Many of us who live or visited Imo State during the last Christmas Holidays could not forget in a hurry the horrendous and bitter experience which people suffered in the hands of the so called Agboros in motor parks.
It was clear and evident that many people came home during the period. They came in an unprecedented number, bringing home their vehicles and members of their household. By the same token, Imo State capital witnessed the worst type of traffic jam and hold-ups ever known in this State since its creation in 1976.
Unfortunately, the State capital Owerri occupies a strategic position, sitting in the heartland of the South East Zone. Those travelling to other South Eastern States of Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi and Abia must invariably pass through Owerri. This makes it possible for the occurrence of vehicle go slow at any given time.
More unfortunately, most of those returnees who have managed to come home under strict budgetary planning met their waterloo in the hands of motor park Agboros who suddenly hike transportation fees when in fact there was no slightest hike in the prices of petroleum products. This was made possible by the dexterous administrative competence of the President and the Ministry of Petroleum.
Thus, one had expected that motor park Agboros should have reciprocated this government efforts by sticking to the transport fares as they were before Christmas season. Rather, they went on the spree of hiking transportation fares out of the reach of the returning brothers and sisters to their beloved State. This unpatriotic act has been severely condemned by many writers and radio commentators so far because the inconveniences caused to those returnees were too unbearable.
One of the most immediate consequences of these arbitrary hike in transport fares was that most of the passengers were forced to sell whatever item they might have. These included handsets, wrist watches, necklaces, chains or even some good shoes. Unfortunately, these charlatans were the immediate buyers and they priced these items so cheap. But since the traveler must travel, he would be at the mercy of these heartless Agboros who showed no sympathy and had any type of pity on the passengers.
Secondly, where the prospective passenger did not have anything to sell in order to raise money to complete his fare, in most of the cases, he would be forced to return to his base in order to replan in order to travel in order to meet their jobs had no alternative than to succumb to the whims and caprices of these park Agboros.
The most annoying is that some of these outrageous hikes were not made available to vehicle owners. Money collected would easily be divided between the drivers, Chief Agboros and leadership of the Unions in the particular park.
Painfully, once this money was in the hands of Agboros, they would terminate or collapse in the nearest “Mamaput” hut to squander the ill-gotten wealth in buying roasted chicks, fried eggs on top of heap upon heap of stewed rice. After eating, they would send it home with one or two bottles of “odeku” large stout. After that, they would buy some raps which only them they know where they are sold within the park environment.
Meanwhile, the shortchanged passengers would be reeling over their bitter experience for a long time biting their fingers and gnashing their teeth as they travelled back to another vehicle to their bases, of course the concerned Agboros had moved to another vehicle in the same process until the flow of passengers thinned down.
It could be suggested that some measures could be taken by some various governments particularly at the State and local governments to ameliorate these hardships.
In the first place, individual State governments should embark on the hiring on the several luxury buses at subsidized fares. These could be located in several Northern cities, particularly those in the far North. They should include State capitals such as Sokoto, Birnin Kebbi, Maiduguri, Dutse, Kano, Jos, Kaduna, etc. these are areas where many of our people reside and who would invariably like to visit home during Christmas seasons. Some cities in the West should also be considered for the location of these mass transit arrangement. Some of these cities include Lagos, Ibadan, Benin City, Warri, Sapele and some other cities in the lower Northern areas such as Jalingo, Makurdi, etc.
On the other hand, returnees could still make their own individual/collective arrangements to chatter buses on their own. Because, the horrendous experience of last Christmas should not be allowed to repeat.
The question is this: why could the leadership of Road Transport Workers’ Unions not do something to curb this excessive hike in fares each time we have a festival particularly when there is no increase in petroleum to warrant any type of fare hike? Or why can’t our governments not make some regulations protecting the welfare and wellbeing of traveling members of the public? Honestly, the time to take drastic measures to control the behaviours of these park Agboros now because Agboro would remain Agboro any day and any time.
