Based on data drawn from the manifests of the various companies.
cl
This is in agreement with the observation of, U.A.O Esse who observed that in the
1990s, many transport companies were involved in night transport. These, according
to him, included Ekene Dili Chukwu Nig. Ltd., E. Ekeson Bros. Nig, Ltd., ABC
Transport, Chisco Transport, C.N. Okoli Invest. Co. Nig. Ltd., Young Shall Grow
Motors Ltd., Chukwudi Transport Service Nig. Ltd., Ekwo Associates (WA) Ltd., Izu
Chukwu Transport ., Oha Motors Nig. Ltd. These companies‟ inter-city services cover
the Nigerian cities of Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Jos and Maiduguri10
.
Changes in organizational strategies
As should be expected, the rise in the number of transport companies engaged in
nocturnal road transportation, resulted in serious competition for passengers among
the firms. Passengers on their part became “beautiful brides” courted assiduously by
“suitors”. Desirous to win the hearts of the “brides”, transport firms devised many
ways to achieve their goals. One of these was emphasis on passenger comfort. To this
end, some of the transport companies, like Dan Dollar, bought new model luxury
buses. These buses (hundred in number) were of different makes. They included
Marco Polo, Buscar and Paradise Mercedes Benz11
. The advantages of this brand of
luxury buses over earlier models were many and passengers were quick to notice the
difference. First, the earlier buses did not have enough leg-space to make for
passengers comfort while seated during their journey. The earlier buses were slower
in speed compared to the new ones. These shortcomings attracted from the
passengers‟ the inglorious nickname Akpuruka to the older models; that is (slow,
sluggish and old). Gradually, some companies phased out the old model luxury buses
from their stock. Ekene Dili Chukwu was amo ng the earliest to do so. Chief Ilodibe
cli
admitted that the decision for this phasing out arose from the need to meet their
passengers‟ preference. He maintained that his drivers complained to him on many
occasions that passengers were not comfortable traveling in the old model buses12
.
Part of the reason for passengers refusal to travel in akpuruka was that the new
model buses which were air-conditioned had executive soft seats, padded foot rest,
very spacious interior with enough leg-room, luxury finishing interior, refrigerators
and tray holder where passengers could place their meal rather than on their laps or
hand-carrying them. In addition, the new luxurious buses were fitted with video
cassette players, television sets and radio13
. Also passengers considered traveling in
the new luxury buses which they code-named concord as a means of enjoying some
of the comforts found in passenger planes. The new buses were not only air –
conditioned but had hand luggage racks, reading lamps. Some companies like
E.Ekesons provided refreshment for passengers on board. E. Ekesons‟ refreshment
ranged from snacks (packaged) to full meals with soft drinks14
. On its part, ABC
Transport had it as a policy to provide comfort to its passengers by not admitting
excess passengers on-board. Other companies were quick to copy this
innovation.They equally offered personal accident insurance cover to passengers in
the event of any accident during their trips. As a policy, all the companies resorted to
employing only very courteous crew and were very strict in their adherence to
departure schedule15
. This was opposed to what obtained before as was seen in the
operations of Oriental Line.
In a bid to offer greater comfort to passengers, many of the transporters began
to imitate their neighbours. This was manifest in their security arrangements. For
instance, one cardinal problem associated with night-time road transportation in
Nigeria is armed robbery attacks. To ensure passengers‟ safety and comfort, most of
clii
the transport companies resorted to searching passengers manually and electronically
through the use of metal detectors. Added to this was the use of police escorts.
Though these measures did not bring armed robbery attacks to an end, it nevertheless
helped in restoring passengers‟ confidence as it created an air of security in them 16
.
To reduce the incidence of armed robbery attacks, some of the companies introduced
some rules. One of such rules related to loading venues. For instance, from
September 1994, it became illegal and an offence sanctionable for any driver of
Ifesinachi Transport to load outside the terminals or major transit stations. Through
this means, the incidence of supposed passengers robbing passengers was reduced in
Ifesinachi Company by about 60%. Even where a passenger had to be picked from a
particular transit station, she/he had to be subjected to serious searching17
.
The efficacy of these measures could be measured by cross matching the
number of robbery attacks a driver experienced before and after the introduction of
the measures. Oral evidence from luxurious bus drivers of Ifesinachi indicates that the
measure worked as shown in the table below.
Table 18: Armed robbery attacks before and after the introduction of the
security measures in Ifesinachi Transport Company
Driver Pre-rule attacks
and year
Post-rule attacks
and year
Total number of
attacks
Ugwoke Theophlius
alias Eke
5 1993,1994 2 1996 7
Apeh Matthew 2 1993 None 2
Onyeke Aloysius
alias Ekwueme
4 1993,1994 1 1995 5
Source: Culled from field data
Another security measure adopted by private public transport firms had to do with the
quality of the drivers they employed. Issues considered were the years of the
cliii
prospective driver‟s experience in driving and familiarity with the route that he was to
ply. Companies like Ifesinachi and Ekene Dili Chukwu insisted on employing only
married people in addition to the two conditions above. All these mechanisms were
put in place to reduce the spate of reckless driving among their drivers and by
extension reduce accidents18
.
One major innovation was the establishment of rescue points.The aim was to
restore passengers‟ confidence in night travel in the event of vehicle break downs. For
instance, ABC Transport tackled the problem of bus failures by establishing rescue
points along the routes serviced by its buses. Such points existed in Okene, Benin,
Ibadan and Onitsha. From these points, it took a maximum of two hours to address the
problems of stranded passengers by trans-loading them into another vehicle called
from the rescue points. ABC went extra mile in ensuring passengers‟ safety by
establishing its own drivers‟- training- School for its drivers. ABC went ahead and
established an autonomous safety patrol unit19
. As a rule, no driver of ABC was
allowed to drive until he was certified by teachers in the driving- school. To ensure
that drivers kept to the rules of the company, members of the special safety patrol unit
monitored the routes served by their company. During such monitoring exercises,
they had armed police men in their team. The police helped them in the event of
sudden attacks by bandits. The safety unit also paid attention to the speed of the
drivers of the company.
Another innovation brought to bear on road transport business with a view of
making night travel attractive and enjoyable had to do with confronting the menace of
bad roads. The roads in Nigeria were so bad that traveling on them was a night-mare.
The bad state of Nigerian roads was more pronounced in the South-East. Commercial
vehicle drivers especially those who drove at night resorted to offering indirect
cliv
employment to some people in the areas with serious damages on the roads. It is
instructive that there was no fixed amount of money paid to the ad hoc road repairers.
However, they made money from their job as most commercial drivers and some
public spirited individuals gave them money which they otherwise would not have
made.To attain passenger satisfaction, transport service firms devised a mechanism
which helped know the complaints of passengers. For instance, Ifesinachi Transport
Ltd., made it mandatory for its drivers‟ assistants to relay the complaints of
passengers during each trip to their transport manager. Following such reports, it was
noticed that one major complaint that most passengers were associated with was
strains due to gallops. To reduce the strain of gallop on passengers and allow them
sleep while on transit, Ifesinachi Transport resorted to changing the shock absorbers
of his vehicles monthly or every two weeks depending on the complaints of
passengers20
.
Desirous to satisfy customers‟ requests to help reduce the time spent on
queues, some transport companies embraced online business. For instance, Ifesinachi
Transport engaged the services of Fleet Technologies Limited to develop an online
portal for her. The portal brought order and convenience to bear on the activities of
the company by automating most of the company‟s activities. Such activities includes
booking, payment, verification, audit trail and information dissemination. With
respect to booking, the portal gave passengers the opportunity to obtain a seat in their
vehicle without visiting their station. This saved time being done electronically and it
also made passengers to be sure of their booking as their names and seat numbers
were stored in their systems. This saved a passenger the embarrassment he/she would
have faced on the loss of paper ticket during rush hours while struggling to get a
space. Tickets were also printed on the spot from the booking data entered on the
clv
system. They allowed passengers to make payments using Inter switch cards. This
saved the company the problem of receiving counterfeit money from spassengers. It
also saved the cashiers the tedium of counting monies paid by passengers21
.
Rescue operations were known to be rare or non- existent at night, As a result,
Igbo transport service providers devised ways of attending to accident victims.
Transport companies, like Ekene Dili Chukwu, made it compulsory for all its night
buses to have a standard first aid box. It went on to train its drivers on how to
administer first aid to victims. The company, according to one accident victim in one
of the company‟s buses, made arrangement with the management of some hospitals
that operate along their routes to treat accident victims22
.
Another innovation introduced by the transport service companies that helped
in the promotion of night –time road transport was creation of e-mail accounts. They
were used by relations of passengers that traveled to monitor the fate of their
relations, especially if there were apprehensions over the fate of the passenger.
Table19: E-mail addresses of some transport companies engaged in night
transport.
S/NO. Name of Company E-mail address
1 ABC Transport [email protected]
2 Dan Dollar Motors Limited [email protected]
3 Ifesinachi Transport Limited
4 Maduako Transport Co. Ltd. [email protected]
5 Young Shall Grow Motors Ltd. [email protected]
Source: <http://www.directory.nigeriagalleria.com/company>
Most of the companies also published telephone numbers by which inquiries could be
made to the comanny‟s head office. Relations of passengers traveling in the
companies vehicles phoned to know the fate of their relations. To facilitate the flow of
information, passengers and their relations were advised to supply the office of the
transport company the registration number of the vehicle in which their relations
clvi
travelled in. The table below shows the phone numbers of some of the transport
companies.
Table 20: Phone numbers of some transport companies engaged in night-time
road transport.
/NO. Name of Company Phone Number(s)
1 ABC Transport 08055416860
2 C.N.Okoli Transport Investment
Company
08034018024
3 Chisco Transport (Nig) Ltd. 08022903214
4 Dan Dollar Motors Limited 08036767569
5 Eke Transport Nigeria Limited 08033228012
6 Ekene Dili Chukwu 08033315093; 08035777239
7 Ifesinachi Transport Ltd. 07030052564; 08072034148
8 Izuchukwu Transport Nigeria Ltd. 08033004735; 08033088598
9 Young Shall Grow Motors Limited 08034016865
Source:< http://www.nigeriagalleria.com>
Benefits of the Changes/Innovations on the Economy
According to Chief Ilodibe, an innovative idea begets success in any business
involving a lot of competition23
. It is innovation that begets change and is a mark of
entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are those whose always see an opening in a
supposedly „end of the road‟ or „impossible‟ venture. The changes initiated by Igbo
entrepreneurs in the business of night-time road transport had serious effects on the
nation‟s economy. As impact assessment studies require quantifiable and verifiable
data, it follows that in writing on the impact of the changes in the business of night –
time road transport introduced by Igbo transport gurus, the principles of relative
accounting should be followed. This presupposes that comparism should be made
clvii
between what obtained before the changes were introduced and what obtained after.
In doing this emphasis should be placed on the six main changes introduced.
