By Mary Onyia

The Lagos State governorship candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Funso Doherty, has accused powerful interests within the state’s informal transport system of deliberately frustrating efforts to modernise public transportation, warning that political unwillingness to confront the entrenched agbero network has kept Lagos commuters at the mercy of ageing, rickety buses.

Doherty made the allegation on Friday during the Lagos governorship debate organised by the Nigeria Debate Consortium, comprising Channels Television, TVC News, The PUNCH, TheCable and Vanguard. He questioned why successive administrations had failed to overhaul a transport system characterised by thousands of dilapidated commercial buses despite the growing demands of Africa’s largest city.

“Our public transportation system is not modernised. Thousands of rickety buses are on the road. We must ask ourselves: are these what our people deserve? Why has it taken so long to modernise public transportation?” he asked.

The NDC candidate alleged that vested interests benefiting from the existing arrangement, particularly the network of informal transport operators and touts popularly known as agberos, sustained the situation. “In my opinion, the lack of modern transportation is not by accident. There are vested interests in operating the bus system the way it is. Many of us understand the agbero system; there is an ecosystem around it, and there is no political will to deal with that problem,” he said.

Doherty, who pledged a comprehensive overhaul of Lagos public transportation if elected, said his administration would prioritise commuters’ interests over those of entrenched informal transport operators. “We would modernise public transportation because we would be elected by the people and not by the agbero network,” he declared.

Credit: Vanguard News.