Lagos to get rid of danfo buses this year

- Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode has called for the removal of 'Danfo' buses

- The buses are the primary means of transportation in the state

- The governor said the buses were unwanted in the state

We will banish all 'Danfo' buses from Lagos in 2017 - Ambode explains how
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos state, on Monday, February 6 insisted that there were plans afoot to remove yellow buses popularly known as Danfo from Lagos roads.

The reason for this, he said was to ensure, a more efficient, well-structured and world class mass transportation system that would facilitate ease of movement within the city.

Ambode said that his administration would soon roll out a comprehensive environmental sanitation policy that would make the city to be clean without much burden on the people in terms of taxes.

While speaking at the 14th Annual Lecture of the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) held at Muson Centre in Onikan with the theme: “Living Well Together, Tomorrow: The Challenge Of Africa’s Future Cities,” he said that the present connectivity mode in Lagos was not acceptable and befitting for a mega city, and as such a well-structured transportation mode would soon be put in place to address the challenge.

He said: “When I wake up in the morning and see all these yellow buses and see Okada and all kinds of tricycles and then we claim we are a mega city, that is not true and we must first acknowledge that that is a faulty connectivity that we are running.

“Having accepted that, we have to look for the solution and that is why we want to banish yellow buses this year. We must address the issue of connectivity that makes people to move around with ease and that is where we are going.

“For instance, people going from Ikorodu to CMS have started leaving their cars at home because the buses are very convenient and so why can’t we do that for other places? Yes, we don’t have the money to do that but we can go to the capital market and then improve on the technology of collection of fares and that will encourage investors and then the city will change."

Speaking on the reform in waste management, he said:

“We are also embarking on massive reform in the waste and sanitation management system. I don’t like the way the city is and the Private Sector Participants (PSP) collectors are not having enough capacity to do it but again should I tax people to death, the answer is no. I don’t want to tax people and so we need this partnership with the private sector so that they can invest in the sanitation management of the city and in no time maybe by July, the city will change forever.”

The governor also said massive infrastructures were being put in place in critical sectors of the Lagos economy such as transport sector, road construction and rehabilitation, construction of lay-bys, and flyovers among others.

On the issue of power, Governor Ambode said the major issue had always been with transmission and advocated an embedded power initiative that would allow clusters of Independent Power Projects (IPP) to run the cities.

Meanwhile, signing into law, “The Prohibition of the Act of Kidnapping” on Wednesday, February 1, Ambode said it would address the issue of insecurity in the state.

According to Ambode: "Security is of utmost importance to our administration and we are confident that this law will serve as a deterrent to anybody who may desire to engage in this wicked act within the boundaries of Lagos state."