One of the very first changes introduced by the transport gurus was the
acquisition of new vehicles that passengers were always eager to travel in. The shift
from Akpuruka to Concord, Paradise Benz and Marco Polo had tremendous effects on
the economy. One of such effects was in the volume of passengers carried. While the
normal full passenger load for Akpuruka is 30, that of the new model buses is 59; a
difference of 29 passengers. The testimonies of some traders of Igbo extraction go a
long way to show how impactful the change to new model buses was. They posited
that the volume of goods they carried along with them increased following the
introduction of the new model buses. This was because, the side cabins meant for
packing of goods in the new model buses are by far larger than those of the old model
buses24
. Driving the argument to a logical conclusion one of them stated that the
highest number of bags of Avocado pear he loaded in Akpuruka was 32 bags of 50kg
each. This he said was on a special arrangement with the bus driver to carry only his
goods in the side cabins. With the coming of the new buses he said he bought
upwards of 72 bags of Avocado pear and transported all using only three side cabins
of the new model buses. He went on to state that that saved him the time and
embarrassment of looking for a second vehicle to load what would have been the left
over if he travelled by Akpuruka 25
. What this means was that the introduction of the
new model buses not only increased the number of passengers but also increased the
volume of agricultural produce distributed from Igboland to various parts of Nigeria
using the services of night-time road transport providers.
The implication of this is that in terms of ensuring food security for Nigerians,
night-time road transport service providers through the introduction of new model
clviii
buses contributed a lot to the economy. Even producers of agricultural produce affirm
the positive role of the new model buses. Mellitus Egwagu of Umurumgbe in Udi
Local Government Area of Enugu State observed that his customer, Mr. Uchenna
Udechukwu used to buy oranges from him. The transactions were made not in the
market but buying the entire orange fruits on each orange plant for a year. This, he
said had been the practice since 1989. He further stated that between 1989 and 1991,
he used to come to his house four times to pluck the oranges and take them to Port
Harcourt to sell. With the introduction of the new model buses since the later part of
1993, he comes twice, even when the oranges had more fruits 26
. Egwuatu posited that
harvesting the oranges early helps the plant to recuperate early as living the fruits
unharvested amounted to the plant nourishing the fruits. Driving home his argument,
Egwuatu maintained that prior to 1993, Udechukwu in some cases failed to harvest
the oranges till January of the following year. This, he said, prevented early fruiting.
This might not be convincing as other variables like demand was not brought into the
picture. However, demand could not be met if the means of transporting the available
and needed quantity of goods were lacking.
The table below shows how important the new buses used in night time road
transportation were to the nations‟ food security. The table shows the volume of food
items transported from Lagos and Jos to Igbo land during the Christmas season by the
two models of buses in 2000.
Table 21: Volume of food stuff carried by each model of night-time buses of some
transport companies in 2000 Christmas season from Lagos and Jos to various
parts of Igboland. S/No
.
Model of
buses
Transport
company
Date of
transaction
Take-off points
andDestination(s).
Types of
food items
conveyed
Quantity
of food
item
conveyed
clix
by each
model.
1 Buscar Ifesinachi 23-12-2000 Nsukka. Took –
off from Jibowu,
Lagos
Foreign
rice,
vegetable
oil
28 bags of
rice( 50kg
each)
13(25
liters)
gallons of
vegetable
oil.
2 Borsani
890
(Steyr)
Akpuruka
.
Ekene Dili
Chukwu
21-12-2000 Lagos – Onitsha. Foreign
rice,
vegetable
oil
9 bags of
rice(50kg
each)
6(25 liters)
gallons of
vegetable
oil.
3 Merdeces
6080
E.M.I.Tra
nsport.
22-12-2000 Jos- Owerri Foreign
rice,
vegetable
oil.
5 bags of
rice (50kg
each), 10
(25 liters)
gallons of
vegetable
oil.
4 Marco
Polo
E.M.I
Transport.
22-12-2000 Jos-Owerri Foreign
rice,
vegetable
oil.
23 bags of
rice (50kg
each) 16
(25 liters)
gallons of
vegetable
oil.
Source: Compiled from data gotten from the loading sections of the various
companies.
From the table above it is glaring that the new model buses were of more use in terms
of food security. Out of a total of 65 bags of rice, the old model buses accounted for
14 bags representing about 21.5% while78.5% was carried by the new model buses.
The significance of the latter figures are appreciated when they are linked with
the population or total number of passengers that had food items to transport and the
cost of such food items in their home states. For instance, at Owerri, a 50kg bag of
rice sold for between N 1850:00 and N2150:00 in December 2000. In Jos it sold for
between N1600:00 and N1, 980:00 within the same period.As the diference using the
clx
maximum price as a benchmark was N170:00, it meant that passenger from Jos saved
N3910:00; an amount that could buy another bag of rice and pay for its transportation.
Note should also be taken that the said amount saved came from one bus per trip.
One may be tempted to argue that because the new model buses accommodate
more passengers, there is tendency for the various passengers to have more luggages
to carry. This is not contested but suffices it to state that the new model buses have
greater capacity for carrying both passengers and goods. Mark Udeh, a member of
the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Ninth Mile chapter stated that the
luggage contained in the cabins of the new model buses are almost double of those in
the old model buses27
.
The introduction of various security measures by night-time road transport
service providers had some positive effects on the nations‟ economy. For instance, the
introduction of searching of all passengers with the aid of metal detectors saw the end
of supposed passengers attacking and dispossessing passengers of their goods at gun
points. The importance of this development to the economy could be buttressed by a
tale from a trader at Onitsha. Anselm Nnadozie posits that if not for his sad
experience in 1991 while travelling to Lagos in a night bus belonging to Ekene Dili
Chukwu, he would have had a flourishing business. He narrated that at about 2am
when they were getting very close to Shagamu some people whom they took to be
fellow passengers ordered their driver to pull to a halt at gun point. When the driver
stopped, two of them came down from the vehicle to monitor the scene while two
busied themselves with ransacking the pockets, wallets, bags of passengers. He said
he was forced to part with N257, 000 which he wanted to use to pay for a new brand
504 Peugeot Pick up van that he intended to use in his business of distributing of
eggs28
. He said that since the introduction of the use of metal Ekene Dili Chukwu
clxi
buses had not had such ugly experience again. The import of this arrangement on the
economy is that it assured greater security to passengers and their goods; thus it
encouraged commerce and led to the generation of more income by the transport
firms.
Another trader argued that the impact of the new measure should be
considered more from its net effect on consumers. He argued that once there was a
major theft affecting traders in a particular market dealing on the same products, the
traders would cash in on that to create artificial scarcity. This, he said, was to help
them raise money to keep them afloat in business. The brunt of their action is borne
by the consumers “who have little or no one to come to their aid as the Nigerian
Consumer Protection Council is more or less moribund”29
.Another impact of the
security measure on the economy has to do with increase in the number of work force
of some of the transport companies. For instance Chidiebere Transport employed
three extra staff who alternated their working hours. The duty assigned to the new
recruits was to search passengers and their luggage before they were allowed to enter
the vehicle. They were also detailed to scrutinize passengers‟ luggage before they
were loaded into the vehicles. Increase in work force means reduction in the level of
unemployment30
.
It is clear that the innovations discussed above were not limited to night-time
travels. It applied to day-time transport too. This tends to diminish the argument in
favor of night-time road transportation. However, transport service providers argue
that the credit of introducing the innovation should go to transport magnates that offer
night-time services especially those of Igbo extraction. This, they argue, was a
consequence of the inability of government to offer the needed security in the
clxii
nation31
. Therefore, the fact that the ideas were first introduced with respect to
confronting some of the challenges of night- time road transport speaks volume.
The other measure introduced by night-time road transport service providers
that was very impactful on the economy is the establishment of rescue mechanisms in
case of vehicle break down. Some passengers who claimed to have been stranded on
many occasions narrated the benefit of the change on them from various angles.
Davidson Nkwocha, a petty trader in Aba who specialized in the sale of locally made
shoes using a wheel barrow as his “shop” stated that for him, the greatest benefit of
the rescue method is the reduction of man-hours wasted. These, hours he said could
be used for a more meaningful productive enterprise. A summary of his views and
that of his colleagues32
is presented in the table below.
Table 22: A Comparative analysis of the numbers of man-hours wasted by some
transport firms during vehicle breakdown S/No. Year of
event
Transport
company
involved
Time
spent
Venue
Number
of
persons
involved
Man-
hours
involved
Effect on
businesses
E 1987 The Young
Shall Grow
4
hours
Umunede 53 212 Delay in service
delivery, outright
loss of business
opportunities,
Reduction in the
volume of
production.
** One of the
informants stated
that he
manufactured an
average of 6-7
sandals in 4 hours
and each of the
sandals sold for
Seven hundred to
One thousand
naira.**
2 1997 Ifesinachi
Transport
Industries Ltd.
3
hours
Ore 58 174 Defacing of 62
bunches of
banana during
trans-loading
leading to
reduction in their
prices.( minimum
clxiii
of six kobo was
lost per finger)
Passengers were
able to meet their
appointments
even though with
slight delays in
time.
3 1998 The Young Shall
Grow
2
hours
Ugwuoba 31 62 Passengers were
attacked by
robbers in the
stranded bus
before another
bus of the
company came.
Passengers
imputed that the
attack was
arranged. This
affected the
image of the
company as some
of them swore
and kept to not
using The Young
Vehicles.
4 2000 ABC Transport. 1hours Ijebu-
Ode
62 62 Brisk business by
hawkers, offered
passengers the
opportunity to
ease themselves,
delayed journey.
Source: Oral Interviews
From the responses of passengers as presented in the Table 22, it was obvious that
more man-hours were wasted when vehicles delayed longer without rescue vehicles
coming to the aid of stranded passengers.
Where the nature of the changes introduced by the Igbo entrepreneurs into the
business of night-time road transport had impact that is easy to determine based on
available evidence is in the area of regular maintenance of vehicles engaged in night
services. This is because the invoice of some of the companies and oral information
from the drivers act as a guide. For instance, Mr. Festus Arumah who sells motor
parts at Nsukka Mechanics Village posits that all dealers who sell the shock absorbers
of luxurious buses had a good business from 1998 upwards. He was quick to point
clxiv
out that the demand for front shocks were more than those of the back shocks.
According to this informant, as at July 1999, there was a scarcity in the back shocks
of luxury buses at Ugwuagbor Obosi and dealers resorted to buying from Ladipo
market in Lagos. The scarcity led to the refurbishing of old shocks and spraying them
with sand popularly known as “Belgium” sand and sold to unsuspecting buyers.
Consequent on this development, the purchasing Officers of most transport
companies resorted to going to market in company of their mechanics. This was
designed to curtail the incidence of buying fake goods. Two options were used in
identifying fake and sub-standard shock absorbers. First, the upper knob is pressed to
see the level of resistant to shock which was determined by the speed at which the
spring went down. Where it went down easily, it indicates that the shock was
adjudged fake. The second option was to rob ones fingers on the sand sprayed on the
shock. If it is greasy, it was adjudged real but if it is brittle and easy to erase, it was
considered fake33
. Based on the popularization of these ideas of detecting fake and
sub standard parts, transporters were saved the embarrassment of buying old but
refurbished shocks. Also because of the paucity of parts of luxury buses transporters
resorted to the use of smaller buses. This has been the vogue since 200034
.
