In the 1920s, road-based bus transportation was pioneered in Lagos by two Nigerians, Mrs Charlotte Olajumoke Obasa (a leading indigenous entrepreneur of that time) and W.A. Dawodu. This was followed by the establishment of J.N. Zarpas, a company owned by Levantine expatriates. Zarpas dominated the Lagos transportation scene until their buses were acquired by the Lagos Town Council in 1958 to form the Lagos Municipal Transport Service (LMTS).
The situation remained the same until the 1960s when many operators went into the transport business. This resulted in the emergence of the Bolekaja, which literally means “come down and let’s fight” in Yoruba.
The Lagos State Transport Corporation (LSTC) was a state owned company that ran transport services in Lagos. The buses were mainly Mercedes Benz buses which were painted red and white (see picture).
There were bus terminuses and depots at Keffi Street Ikoyi, Simpson Street Lagos Island, Race Course/Tafawa Balewa Square, etc.
Former Governor Raji Rasaki, a Brigadier-General abandoned his official car and used coaster buses instead, because he felt that his motorcade would be too long if he and his commissioners used their official cars. He donated the coaster buses to the LSTC when he was leaving office in 1991.
However, the corporation became bogged down by corruption and mismanagement, such that, by the late 1990s it had practically collapsed.
When Governor Bola Tinubu assumed office in 1999, he ordered an audit of the corporation and inspected their depots.
He discovered that top management staff had been illegally selling the corporation’s buses. Rasaki’s coaster buses where listed as being beyond repair on the corporation’s books, whereas, in reality, they were in good working order.
Today, LAGBUS Asset Management Limited, operator of Red Buses, started operations on the 17th February 2007 with 500 buses and 29 routes. LAGBUS is supposed to provide mass transportation for the teeming population of Lagos commuters.
The scheme, in recent times had been faced with a myriad of challenges such as depletion of fleet due to lack of adequate maintenance by management and technical know how. At various garages of LAGBUS, decrepit buses line up the entire space. Today, LAGBUS cannot boast of 200 buses in its fleet.
LAGBUS workers have dropped from 350 to about 120 due to systematic sack and poor working condition while contract/casual workers are presently about 550, it was gathered
It is believed that the manner LAGBUS is being run presently, it might end up in the way Lagos State Transport Corporation, LSTC, and be rested soon. It was also learnt that LAGBUS has a very disorganized human resources unit.
The state government recently, unfolded plans to boost the existing fleet of Bus Franchise Scheme, BFS, operator of LAGBUS with the introduction of 10,000 new buses and taxis to be distributed across the 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas in the state by next year.
Meantime, commuters across Lagos metropolis have criticised what they called the “shoddy arrangement” in the operation of LAGBUS.
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