Long queues and stranded passengers at designated and undesignated bus stops are marked features of the public transport system in Abuja. The capital city of Nigeria was once planned to host just 250,000 people in the first phase, but has since grown to accommodate close to 8 million. The public transport system is not coping. Journalists and bloggers are discussing new ways to understand and improve public transport.
“It took me 1hour queuing at the park to get conveyed to the municipal and this is not acceptable” says Daniel Anche a commuter.This seems to capture the mood of Abuja citizens as they commute from one location to another.
Araba Palava (Araba- the name given to Abuja’s commercial mini buses. Palava- the Nigerian connotation for palaver which means hassle)is a public debate animated by a group of bloggers and journalists who came together to discuss why public transport wasn’t working in Abuja, and what could be done about it. On their different platforms – radio stations, Twitter handles or newspaper pages – they engage Abuja citizens and debate the different options for public transportation in the FCT.
Dr. Femi Sumaila a transport expert and lecturer at the University of Technology, Minna, is advising the group of young media activists: “Statistics show through a study I carried out in 2012 that there are over 600,000 vehicles that ply Abuja roads daily, and out of this about 522,000 are private owned low occupancy vehicles. What cities of the size of Abuja do is to reduce the number of vehicles on the road by providing a public transport system that will be attractive to choice riders.. to persuade them to abandon their own private vehicles and use public transport”. “I would prefer to go commercial than use my own private vehicle” says Ordinary Ahmad Isah, media personality and President, Brekete Family Radio. “..because I multi task alot, it will pay me if someone else does the driving and I’m doing the thinking”, he continues.
On the popular Abuja morning radio show “Brekete Family”, the Araba Palava debate engaged politicians such as the Secretary of Transport for the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, FCT, Mr. Ivoke, who emphasized that government is constructing a light railway to deal with the growing numbers of passengers with the first phase of the rail lines, lots 1A and 3 running from the City-Centre to the Abuja airport and to Kubwa(a nearby satellite town) with Idu serving as depot/transfer station and covering a distance of 45.245km .“Exactly what the city needs, a mass transit system able to convey thousands at the same time without disrupting traffic”, says Dr Sumaila, “ but in the short term the city needs a larger number of buses on the road and the implementation of an effective BRT system.”
The Araba Palava group developed a series of recommendations on the way forward, which focused on integrating mostly road transport with limited rail options.
One thing is clearer to the transport authorities in the FCT: Abuja citizens demand a better public transport system and are starting to check the options available to them, also learning from other cities’ experiences.
Click here to watch Araba Palava Documentary