One of the innovations introduced by nocturnal road transport service
providers to boost the business led to the use of information communications‟
technology. The idea of on-line booking brought a lot of respite to those in charge of
ticketing. According to Obiora Ugwuanyi, the Transport Manager of Ifesinachi
Transport Industries Ltd., during festive seasons the pressure brought to bear on those
selling tickets by intending passengers was such that on some occasions tickets were
issued to those who never paid. This was largely reduced as some of the passengers
who would have generated noise and commotion took to buying their tickets online
clxv
and equally made their own personal reservation for the seat numbers they would like
to seat during their journey. This equally denied some of the staff of the company that
always cashed in on the high demand for tickets to create artificial scarcity of vehicles
and tickets the opportunity of making “sharp” and very brisk business to the detriment
of their company‟s image. This they did with the connivance of some drivers‟
attendants. The drivers‟ attendants would always collect extra money from desperate
passengers and the extra money collected would be shared between them and the
company staff in charge of ticketing35
.
With respect to accounting, the introduction of online payment for passengers
helped in the business of night travel by road. Even though there are no quantifiable
records to substantiate this claim, the view of Chief James Mamah of Ifesinachi
Transport should be taken seriously as he is a major stake-holder in the business. He
stated that there were cases of those responsible for ticketing printing a replica of their
company‟s ticket and selling same to passengers. Such people colluded with drivers
who always reported that they did not have enough passengers to fill the bus whereas
they had full load36
. Mamah stated that in some cases, the duo would not account for
the fare of six to eight passengers per trip. He maintained that with the online
innovation, this trend was reduced. As it concerns night-time road transport business,
he maintained that online business helps in generating more passengers. This sounds
intriguing if not doubtful as the intention to travel was not generated because of online
business. However, Mamah maintains that some highly placed civil servants and
businessmen who because of the nature of their job may not find time to come to the
company‟s office to obtain the ticket did it online from the comfort of their offices
and issued the print out as evidence of payment to those they paid for when they close
officially for their job. Such people he maintains would not have had the opportunity
clxvi
to travel if the online arrangement was not in place. That the print outs were issued to
the prospective passengers after the close of work is indicative that the arrangement
was in relation to night-time road transportation.
The other interesting innovation introduced by transport magnates that helped
in the business of night-time road transport was the introduction of the rule that
required night-time vehicles to have a standard first aid kit. In a nation where there is
a subsisting law requiring doctors to get police clearance before they treat accident
victims or those who had gun shots, the need to carry first aid kits along with
passengers cannot be over emphasized. This is because even after at 4th February,
2010, when Hon. Mayor Eze and his colleagues in the House of Representatives
passed “the Compulsory and Immediate Treatment Bill” the senate is yet to pass its
own version of the Bill as that sponsored by Senator Osita Izunaso was stuck at the
committee stage37
. Before this process was initiated, many Nigerians lost their lives
through such unlawful “legal” means. For instance, Peter Ukonu disclosed to the
present writer that on 16th
March 1998, he lost two of his brothers in a road mishap
that occurred along Benin –Asaba road. The accident he said involved a luxury bus
belonging to G.U.O.Okeke and Sons. The bus was attacked by robbers at about 12:27
am. Many people including the brothers sustained gun shots injuries and had no one
to attend to them. He said that if not for one Basil Nwafor, he too would have died as
a result of lack of treatment since he was one of the passengers in the ill-fated bus.
Basil, he noted gave him first aid treatment as he ran with him into the bush38
. Thus,
the use of first aid was a good innovation to help night passengers who may not be
opportune to get emergency treatment because of either the time or venue of accident
or due to official bottle necks of both the medical doctors and the police.
clxvii
It is evident from the above innovations that the entrepreneurial spirit of the
Igbo was brought to bear on night-time road transportation in Nigeria by road
transport service providers of Igbo extraction. It is difficult to guess what would have
become of the nation‟s economy if these innovations were not introduced given the
place of night-time vehicles in the distribution of food items, reducing expenditure of
travelers( like lodging in hotels), saving time for those in day time business e.t.c.
clxviii
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1: <http://www.uni/gai/Nigeria/Background/Transportation.html>
2: <http://www.abctransport.com/aboutus.php >
3:< http://www.peacegroupng.com/>
4: Chief S.M Onyishi (Onwa) 42, interviewed at Peace Park Nsukka on May 12,
2004.
5: Maduabuchi Agwuncha, 65, member National Union of Road Transport Workers
Upper Iweka branch, Onitsha. InterviewedS May 17,2010at Upper Iweka.
6: Maduabuchi Agwuncha, interview cited.
7: Jonas Ughamadu, 58, Luxury bus driver, Aba, March 3, 2009.
8:< http://wwwnideref.org/index.php?option>
9: F.O.Ogwumike, „An Appraisal of Poverty Reduction Strategies in Nigeria‟ in CBN
Economic and Financial Review, Vol.39. No4,
<www.cenbank.org/out/publications/efr/RD/2002/efrvol39-4-4.pdf>
10: U.O.A, Esse,” Road Transport in Nigeria as a private Enterprise Among the Igbo,
1920-1999” an unpublished PhD thesis, Department of History and International
Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, March,2005, 146.
11: <http://www.ddgroup-ng.com/about-us/ddmotors.htm>
12: Chief A.I.Ilodibe, interview cited.
13: U.O.A.Esse, “Road Transport…”143.
14: <http://www.ngex.com/lifestyles/travel/bus>
15:< http://www.abctransport.com>
16: Chief A.I.Ilodibe, interview cited.
17: Sir Matthew Apeh, 61, Luxurious bus driver, Ifesinachi Transport Company,
interviewed at Enugu-Ezike, 23rd March, 2011.
18: U.O.A, Esse, “Road…” 144.
19: <http://nigeriawiki.com/wiki/Frank> Nneji, <http://www.snnewsonline.com>
20: Sir Matthew Apeh, interview cited.
21: <http://www.fleettechltd.com>
clxix
22: Joy Ugwozor, 37, Trading. Interview held on July 9th
, 2001 at Lagos in the
company‟s premises.
23: Chief A.I.Ilodibe, interview cited.
24: Joy Ugwozor, Brendan Adonu, Titus Mbamalu, interviews cited.
25: Titus Mbamalu, interview cited.
26: Mellitus Egwagu, 68, Farmer known in the area by fruit traders to sell his orange
stands to Igbo traders. Interview held in his residence on December 13, 2010.
27: Mark Udeh (alias Nwakaibeya) Interview cited.
28: Anselm Nnadozie, 49, Trader. Interview held at Nkpor market on 17, 3, 2010.
29: Uchenna Ugbo.61, Trader, interviewed on 17/3/2010 at Nkpor.
30: Maduabuchi Agwuncha, Interview cited.
31: Chief A .I.Ilodibe and Chief James Mamah, interviews cited.
32: Davidson Nkwocha, 39, Valeria Nnadozie, 47, Marcel Mbachu, 34, Evarestus
Nnamani ,51, Business men interviewed at Aba on 31-1-2005.
33: Festus Arumah, 48, Vehicle spare parts dealer, interview conducted at Nsukka,
December 2, 2010.
34: Sir Matthew Apeh, Chief James Mamah, Chief A.I.Ilodibe, interviews cited.
35: Obiora Ugwuanyi, interview cited.
36: Chief James Mamah, Interview cited.
37:< http://www.saharareporters.com/press-release/pass-emergency-treatment-bill>
38: Peter Ukonu, 51, Vulcanizer, interviewed at Owerri, January 6, 2009.
clxx
clxxi
CHAPTER SEVEN
NIGHT-TIME ROAD TRANSPORT AND NIGHT LIFE IN
SELECTED IGBO COMMUNITIES
Many communities in Igboland have achieved both fame and notoriety due to night-
time road transport and the commercial activities it generates. Such communities
serve either as major take-off points, transit stations or destinations. Due to the
activities associated with transportation, many commercial and social activities are
witnessed in such communities at night. Consequent on the commercial and social
activities, crime became rife in those communities to the extent that some of the
cherished values of such communities were either eroded or jettisoned. On the
positive side, some who would have remained poor got rich through nocturnal
activities associated with road transportation. The lamentations of two elders from
Obollo-Afor and Ngwo are instructive. They show how night-time road transport
related commercial activities influenced the lives and external images of their
communities.
Mr. Modestus Okpe of Obollo-Afor lamented that because of commercial
activities generated in his community due to nocturnal road transportation, and the
role of some women in Obollo-Afor, outsiders find it difficult to marry people from
Obollo-Afor. He supported his assertion with a joke popularized by commercial
vehicle drivers who spend part of their travel hours in Obollo-Afor. The drivers would
always ask passengers though jokingly but in imitation of some women hawkers
whether they wanted to buy their articles of trade or themselves- iji ego onu,k‟obų
onu1.
clxxii
For Mr. Ignatius Nwodo, night-time road transport popularized Ngwo but a
true son of Ngwo would tell you that it changed many things in Ngwo both for good
and for bad2. It is in the light of Mr. Nwodo‟s observation that this aspect of the work
will be investigating the “good” and “bad” associated with night commerce generated
by road transport in some Igbo communities under three major sub-headings viz;
commercial activities, social activities, crime and changes in value systems.
Commercial Activities
Transport is very crucial to the development of commerce. Little wonder in some
Igbo communities that generate a lot of traffic at night, commercial activities are quite
pronounced even very late into the night has the history of their nocturnal commerce
linked with night-time road transport. Ninth Mile provides a good example.
Known originally as Agba Asaa, (a name derived from the presence of 7
Agba trees growing at very close range in the area) Ninth Mile is situated at a nodal
point of routes connecting Onitsha through Nsukka to Northern Nigeria and also
connecting some parts of Igboland to Western Nigeria. The centre was renamed in
1914 and it derived its present name from the fact that it is located nine miles
(14.4kms) from Enugu which was then an important mining centre. The area is owned
by two Ngwo villages; Ukwuwan and Ifueke. The historical link of Ninth Mile to
night-time vehicular road transport began in 1913 when a modern road was
constructed through the area to link Onitsha with Idoma in Benue State. This road was
abandoned in 1914. However, in 1921, the Northern and Southern parts of the country
were connected by a motorable road that passed through Ninth Mile. As at 1921, only
three (3) people lived in Ninth Mile but by 1939, the number had increased to about
thirty (30), with only two retails shops and one small scale industry. With the
clxxiii
development of the road which helped in the expansion of trade links between the
North and South, cattle Fulani from the north began to use Ninth Mile as a point of
rest while going to Onitsha, Lagos or other southern cities for trade. During their
period of rest, they isolated some cattle they felt could not make the trip to their next
destination and point of trade. The cattle so isolated were sold to villagers who were
willing to buy. This trade in cattle gave rise to a meat market in the area as the
villagers resorted to selling the meat to travelers. With time, Ninth Mile became a
point of transition of movement where vehicles moving northwards to places like Jos,
Yola, Bauchi, etc stop to buy fuel or to refresh before continuing their journey3.
