Danfo drivers, conductors react to proposed ban of yellow buses in Lagos

Anxiety, fear and anger are the dominant feelings of the drivers and conductors of the ubiquitous yellow buses (aka danfo) in Lagos state following the planned phase out of the buses by the state government. “That early morning ‘rush hour’ is when we make our money as transporters, so I cannot afford to sleep at home when others are making money or else I will go hungry,” Ayo Bamidele, a danfo driver, said in an interview. “This is what I do to feed my family, pay rents and send my children to school,” he added.

“To be frank, many of us are afraid now. We don’t know what the government wants to do exactly and what it wants us to do; we don’t know how it expects us to feed our families and survive if it banishes ‘danfo’ from the road,” he said.

“It is not possible… it is a crazy idea. Who will feed our families? What job has the so-called government created for us? Where does he want us to dump our numerous buses? Would the proposed new buses even reach every part of Lagos like we do? It is a crazy idea…” an apparently furious Joe Eze, a commercial bus driver at Ilupeju, said.

Another driver, “Baba Luku”, said the yellow commercial mini-bus popularly known as ‘Danfo’ has been a part of Lagos for a long time and it would be difficult, if not impossible, for any government to banish it from the road.

“Those who say they want to banish yellow buses from our roads, as well as their forebears, met the system on ground. ‘Danfo’ is Lagos and Lagos is ‘Danfo’,” he said in Yoruba language, amidst laughter.

He added that the plan, if executed, would only aggravate the security situation in the state, noting that it would negatively affect the rate of armed robbery and all sorts of criminal activities in the state.

Others also pleaded with the state government to look into the plan holistically, by considering its implication on the lives of people who feed their families with the income generated from their daily operations as drivers and conductors.