- Unveils plan to pay BRT drivers N100,000 monthly
Lagos State Governor-elect, Babajide Sanwoolu, has asked Lagosians to give him two months to put an end to the traffic nightmare in the Apapa area of the state.
The governor-elect said despite the politics involved, his immediate preoccupation would be to take all the trailers and tankers away from Apapa roads in a bid to alleviate the plights of Lagosians.
Sanwoolu, spoke during an interactive session with his classmates at the Executive Master of Business Administration 1998/2000 set of the University of Lagos, which held on Saturday at Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi. He said he is determined to do the unthinkable, asking for just 60 days to prove his mettle.
“The Apapa trailer issue; it is a campaign issue, it is a very serious. We are very concerned because we know what our people are going through. I’m going to take it very seriously. I believe that it is something that we are going to solve in the first 60 days of our government. Whatever is going to be required of us, we will take them (the trailers and tankers) out. There is a lot of politics around there. But no, it cannot be the way we’ll continue to live. We cannot continue to give excuses,” he said.
The long term solution, he said, is to develop a port in Badagry, to diffuse the pressure on the Apapa Port.
“Five or 10 years ago, if we had been forward-thinking, we would have also realised that the city had actually outgrown the Apapa Port. So, the long-term solution is to build another one. Our government, by the Grace of God, will start the Badagry Port. That is the long-term solution,” he said.
Responding to the concern about the recklessness of some of the Bus Rapid Transit bus drivers, Sanwo-Olu said his administration planned to employ graduates as drivers.
He said, “The BRT issue is something that has to do with culture. When we take over, by the Grace of God, we will advertise and see if we can employ some of our graduates as drivers.
“What I realised is that apart from the money we will be paying them, which is more than what they are paying an average graduate, we need to very quickly tell our people and encourage ourselves that there is dignity in work. We are going to be paying (them) between N80,000 and N100,000 to come and drive these buses because we expect a lot more decency.
“By the time we get the culture of the drivers’ right, the routes are coming up, by the time we finish the Abule-Egba/Iyana Ipaja/Ikeja route, it will boost the number of BRT (buses).”
Punch quoted Sanwo-Olu as saying that he dreamt of introducing technology to upgrade and model the BRT ticketing system after what is obtainable in the United Kingdom, without necessarily making the process cumbersome for the passengers.