Incidentally, most of the transitions were done at night and therefore had a lot of
commercial activities attached to them. These came in the form of hawking, sale of
services by artisans, lodging in hotels etc.
Aba known to the Igbo as Aba Ngwa (Enyi Mba City) is another city in
Igboland that witnessed serious commercial activities at night due to night-time road
transportation. Aba‟s link with modern transportation could be traced to 1915 when it
was connected by rail to Port Harcourt. Aba is connected by roads to Port Harcourt,
Owerri, Umuahia, Ikot Ekpene, and Ikot Abasi. It is a commercial city noted for large
concentration of small scale industries and the famous Ariara market. Aba‟s fame is
equally associated with production of locally made goods, especially shoes, dresses
and bags that are termed “Aba Made” by Nigerians4. Consequent on the presence of
many small scale industries in Aba, it is served by many motorists. In Igboland, Aba
is only second to Onitsha in mass transportation volume in eastern Nigeria5.
Upper Iweka; Onitsha is another place that witness heavy traffic activities at
night. Since Onitsha is a major commercial center in Nigeria, and opens into the
western delta via the Niger Bridge with roads to the south east, major transport
clxxiv
companies established offices there. From their offices, they offered night-time road
transport services to passengers travelling to virtually every major city in Nigeria.
In most of these communities that experience heavy vehicular traffic at night
various forms of commercial activity are witnessed. Another major business that
booms at night in Obollo Afor are food related businesses. For instance, at night along
the major highway popularly known locally as “New Road “ by the people, some
Hausa people are seen selling tea, bread, egg( toasted and boiled) to passengers. These
people are referred to as Mai Shiia. One of them, Rasak Garba, posited that on good
days he sold up to 3 dozens of egg, 20 to 25 loaves of bread to travelers who either
waited for their vehicles to pick more passengers, or were trying to board vehicles
from Obollo-Afor to their various destinations. Also served were passengers that
terminated their journeys at Obollo-Afor but came in at very late hours when they
could not get vehicles to take them to their respective homes. Such passengers used
the make shift eating spots provided by these tea sellers as places of rest. This saved
them the embarrassment of being beaten by local vigilante groups in the area6.
For those who had restaurants, they are of the view that sales were made more
at night. Igwe Bridget, the proprietor of Chinasa Inn, acknowledges that she sold more
food at night but less drinks. She posited that she sold up to 50 cups of cooked rice
per night as against about 32 cups during the day-time7. As for wine, she noted that
she sold on the average 60 to 72 cups of palm wine during the day while she sold on
the maximum 20 to 37 cups at night. This she said could be accounted for by two
major factors. First, palm wine sold at Obollo –Afor in most cases are adulterated,
especially if bought from women “palm wine vendors/traders”. They normally mixed
their drinks with saccharine. When kept for a long time the wine produced an
offensive odor. This, she said, was as a result of fermentation. The second reason why
clxxv
all manner of wine sold less at night was that responsible passengers would not like to
be stopped at places not designated as stop points because they wanted to urinate.
Drinks are often associated with frequent urination. More so, most drivers are under
instruction not to stop except at designated points.
One commercial activity that thrives well at night in most Igbo communities that
experience heavy traffic at night is prostitution. At places like Upper Iweka Road
Onitsha, Ninth Mile and Obollo-Afor, women and young ladies of various ethnic
nationalities are seen late at night parading their “nakedness “around the streets and
loading spots of various transport companies. Their customers mainly are drivers and
some men who in the course of pretending to pass their night in hotels end up
patronizing them. Incidentally, some of the commercial sex workers left their
husband‟s in the pretext of going to sell some commodities.
The business of prosititution was organized in three ways. There were the
professional prosititue who saw that as their vocation. This class of prosititutes either
hired rooms where they lived independently or lived in brothels. Their living rooms
were converted to their “business premises “or “office”. This class of prosititutes
usually had customers among long distance drivers. On arrival at the station or towns
that served as their transit point, such drivers would in the pretext of allowing the
passengers to refresh steal into their customers “office” to offer them the needed
services. Incidentally, a joke arose out of this business. The drivers that patronized
this class of prositututes were called Onye nzoputa (the savior) by the prosititutes.
This meant that economically speaking, their livelihood depended on how many
clients they had each day. The other category of prosititutes are those branded “hit
and run” by the professionals. This class of prostitutes does not have designated
points for their transcations; rather it was incumbent on their client to provide the
clxxvi
venue for the transaction. It was argued that this category of commercial sex workers
charged higher than the professionals.
In Obollo-Afor, a town that is notorious for commercial sex, the professionals
were said to charge between N250:00 and N500:00 a night as at 1997 to 1999. For the
“hit and run” group, their charge ranged from between N500 to N700:00 within the
same period.
The third category is sex workers who are not essentially commercial sex
workers. This group is made up of women of child bearing ages whose husbands‟ are
either impotent or dead but are desirous to have children through any man that come
their way. For those of them that their husbands were dead, they took their clients to
their homes and even fed their clients in some cases. For those whose husbands are
alive but impotent, they as a respect for their husband ask their clients to provide the
venue. In one occasion one of them and her client perfomed the act inside a luxurious
bus8
In Aba, Akwete road livestock market is another center that witnessed night
life. It is pertinent to observe that as at 1982, Aba had 25% of its labor force in the
industrial sector, and 60% in regional commerce. Livestock forms one of the major
commodities traded in Aba. Kano is Aba‟s largest supplier of livestock especially
cows and goats. Each day lorry loads of goat arrived Akwete road livestock market9.
As from 6pm, people of various sheds converge in the market for varied reasons.
Prominent among them are young men who had succeeded in creating a cabal in the
market. They unload the livestock that came in at night and handed them over to the
security / guards in the market who took charge of the animals till morning when their
owners came out for business. These same people were authorized to sell any of the
livestock to willing buyers. However, if any animal either because it came into the
clxxvii
market through a private arrangement and therefore not for sale, or is found not to be
healthy or the mark on the animal was strange that they could not identify the owner,
they were not allowed to sell10
. While doing their job, they engaged in all manner of
teases and banters to amuse themselves and other people around. As a result of this,
the market was christened “amusement park of the poor”11
. The nature of amusement
witnessed in this market at night included watching the spending habit of people.
Some of these labourers spend upwards of N3, 000:00 on food and drinks at a sitting.
The unloading business was shared between the morning, noon and night groups of
the Off-Loaders Union. Those who were careful in their spending were termed Eri eri
by the women who sold food and drink at the market while those who spend lavishly
were termed Omeruoha12
, an equivalent of a man of the people
One prominent trend that appears to be common in all the centres that attract
heavy road vehicular traffic at night is the scramble for prospective customers among
the hawkers. In the event of a vehicle pulling to a stop, the hawkers are seen
brandishing their wares before the passengers. In some cases, they even go to the
extreme of deliberately confusing the prospective buyer and preventing him/her from
buying from their counterpart. For instance in February 2000, one of the hawkers at
Obollo Afor met her luck through such means.
clxxviii
Hawking in progress at Peace Park Nsukka: Note that all the hawkers close to
the vehicle that came in were female
She informed a passenger from Idoma not to buy banana from her colleague called
Josephine Odo on the grounds that Josephine used carbide to facilitate the ripening of
the banana. She (Theresa Ajima) informed the man in question that bananas that
carbides were used to rippen rendered a man impotent. She alleged that Josephine had
ruined many men through her banana business. Hoping that he saw a sincere trader,
the Idoma man gave Theresa the sum of N2, 000:00 to help her “continue with her
clxxix
sincere business and save more men from Josephine‟s havoc”13
.
A typical new model luxurious bus used in night transportation
The competition between people in the same trade is down played by the
complimentarity that exists between people of different trades. For example,
commercial motorcycle operators popularly called Okada, and the management of
hotels in some cities that experience heavy traffic at night help each other to grow
their business. In Ninth Mile, the management of Benmass Hotel and the okada riders
struck a deal. If the Okada rider brought any customer to the hotel at night, the
commercial cyclist was paid a commission of N100:00 per customer. This is outside
the fare paid to the cyclist by the customer.
clxxx
Okada operators at Ninth Mile
In May 2000, following the escapades of a notorious armed robber called Deri
Nwamama in Onitsha; many passengers travelling to Lagos had to pass the night at
Ninth Mile to avoid getting in contact with this dreaded robber. Specifically on 18th
May, one cyclist named Samuel Ozor carried 17 passengers to Benmass Hotels and
smiled home at about 4am with close to N3, 000:0014.
Implicit in the testimony of
Samuel Ozor is that cyclists made their money in two ways through the arrangement-
from the hotel management and the passenger/ prospective lodgers. This also implies
that there is cooperation or complementarity among the various trades engaged in
nocturnal road transport services.
A prominent feature of night-time road transport witnessed in most of the
towns that experience heavy vehicular traffic at night is the activities of touts other
wise called Agboro in the local parlance. Incidentally, these people do not take kindly
to those names. They rather insist that they are members of the National Union of
clxxxi
Road Transport Workers. They are always involved in loading vehicles and directing
passengers to vehicles that would take them to their destinations. They hanker over
passengers to the extent that they fought themselves. Some times, they end up
confusing unsuspecting passengers. For instance, the present writer was a victim of
their antics at Kaduna in 2004, after conducting oral interview at Sabon Tesha‟s
Television Garage. One of their antics has to do with tricking passengers who arrive
early into boarding empty vehicles even when other vehicles heading to their
destination are available. They did this by positioning themselves in the vehicle that
had few or no passenger. The logic of their seating in the vehicle was to make them
look like intending travelers or passengers with a view to confusing the real
passengers and tricking them into boarding the vehicles they were in. As real
passengers kept coming, they disembarked from the vehicle one after the other at
various intervals. If the vehicle was delayed in having full load, they would pretend to
be waiting for some of the “passengers” who left the vehicle to unknown destinations
and even threatened to live them behind if they did not come back in time. All these
were done to make sure the vehicle did not depart the station empty so that they
would get commission for loading the vehicle from the driver.
clxxxii
A night scene at Sabon Tesha Park, Kaduna
Social Activities
An interesting feature of the road transport industry is the types of social activity that
are witnessed in the car parks and communities that experience heavy vehicular traffic
at night. One of such is the banters and jokes that passengers, traders, drivers and
other people involved in nocturnal road transport related businesses engage in. Of
particular interest to this discourse is the vocabulary in use. In short, one may not be
mistaken to say that they have an unwritten dictionary of their language which often is
not understood by outsiders or those new to the business of night travels by road. For
instance at the Akwete livestock market Aba when you hear one of the loaders tell his
colleague that, Hm-m don hama, he means that he hit a jackpot. This is the
euphemistic way of saying that he cheated someone. His partner would then ask him
if d peson shain im eye wel wel meaning was the person cheated not careful? When
they want to refer to two nights ago they talk of di nait we yenta yestade monin. If
they want to make reference to a very fat woman they would call her molue (a large
clxxxiii
vehicular contraption used by commuters in big cities especially Lagos). For those
who knew not how to speak their native Igbo language they called Bon-trowe or
Odenigbo15
.
Night clubs feature prominently in some of these towns. The clubs held in
some prominent relaxation centres. Some of these centres are make-shift structures.
Inside or very close to the car parks or transit stations, passengers whose vehicles
would take long to take off normally relaxed at such centres. They busied themselves
watching films, chatting, drinking and dancing to the tune of live artists. For instance,
in the early 1980s, Bolingo Hotel was a heaven for those that traveled to Lagos at
night. This was more pronounced for those who travelled on weekends. As a rule,
Bolingo invited the likes of Osita Osadebe, Ali Chukwuma, Oliver Nwailozue (Oliver
de Coque), Celestine Ukwu, and a host of other musicians to entertain people at night.
They normally began their displays from about 6pm while most of the buses
travelling to Lagos left as from 7: 30 to 9 pm.The attraction in night clubs were many.
They had the latest news in town and therefore were very good places to scout for
information. The information ranged from gossips to real business news. For
example, Mellitus Ezeah, a former staff of Bolingo hotels told the present writer that
Oliver Amu began the sale of palm wine of Nsukka extraction at Onitsha due to the
information he got from some night passengers of Nsukka extraction resident in
Onitsha. Oliver, he said, later combined the sale of palm wine with film shows and his
business premises became the centre from where people got to know of the latest
home videos in town. It also became a centre of contact for various business
partners.16
clxxxiv
Crime and Changes in Value system
Among the Igbo, night is seen as harboring uncertainties. This is mirrored in some of
their popular sayings like; abali di egwu (night is full of dangers), Uchichi n‟amu nwa
njo (the night beget ugly child (ren). However, one thing is certain of night-time as it
relates to night-life in communities that are known for night-time road transportation
either as take-off, transit or terminal stations in Igboland; crime. Crimes are
perpetrated by all classes of people. One of the people involved in the promotion of
crime are prostitutes. They, in some cases, act as informants to armed robbers who
attack loading stations, hotels used by night travelers or some other places strategic in
their calculation. For instance, in 1989 at Obollo-Afor, a tanker driver who was
alleged to have come from Julius Berger Construction Company, Abuja was killed in
front of Igwebuike Hotel by armed robbers. Not only was he killed, his private parts
were cut off. A popular view in Obollo-Afor (though based on speculation since there
was no substantial evidence to support it) was that the robbers got to know of him and
his whereabout through the prostitutes in the hotel17
.
Another mechanism used by the prostitutes to commit crime was drugging their
customers with a view to stealing their money and valuables. The testimony of Paul
Olinya readily comes to mind. Paul intimated the present writer, that he on May 29,
1988, was a victim of the antics of one of the harlots at Upper Iweka road, Onitsha.
He said he was tricked by one lady who gave her name as Mabel Odunze. The said
lady called his attention to one of the tyres of his vehicle that went flat. The same lady
told him that through her he could get a vulcanizer to repair the tyre. Without
suspecting any intended fowl play, he thanked the lady who quickly left the vicinity in
the pretext of searching for the vulcanizer. Some hours later, she came back and told
clxxxv
him to wait for a while for the vulcanizer to come. Not knowing that she was a cheat,
Paul bought two bottles of Maltina drink and gave one to the lady who was
supposedly waiting for the tyre repairer to come. Mid way, Paul left his drink to ease
himself hoping that the “good Samaritan” would take proper care of it. On his way
back to continue his long wait, he claimed he saw Mabel holding his own bottle of
drink and was shaking the bottle vigorously. When asked what was the matter she
retorted that one of the mad people who used the park as his home usually snatched
drinks from people in the park if the owner of the drink did not shake the bottle and its
content vigourously. As Paul looked around he saw a mad man standing very close to
Mabel. Paul trusted her and took the bottle from her and finished his drink. As he was
about emptying the bottle, he noticed some substance at the base of the bottle which
he said might have been originally in powdered form but changed after being soaked
in the drink. Paul later fell asleep without seeing any vulcanizer. When he woke up
the following morning, he did not see his wallet and his wrist watch and Mabel was
no where to be seen. On raising alarm at the park, he was told that he was treated to
some dose of Valium 5(diazepam) and that it must have accounted for his deep sleep.
The lady she bought the maltina drinks from volunteered to come to his rescue by
taking her to Mabel‟s residence. As they were close to her house, the lady pointed at
the house and told them the room number of Marbel. On knocking at the door, Marbel
opened and saw Paul. As she wanted to bang the door to prevent Paul from entering
her room, other drivers who went in search of Marbel forced the door open and saw
Paul‟s wallet on Marbel‟s table but the wrist watch was no where to be found. Marbel
accused them of trying to intimidate her as she claimed that the wallet was hers. A
search was conducted by one of the drivers on the wallet and one of the items inside
was Pauls driving license18
.
clxxxvi
The two cases above are clear indications that night travels provided
opportunities for women to dupe men. In the real Igbo traditional society, it was an
anathema for a woman to be associated with theft or swindling. It was seen as a mark
of irresponsibility for a man to allow his wife or daughter to be outside the compound
at night except her destination had link with a statutory function imposed or
sanctioned by the traditions of the society or she was visiting a close relation or
friend. Night as a period of making money outside the home was unheard of in most
societies. Men whose wives were known to have violated this unwritten code of
conduct were often ostracized by their kinsmen if they found out that they ate the food
cooked by such women without demanding that she first performed the prescribed
propitiatory rites19
. Okpe lamented that today, some women who were known to be
regular commercial sex workers serving as mistresses to drivers were given titles in
the community. He observed that in Obollo-Afor infidelity among married woman
was becoming rampant especially among Christians. In the churches such women
were crowned “Nne Muru Oha” i.e. “mother of all”. No doubt, traditional Igbo values
have been eroded by a variety of factors and wider issues than night acitivities; night
trading can be seen not as a cause of that wanning but as a result of it as some people
hide under the pretext of businesses associated with it to perpertuate evil.
Child labor is another crime associated with night-life in some of these
transport hubs. In Igbo land, night-time is often a time to educate the children. This
was done through telling them tales on various issues ranging from the history of their
lineage, village, town, the exploits of great warriors, animal tales and a host of other
stories. Also in a typical Igbo society unadulterated by western values, children were
regarded as higher than money in terms of value (Nwa ka ego- A child is worth more
than money) and therefore prevented from all types of hazards. Today, night-time
clxxxvii
road transport has changed these values as parents recruit the services of their tender
children in commerce associated with night-time road transport. The case of Agnes
Ogbodo, who lost her only son at Uratta road Owerri to a road accident involving a
Toyota Haice bus belonging to Imo State Transport Company on 6th
December, 1997
is a good case of the decay of Igbo value system consequent on nocturnal road
transport and the price paid for the child labor associated with it20
.
The Igbo attach a lot of emphasis on how one got wealthy. This accounts for
their classification of money into “ego ojoo and ejo ndu”- “bad money or more
appropriately evil money and money of life”. Today in Igboland, night transportation
has provided an opportunity for evil to thrive. One of such evils is the kidnapping of
children and selling them in far away countries like Togo, Gabon and even far away
Italy. The testimony of one Patrick Udensi is very revealing;
My child Chukwudi went to school (Ososu Primary School 1,
Aba) on a Monday, March 15, 1999 but as at 2pm he was not
back. I searched for him till I got to their school premises and
did not see him. I became apprehensive and went to his
friend‟s house to see if he was there, but neither he nor his
friend was found. As I was coming out of his friend‟s house
his parents saw me and asked whether I saw their child
Moneke. I told them my mission and the mother of Moneke
collapsed on the spot. After resuscitating her we made for the
police station and reported. The police demanded that we
furnish them with the photographs of the boys, this we did
and the police went into action. Three days later the boys
were found at about 11pm in a commercial bus at Ohanze, in
Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia state as they were
headed for Calabar from where they would have been taken
to Gabon by two Igbo men and one Efik21.
.
What is instructive is the fact that the children were found in a night bus. This does
not mean that kidnappers do not operate in the day-time. The argument is that night
offers little chance of rescuing those kidnapped because of the fear it holds as time of
clxxxviii
the day. This fear is what these miscreants cash on. The big concern is that the moral
value of the Igbo and their system of valuing ways money or wealth were made had
been bastardized partly because of the opportunity offered by nocturnal road
transport.
Adulteration of traditional foods through the introduction of other edible food
items was frowned at in traditional Ngwo society. Any person who did that was said
to have literarily roasted cow pea in hot ash (iru ngwoo n‟oku) meaning that the
person committed an abomination. Ngwo people are known throughout Nigeria for
cooking delicious meals when it comes to the issue of cow pea (Okpa). During the
Second Republic, tsshe members of the Nigerian Peoples‟ Party in the Old Anambra
state coined a song to despise one of Ngwo sons alleging that he used Okpa as his
breakfast and used it to drink tea. The said Ngwo son was Chief Christian Chukwuma
Aninefungwu Onoh who was the gubernatorial candidate of the National Party of
Nigeria. Unfortunately, in 1982, rumors began to spread in Ngwo that a certain
woman named Eunice Ozor mixed her cooked cowpea with maize flour, Mucuna
flour and sold to passengers who stopped on their way to other parts of Nigeria at
Ninth Mile at night. As the woman made gains from passengers who in most cases
were eating that delicacy for the first time and could not make a difference between
the adulterated and unadulterated one, some other women joined in the crime but
would only sell them at night. The prize Ngwo is paying for this denigration of its
traditional delicacy is that most Igbo whose people are good in cooking Okpa do not
buy Okpa from Ngwo women or even in Udi land as a whole for fear of buying faked
one. What even made the adulteration worse was the substitution of red and fresh
palm oil with food coloring. These women turned night into a period of perpetuation
clxxxix
of crime contrary to Ngwo notions of night as a period of peace and fraternity as
evidenced in Eke Usu market22
.
In most Igbo societies, the masquerade institution is very prominent. In Ngwo,
the Odo institution is associated with some rituals held at night. Traditionally, when
such rituals were held, tender palm fronds were used to barricade the roads. Women
and men who were not iniatiated into the Odo institution were not allowed to come
out. Agba Asaa [Ninth Mile] used to be one of the venues of such rituals, a woman
defied the existing rule on the grounds that all the cowpea she cooked with the
intention of selling same to travelers at Ninth Mile must not be sacrificed on the altar
of tradition and superstition. As she was headed for Ninth Mile, relations and friends
pleaded with her but to no avail. The fear was that she might get in contact with the
masked spirits. All those who expected to hear a sad story the next day as it was
originally believed that any person who went out during such nights died.
Incidedentally, the woman by name Monica Ngwu, from Ngwo Uno transacted her
business successfully and came back unhurt. Other Ngwo women followed her
example to defy the tradition. To make sure that the sanctity of the Odo institution
was maintained based on the secrecy it was associated with, the venue of this ritual
was changed to a place very far off from its original venue. The change did not
prevent some women from looking down on Odo as they came to regard it as one of
those antics of men to marginalize women;thus introducing a different interpretation
into the very essence of Odo among the Ngwo people23
.
From the foregoing, it is evident that night-time road transportation affected
the Igbo communities that experience heavy vehicular traffic at night both negatively
and positively. It also threw some challenges to the value system of such
communities. However, the contribution of the industry to the growth and
cxc
development of such communities are ernamous; the positive side having outweighed
the negative dimension.
Notes and References
1: Modestus Okpe, 76, Motorcycle spare parts dealer, interviewed at Obollo-Afor on
6th
Feburary, 2009.
2: Ignatius Nwodo, 63 Onions Merchant, interviewed at Ninth Mile, 14th
March,
2009.
3: C.C.Obiefuna, “ The Dynamics of Roadside Trading: A Case Study of Ninth Mile
Corner Ngwo in Udi Local Government Area, Anambra State” an unpublished
Bachelor of Science degree project, Department of Geography, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka, June 1985, 12-17.
4: http://www.ababusinessonline.com
5: http://www.ababusinessonline.com
6: Rasak Garba.54, Fast food seller, interviewed at Obollo-Afor, February 6, 2009 at
Obollo-Afor.
7: Bridget Igwe, 49, MD Chinasa Inn Obollo-Afor, interviewed February, 6, 2009 at
Obollo-Afor.
8; Fidelia Ishiwu, 58, A Professional Commercail Sex Worker, interviewed at Lejja
on February 6, 2009.
9:D.E.Okoroafor,” The Impact of a Commercial Centre on its Dependent Regions:
The Case of Aba” an unpublished B.Sc. project, Department of Geography,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, June 1983,27.
10: Raphael Omeke, (Eze afojulu) 52, Cattle Merchant, interviewed at Obollo Afor,
February 6, 2009.
11: Raphael Omeke, Interview cited.
12: Boniface Agada, 61, Trailer driver, interviewed at Ninth Mile, March 14, 2009.
13: Ifeyinwa Agboeze, 53, Kola nut hawker, Interviewed at Obollo- Afor, February
6, 2009.
14: Samuel Ozor, 36, Commercial Motor cycle Operator, Interviewed at Ninth Mile,
March 14, 2009.
15: Ifeyinwa Agboeze, Samuel Ozor, interviews cited.
16: Mellitus Ezeah, 51, a former staff of Bolingo Hotels Onitsha, interviewed at
Onitsha, May 18, 2009.
cxci
17: S. O. Odo, “Prostitution in Obollo-Afor: The Underground Economy of a Rural
Igbo Community,1987-2007”,An unpublished Bachelor of Arts Project,
Department of History and International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,
September, 2008, 42.
18: Paul Olinya, 59, J5 Peougeot Bus driver, interviewed at Nsukka, May 18, 2009.
19: Modestus Okpe, interview cited.
21: Paul Olinya, interview cited.
22: Patrick Udensi, 63, Trader, interviewed at Lagos on September 17, 2003.
23: Ignatius Nwodo, Interview cited.
cxcii
CHAPTER EIGHT
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Summary
Transportation is very important for the growth of any economy. The experiences of
advanced nations indicate that railways are very cost effective. However, the Nigerian
railway is as good as dead.For developing countries like Nigeria; road transportation
remains the best and most affordable means of transportation of passengers, goods
and services. Road transport accounts for more than 90% of the transport sub sector‟s
3% contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria1. It should therefore
occasion no surprise that people [Nigerians] whose road transport industry was
saddled with many bottle necks resorted to any means to provide them the needed
transportation services. For the Igbo of Nigeria, their predicaments were legion. What
is intriguing however is how they found an answer in night-time road transportation
as night is taken as a metaphor for problems2.The answer to the latter question
establishes the link between the challenge posed by paucity of vehicles and the Igbo
spirit of enterprise and their response to the said challenge. As enthused by one of the
service providers,
entrepreneurship entails marrying reality with optimism. As for
why we saw night as an auspicious time to travel, the Igbo
saying that “achosi ndu echere onwu”(after one must have
strived to live, he still waits for death) forced some of us to
embark on night-time road transport as death must surely come
at any moment3.
For one to be a good entrepreneur one must not bury reality in the pit of pessimism. In
any economy, transportation is very vital as it is the bridge builder between the
cxciii
producers and consumers. This is because it is through the various transportation
modes that the goods produced are brought to the markets and the door steps of
consumers. As the Igbo are traders who depended on getting most of their wares
outside Igboland, the introduction of vehicular transport was seen as a good
development even though some traders had their reservations. Like Lord Lugard, the
Igbo saw transportation as the single most important impediment to the material
development of their land4. The development that transportation ushers into a society
was close to eluding the Igbo during the colonial period because of scarcity of
vehicles. For example, in 1957, there were 39,000 registered vehicles in Nigeria. In
the same year, the national human population per vehicle stood at 851 persons per
vehicle. For the Eastern Region where the Igbo belong, the human population per
vehicle was worse than the national ratio. Human population per vehicle in the East
was 1,066. Incidentally, in other parts of Nigeria within the same period, the ratio was
less. For instance, in Lagos the ratio was 33 persons per vehicle. In the Western
Region the ratio was 612 persons per vehicle5.
The adverse condition of the road transport sector posed a challenge to the
government and people of the defunct Eastern Region of Nigeria. In response to this
challenge, the government of Eastern Region floated the Outlook Transport Service
(OTS) and instructed its management to embark on night-time road transport services
as a way of meeting the transport needs of its peoples. This was in 19616. The efforts
of government in redressing the anomalies in the road transport sector of the Igbo
economy was complemented by some Igbo transport service providers who subjected
their vehicles to several trips in a day. Subjecting vehicles to several trips meant that
vehicles in some cases would be on the road till very late at night or till day break
depending on the length of the journey. Unfortunately, the Igbo did not enjoy the
cxciv
services of OTS for a long time and the services of the company were not wide spread
as most towns in Igboland did not benefit from its services. The life span and
activities of OTS were cut short by the Nigerian civil war. The war on its part, came
with a lot of challenges that had adverse effects on the road transport industry.
The war slowed the pace of commercial activities in Igboland. Vehicles were
impounded by soldiers to execute the war. Damages were done on the roads to
prevent easy movement of vehicles. Spare parts were lacking due to economic
blockades. Even in Biafra held territories, the problem of transportation was so serve
after the war that most of the vehicles used by Biafran soldiers were unserviceable.
Damaged roads and bridges worsened the problem. It was estimated that about
£1.5million was required for the repair and replacement of destroyed road
maintenance equipment7. A survey carried out by the National War Damages
Assessment Committee (NWDAC) revealed that more than £200 million was needed
to reconstruct private buildings alone while public buildings required £50 million.
In the public sector, it was found that rebuilding and re-equipping of damaged
and looted schools would cost £17 million. This amount did not include the cost of
rebuilding the University of Nigeria, Nsukka which was put at £5 millon. Matters
were worsened by the halt in industrial production in the immediate post-civil war
Igboland. The same survey showed that 11 industries in which the former Eastern
Nigerian Government had financial interest were seriously damaged and needed huge
sums of money to reactivate8.When the rate of unemployment in the old East- Central
State that is the core of Igboland was added to these challenges, the predicament of
the Igbo increased. Unemployment in the state was put at about 1million people
immediately after the war9. Incidentally, the Federal Government as shown in the
Second National Development Plan made no special provisions for the war damaged
cxcv
area. Only one of the seventeen projects proposed in that document touched directly
on the area. This project fell under the Federal Road Programme. It proposed to
expend £2.688 million representing only 8.2% of the £32.945 million estimated for all
projects nation wide10
. The budget of East Central State in 1970 was silent on
rebuilding private structures even where such structures were of public importance11
.
To compound the dilemma of the Igbo, the Federal Government released the
sum of £14 million as the total money to be paid to all Biafrans in exchange for their
currency and ordered that not more than £20 should be paid to any one irrespective of
the amount of money he or she had in Biafran currency. The £14 million amounted to
only 7% of the £200 million issued by the Biafran government to the Federal
Government in anticipation of a fair exchange12
.
Under these helpless situations, the Igbo in 1970 (which coincided with the
end of the war) found themselves in a nation where the ratio of human population to
road vehicles stood at 2 vehicles per 1000 persons13
. Due to paucity of vehicles,
available ones were subjected to several turns. This gave rise to night-time road
transportation. The latter arrangement did not mitigate the transportation problems of
the Igbo.
It was in a bid to confront the challenges in the road transport sector of the
Igbo economy that led the government of East Central State under Mr Ukpabi Asika
to float a transport company named Oriental Line in 1971. Oriental Line was
operational till 1976. During its life span, it recorded some progress but was bedeviled
with a lot of problems.The services of Oriental Line were complemented by some
Igbo transport service providers. Between 1976 and 1988 when Enugu and Anambra
states floated their transport companies it was the private sector that sustained the
road transport industry. With the demise of Oriental Line, the two new states carved
cxcvi
out of East Central State floated transport companies that operated night-time road
services as a deliberate policy. The companies were Anambra State Transport
Corporation (TRACAS) and Imo Transport Corporation (ITC).These companies came
into being in 1988 under what was known as the Federal Urban Mass Transit
Programme.. Good as the record of these companies were, they could not cope with
the challenges in the road transport of the Igbo and Nigerian economy as they were
unable to meet all of the transport demands of the citizens.
The inability of government owned transport companies to brace up to the
challenges in the nation‟s road transport industry paved the way for the private sector
to dominate the business of not only night-time road transport but the entire business
of service delivery in the road transport business. Government was saddled with the
business of regulating the services of the private operators. The Igbo entrepreneurs
were able to edge out government owned transport companies for a variety of reasons.
Prominent among the reasons was that they offered better pay for their drivers. They
equally had better methods of organizing their business as they were aware that their
livelihood depended on the vehicle.
In some of the privately owned transport companies, the drivers were paid on
the basis of their level of contribution to the growth of the company. The indices used
in measuring the success of each driver were many. First, the number of turns done by
each driver in a month was calculated. While doing the calculation, consideration was
given to the number of passengers carried. From the number of passengers carried by
the driver, the expected amount of money to be realized was calculated. If any
discrepancy was noticed, the driver was called to account for the variation. If his
reasons were satisfactory and certified by the Company‟s Manager, he was adjudged
to be successful as it was assumed that he made good returns. The second option was
cxcvii
to ascertain the state of the vehicle used by each driver. This was designed to see how
careful the driver had been in paying attention to the road worthiness of the vehicle.
This measure gave a clue to how much was spent on the repair and
maintenance of each vehicle every month and goes a long way to show how each
driver handled his vehicle. It also gave the company an indirect clue of the drivers‟
level of sincerity. If after cross checking, using these two options and the
contributions of the driver based on his monthly returns was not up to 80% of what
would have been the actual cumulative fare of the passengers for the month, the driver
was adjudged to have not contributed meaningfully to the growth of the company for
that month. As a punishment and also as a means of encouraging those who met the
company‟s‟ aspirations, the driver that was found wanting was stagnated on his
previous salary at the end of the year. This was done after the company must have
calculated the returns made by each driver for the twelve (12) months of the year.
Where the amount of money spent on the vehicle of a driver was above 60% of his
expected returns, the driver was sacked. Sack was also a price for those drivers that
recorded multiple accidents due to reckless driving.14
In Ifesinachi Transport Company, a prize was awarded to the best driver of the
year. Such a driver must not have recorded any accident for that year. He also must
have made a return of no less than 70% of the estimated number of passengers he was
supposed to carry for the year. This was raised to eighty per cent so that the company
does not lose the charges made on passengers‟ luggage to the drivers. This practice
was in vogue until the idea of ticketing was introduced into the company in the late
1990s15
. Other matters taken into consideration in judging the drivers were their
attitudes towards passengers. Where there were complaints of unruly behavior against
any driver, and such complaints were found to be true, the driver stood the chance of
cxcviii
being stagnated on the salary he was placed at in the previous year except if the
company decided to overlook the driver‟s action that gave rise to the complaint by the
passengers. The management normally disregarded complaints that did not in any way
tarnish the image of the company.
Private Operators were more successful than public transport enterprises
because they built private workshops and employed technicians who alternated their
working hours. Through this means, their vehicles were repaired at any time of the
day. This was opposed to what obtained in public transport companies where the
technicians terminated their days‟ job by 3:30 pm daily. Bearing in mind that mobile
phones were not yet popularized or even introduced in the country then, getting in
touch with the technicians in the event of an emergency was very difficult. Under
these circumstances, some vehicles that would have embarked on night-time road
transport could not do so16
.
In spite of the shortcomings of government owned transport companies, as is
evident in the collapse of government owned transport companies especially under the
Mass Transit Scheme, the private sector was able to weather the storm.This they did
through their various managerial capabilities. The difference in the performance of the
transport companies as shown in Tables 21 and 22 could be accounted for by the
secretive nature of the various transport companies as most of them kept spying on
each other to ensure that passengers‟ response did not tilt in favor of a particular
company to the detriment of the other. On noticing that one of the methods used by
government under the mass transit scheme was to provide an umbrella cover for new
entrants into the business of road transport (and by extension night-time road transport
services by allowing them operate as if their vehicles were owned by government, this
practice was known as attach while those who owned transport firms and vehicles
cxcix
were referred to as autonomous) the private sector did same. The essence of copying
the government was to make sure passengers did not complain of not having access to
a vehicle to convey them to their destinations by any transport company. The latter
idea was meant to assure passengers that the companies were very reliable. Such new
entrants were allowed to make use of the government or private transport companies
for both loading and unloading of passengers.
Unfortunately, by 1993, what appeared to be a marriage of compromise
between the private and public sector road service provider began to disappear and
stiff competition became the order of the day. The competition saw to the collapse of
many public or government owned transport companies. This left the business of
night-time road transport in the hands of very few public transport companies; many
of which were owned by Local Governments and more in the hands of private
transport companies17
.
Competition among these privately owned transport companies brought a lot of
innovations to bear on the business of nocturnal road transport. The Igbo transport
service providers were the first to blaze the trail in the use of escorts. They were
equally the first to introduce some measures that made night travels by road using
vehicular transport fashionable and enjoyable. One of such innovations is the
executive sleeper service that was first introduced by ABC Transport17
. In spite of the
good innovations made in the industry, much needed to be done as many problems
confronted the business of night travels.
These problems ranged from bad road, robbery, lack of spare parts, high prices
of vehicles and high cost of maintenance, inadequate and ill-equipped security, and
unnecessary delays caused by security agents, extortion of money by security
personnel especially the police, to victimization of drivers by the major service
cc
providers and vehicle owners. Also in the league of problems that had adversely
affected the business in Nigeria are the high incidence of fraud among Nigerian
technicians who substituted geniune vehicle parts with sub-standard parts.
As a way of improving the business of night- time road transportation in
Nigeria, it would be apposite for all the service providers to do a stock taking. The
essence of such stock would be for each of them to identify their shortcomings, since
their problems differ. Any good recommendation of ways to improve the services
must state clearly what should be done by both the government as a regulatory agency
and the private sector.
Recommendations
To start with, Government should pay serious attention to road maintenance. For a
nation that was reported to incur an annual loss of N 132.8 billion due to bad roads18
to toy with the idea of not probing of all those who were involved in the execution of
shoddy jobs that led to this loss is to say the least uneconomic and inhuman. Also to
be probed include, all those who certified the job done by such contractors and the
government whose agents were part of the mess through awarding and certifying the
shoddy jobs on the nations roads. This, it is hoped, would act as a deterrent to those
who may be nursing the ambition of defrauding the nation by doing or executing
substandard road contracts.
To raise money for the regular repair of the roads, the toll gate should be re-
introduced. They should be privatized with government stipulating how much it
should be aided on monthly basis. The amount to be given as aid should be dependent
on how busy the route is. To minimize fraud, electronic meters should be installed in
all the toll gates to record the number of vehicles that made use of the road daily.
cci
Such meters should be connected to central ones which should be keeping stock of the
events in the various toll gates in all the geo-political zones and the latter should be
connected to a central monitoring machine to take stock of what transpired nation
wide.
A second option would be for the government to enact a law on the age and
maintenance of vehicles that should be used for night journeys and make sure it is
enforced. This is because most of the breakdowns witnessed on the highways
involved aging vehicles19
. Vehicles that must have been used for upwards of ten years
from the date of manufacture should not be allowed to embark on night-time road
transport to avoid break down. Even where a vehicle is not up to ten years of age, if it
must embark on night -time service, it must be subjected to road worthiness test
monthly by members of the Road Safety Corps. The Corps Marshalls who should
execute this task must be men/women of proven integrity who can resist the
temptation of huge monetary offers by service providers whose buses or vehicles
might not meet the prescribed standard.
Of equal relevance to the growth of night-time road transport is the need to
overhaul the entire Nigerian security system as events over the years have shown that
in some cases the arms at the disposal of armed robbers were more sophisticated than
those of the Police. In the early 1990s, Nigerians were held to ransom by the
Lawrence Anineh Group. In the late 1990s and up to 2001 it was the gang led by
Okwudili Ndigwe(Alias Derico Nwamama) that terrorized the Southeastern states
towns of Onitsha and Awka which were transport hubs in Igboland. This group was
reported to have killed over 100 people including about 15 policemen during their
operations in Anambra State alone. This gang was reported to have attacked a luxury
bus at Onitsha in 2000. During the attack over 30 passengers was killed.20
The luxury
ccii
bus was identified to be a Lagos night- bound bus from Onitsha belonging to
G.U.Okeke Transport21
. It would be foolhardy to ask any police man or security agent
to confront criminals that are better equipped than they are.
The nation through the Federal Road Safety Commission should help in
reducing the incidence of road mishaps especially at night. This could be achieved
through various ways One of such ways is to regulate the way and manner drivers
licenses are issued. In the past no one could obtain a driver‟s license without the the
approval of a Vehicle Inspection Officer [VIO]. Such approval came after thorough
testing by the VIO.These days, the practice is no more. Today, it has become a
practice for those who never went for any driving test at all to be issued with the
national driving license. These set of people get their licenses through some agents of
the licensing officers. Also important, is the need to conduct regular seminars and
refresher courses for night-time road transport operators on the best practices
available. The organizers of such seminars should educate the drivers on road use and
the rules. They should also emphasise the need for any driver to know traffic
regulations.
Since one of the complains against night –time road transportation in the
nation has to do with lack or near absence of rescue operations, it would be advisable
for government to build emergency hospitals at specified intervals along the nations
roads, especially those that are known to be busy at night. Accident victims taken to
such hospitals should be treated instantly but should be in the hospital till a police
clearance testifying that the victims were not a security risk in any form or shape is
obtained. Where a victim‟s case is serious and needed the attention of a specialist, the
doctor who is to give the referral letter should be made to retain a photocopy of the
victim‟s folder in the hospital which was created under emergency before the victim
cciii
is transferred to another hospital. Where this option is not easily realizable, policemen
should be posted to each of the emergency hospitals. Such policemen should act as a
liaison between the hospital and the security agencies.
Service providers should have a defined policy as to how drivers should be
recruited. A system where some transport companies allow unqualified drivers to
drive vehicles for long hours is synonymous with one courting a suicide bomb; for if
the bomb explodes, both the passengers and the driver will pay the supreme prize.
They should also enact laws banning drivers who drove for long hours during the day
from driving at night. This would prevent the incidence of road mishaps caused by
fatigue or dosing off by such drivers. Drivers with bad eye sight should be barred
completely from driving, especially at night.
Since night-passengers travel over night, all transport service providers should
build decent public convenices in their loading, transit and terminal stations. They
should equally ensure that the vehicles have enough room space for travelers to
stretch their legs during the journey. A situation where the factory arrangements of
seat are tampered with to accommodate more passengers is not only selfish but very
callous approach to making money.
Variety they say is the spice of life. The idea of drivers limiting the choice of
where passengers had their meals because they were assured a free meal by the
management of a resturant or a particular eating center denies customers the right to
have full advantage of the value of their money is illegal. Drivers should allow
passengers the time to find alternative places to eat if they could not find a meal of
their choice. In the same vein, those who own and operate eateries have to be
monitored by Health officers‟ especially veterinary officers. This is because, a
passenger lost his life after eating beef in one of the eateries at Obollo-Afor in 1987
cciv
even when he asked to know the hygienic and health status of the beef and was
assured that the cow was a healthy one. It was later confirmed that the beef was
derived from a dead cow that drank gamaline 20 in a farm in Obollo-Afor. His death
was linked to food poisoning and gamaline 20 was dictated as a major causative
agent22
.
Transport firms should endeavour to train their purchasing officers on how to
dictate used cars. This would save them the risk of buying cars that have been
repaired after a major accident and therefore, may not be as road worthy as it should
be. It is especially not recommended for those eager to own a vehicle to buy used
vehicle that has been in an accident, especially after a frontal collision. This is
because the repair shops may not use original parts, as they sometimes opt for cheaper
substitutes.Cheaper substitutes generate collateral damages. Also a collision may
cause hidden mechanical problems such as wheel bearing damage or misalignment.
Frontal collisions cause damage to the air conditioning and this might lead to chronic
air conditioning problems that may be difficult to fix. Accidents compromise the
integrity of the body of vehicles, making it less strong and less able to withstand
further impacts. In the event of economic hardships forcing a transport firm to go for
second-hand vehicles, the six clues below as outlined by Foster Obi23
, a senior
transport correspondent, Daily Independent can help them determine if the vehicle
they intend buying is accident free.
Look down the length of the vehicle: The lines of a vehicle‟s body should be
straight. The reflection on the side should be perfect. Check the gaps between the
mudguards, doors, bonnet and boot. Gaps where even are sign of no accident. If the
gaps are wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, it is suggestive that the vehicle had
ccv
been involved in an accident. The purchasing officers should also pay particular
attention to the unevenness in the gaps between the bonnet and the front mudguards,
and between the doors and the front mudguards. These are good indicators of possible
damage from frontal collision.
Doors and Bonnet: If the position of a door or bonnet has been shifted from its
original position, this could be another sign that the car has been involved in an
accident. Look for spots of new paint behind the doors and under the bonnet and boot
as futher indication that the car has previously been repaired.
Rust: Check the wheel arches, floor under the carpet, boot and door bottoms for signs
of rust. Use a small magnet and try to make it cling to the bottom of the doors,
mudguards and other places. If the magnet does not cling, this means that there is too
much filler under the paint- testimony that the vehicle had been worked on after it
was produced by its original manufacturers.
Paint: The vehicle should be looked at from various angles. Such scrutiny would help
in observing small differences as it is very difficult to paint some replaced or damaged
parts to the exact original colour. Run your hand over the bodywork. The original
should be flat and even. Uneveness is a sign that the area has been repainted.A slight
and gentle knock on the body of the vehicle would tell from the sound wether there is
filler on the vehicle or not.
Vehicle’s Frame: The vehicles frame should never be compromised, as it is essential
for supporting the vehicle. Check should be conducted on the entire length of the
ccvi
frame. There shouldn‟t be any signs of crack, welding traces or rust. If any of these
defects were found, they should avoid buying such a vehicle.
Tell-tale Flood Indicator: To ascertain if a vehicle has been flooded, check under the
carpets for excessive moisture. Check the wheels and other metal parts for too much
rust. If you find any of these elements, there is good ground to suspect the vehicle has
been busy.
Vehicle drivers should ensure that they have good visibility that woud help
them drive at night. The responsibility of ensuring visibilty of driver should not rest
on the transport firms. Government through its various agencies should help. The
Federal Road Safety Commission should collaborate with the Ministry of Health to
conduct regular eye checks on night-time drivers especially those that travel over long
distances. Street lights should be provided to aid reading of road signs from a
reasonable distance at night. To aid visibilty during light showers or heavy down
pour, vehicle wipers and their blades must be functional at all times. The Federal
Road Safety Commission should as a matter of urgency iniatite a bill and send to the
National Assembly to legislate against driving at night when there are heavy rains as
the fog generated during such rains contributes to poor visibility.
Another desired change that should be made to improve night time road
transportation and road transportation in general is for the government to have a data
bank that must be updated to reflect present realities. Such data bank must have in its
store the ratio of human population per vehice. This, they should publish quarterly.
The data should also indicate the ratio of urbanization in each urban centre to the
vehicles in such urban centre. This would help government and private investors in
the road transport sector of the economy to know areas or urban areas where there are
ccvii
shortfalls and places where vehicles exist in excess of human population.This stance
or call is relevant as available statistics indicate that by 1998, more than 30% of the
country‟s population lived in urban centres of 100,000 and above. It was also
estimated that by the year, 2000, the proportion of those living in cities would have
increased to 50% from its 1990 rate of 35%24
. This indicates that the population of the
cities grew by 15% over a decade. If that figure is to be realized upon and assumed to
have continued, Nigeria must have witnessed an increase of over 20% in her urban
population since 1990. Incidentally, the increase in urban population never kept pace
with the number of vehicles. For instance, vehicles declined from 700,000 vehicles
in1983/84 to under 500,000 in 1987. This fall was projected to continue to decline
to350, 000 in 1991. Newly registered vehicles dropped from 57,833 in 1994 to
57,471 in 1995. Incidentally, these declines in the number of vehicles corresponded
with a period of fall in the value of the naira.From $1:00 to N1:5 kobo in 1993, the
naira exchanged for $1:00 to N88:00 in 1994, $1:00 to N115:00 in year 200025
, and
has continued to soar since then. Consequent on the high rate of exchange rate, it
became difficult to import new vehicles and spare parts and when they were imported
at all, they were done at very exorbitant cost. It should therefore be more economical
for vehicles to be utilized where their optimal utility would be realized.
The Federal, State and Local governments should encourage increased private
sector participation in the road transport business. They should buy more vehicles,
especially buses of various sizes and make and distribute same to drivers who can
gurantee minimum collateral securities to secure one. Formation of cooperatives
through which people could borrow money to buy vehicles would be of much help to
the nation‟s transport sector. Also, the daily fees collected by the National Union of
Road Transport Workers [NURTW] should form a commom purse through which
ccviii
bona fide members of theirs could borrow money to buy vehicles. Established names
in the road transport industry should be given concession by banks by lowering the
interest rate on any money borrowed to purchase vehicles.
It is hoped that with these measures in place, night-time road transport in Nigeria
will find an enabling environment to operate. This done, the labours of entrepreneurs
in night-time road transport would no longer be taunted. Reward for excellence is a
major incentive for the growth of a business. Since Igbo entrepreneurs have
contributed and still contribute their quota to national development through the
services they offered, it would be a step in the right direction if the business of night
travel by road is improved upon.
ccix
Notes and References
1: <http://newnigerian.blogspot.com/2009/01/12-steps-transportation-reforming-
road.html>
2: P.O Onwudiwe, “Soul Journey into the Night” Tell Magazine, June 28,1993,30.
3: Chief Augustine Akubue, 64, Retired lorry driver, interviewed at Obollo-Afor, May
16, 2000.
4: F.D Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa, London: Frank Cass,
1965, 5.
5: For details see Table 4 in E.K Hawkins,: Road Transport in Nigeria A Study in
African Enterprise, London: Oxford University Press, 1958, 18.
6: Nigerian Outlook, February 7, 1961, 7.
7: L.O.C Anene, “A Study of Rapid Transformation of Ibo Heartland Settlements
from Rural to Urban Centres: A Post-Nigerian Civil War Phenomenon” an
unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and
Engineering, University of Denver, 1991, 106.
8:__________, 106.
9: Federal Republic of Nigeria, Second National Development Plan, 1970-1974, 18.
10: ___________, 193.
11: New Nigeia, May 27,1970,20.
12: New Nigeria, May 30, 1970, 35.
13: I.I.Ukpong, “Social and Economic Infrastructure” in F.A.Olalokun, et al,
Structure of the Nigeriamn Econoy, London: Macmillan, 1979, 88.
14: Daniel Akor, 48, Driver, Labour Mass Transit. Obollo Afor interviewed August
28, 2010.
15: Obiora Ugwuanyi, c.32, Operations Manager, Ifesinachi Transport Company.
Interviewed on March 8, 2004 at Jibowu, Yaba, Lagos State, Nigeria.
16: Raphael Eze, 62, M/D Nwayo Nwayo Motors, Interviewed April 3, 2006 at Lejja.
17: http://www.abctransport.com/aboutus.php
18: Lawrence Ojabo, “All Nigerian Roads Must Be Good All the Time”, ThePunch,
Thursday, January 8,2004,34.
ccx
19: This view was expressed by Chief Ilodibe of Ekene Dili Chukwu Transport during
an interview which he granted the present writer in his Lagos office at Oregun on
March 17, 2004.
20: Uba Aham, “Row Over Derico” The News, July30, 2001, 28-29.
21: Maduabuchi Agwuncha, 65, member National Union of Road Transport Workers
Upper Iweka branch, Onitsha. Interviewed May 17, 2010 at Upper Iweka.
22: Onyeugwu Agu, c.103, She is the most senior citizen of Dunoka village Lejja and
also the most elderly member of Umuada Lejja. Interviewed 14th
January, 2006.
23: Foster Obi, “Body Work: Clues to guide your choice of a used car” Daily
Independent, October 21, 2005, C6.
24:E.F.Ogunbodede, “Urban Road Transportation in Nigeria From1960 to 2006:
Problems, Prospects and Challenges”, Ethiopian Journal of Environmental
Studies and Management, Vol.1 No.1 March, 2008, 7-18
25: F.Ogunbodede, “Urban Road Transportation in Nigeria From1960 to 2006:
Problems, Prospects and Challenges”, Ethiopian Journal of Environmental
Studies and Management, Vol.1 No.1 March, 2008, 11.
ccxi
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ccxv
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ccxvi
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Relevant websites
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<http://www.ababusinessonline.com>
<http://www.Philosophyprofessor.Com/Philosopher/ Arnold-toynbee.phd>
<www.nigerianworldpages.com>
<www.unilorin.edu.ng/Students%20>
<www.cenbank.org/out/efr/2002/efrvol38-3-2.pdf>
<www.pak-nigeria.org/pdfs/19-chapter3.pdf>
<www.nigerdeltacongress.com/farticles/fuel-price-increases-and-distrib.htm>.
<www.tamn-ng.org>
< www.thredbo-conference-series.org/downloads/.../Thredbo6-theme5-Oni.pdf>
<www.ajol.info/index.php/ejesm/article/view/41565/8865>
<http://www.uni/gai/Nigeria/Background/Transportation.html>
<http://www.abctransport.com/aboutus.php >
<http://www.peacegroupng.com/>
<http://wwwnideref.org/index.php?option>
<www.cenbank.org/out/publications/efr/RD/2002/efrvol39-4-4.pdf>
< http://www.ddgroup-ng.com>
<http://www.ngex.com/lifestyles/travel/bus>
<http://www.abctransport.com>
<http://nigeriawiki.com/wiki/Frank Nneji>
< http://www.snnewsonline.com>
<http://www.fleettechltd.com>
<http://www.saharareporters.com/press-release/pass-emergency-treatment-bill>
<http://newnigerian.blogspot.com/2009/01/12-steps-transportation-reforming-
road.html>
<http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic>.
< http://www.voanews.com/english,news/africa/Nigerias-Bad-Roads>.
ccxxi
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Seminars and Conference papers
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Countries”, Paper presented in Nigeria in 1998 during a Seminar on Night
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Duru,S.O.”The Impact of Road Transportation to the Nation‟s Economy (A Case
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Edebe R.N., “Comparative Analysis of Local Government Mass Transit Systems
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Arts Degree Project, Department of History and International Studies, University
of Nigeria, Nsukka, Jaunary,2010.
Eririogu, K.E “An Assessment of Cargo Handling in Road Haulage Industry in
Nigeria: A Case Study of Panalpine World Transport, Port Harcourt” an
unpublished First Degree Project, Department of Transport Management
Technology, Federal University of Technology Owerri, 2002.
ccxxix
Esse, U.O.A. “Road Transport in Nigeria as a Private Enterprise among the Igbo,
1920-1999” an unpublished PhD thesis, Department of History and International
Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, March, 2005.
Eze,J .M,” An Assessment of Replacement of Vehicles Components Requiring
Inspection at Irregular Intervals in a Typical Bus Company( A Case Study of
ABC Transport” an unpublished Master of Science degree thesis, Department of
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2002.
Ifukwu,A.D,”The Nnewi of North-western Igboland,1905-1999” A Study of an Igbo
Society on Transition” an unpublished Ph.D Thesi Proposal, Department of
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Ike, D.O „, An Assessment of Public Transportation Problems and Intercity Road
Passenger Bus Services In Nigeria: A Case Study of Luxury Buses”, an
unpublished Masters of Science thesis, Department of Transport Management
Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, June,2000.
Iwuorie,K. C, “ Managing Road Traffic Congestion in a Megacity: A Case Study of
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