The two wiper blades of the commercial bus Tajudeen Onileola drives are gone. Also, one of the vehicle’s side mirrors has disappeared. According to Tajudeen, who plies the Mile 2-Oshodi route, his vehicle’s parts did not disappear deliberately. He has, however, not bothered to replace them.

On why he has not done so, he told The Guardian, “it is because of these transport union boys. They are often too quick to remove them over simple disagreement on payment that may be between N50 and N100.”
   
He disclosed that once there is a disagreement on what should be paid to the unions, the first thing they do is to remove the wiper or side mirror of a vehicle, never bothering about the implications.

He maintained that the disagreement could be over N50 or N100, at most, N500, disclosing that while some officers remove the wiper and its blade, some of these boys annoyingly, remove the wiper’s blade and in the process, break the wiper, making it no longer usable. 
  
He also said his side mirror was removed by one of the boys too, though, it had earlier been smashed by them following similar disagreement over what should be paid.
   
According to him, the most notorious spots are Mile 2, Cele, Ijesha and Oshodi bus stops. He claimed his two wipers and side mirrors got removed or damaged at these stops.  
   
He said he could bet that over 90 per cent of the commercial vehicles with no wiper, wiper blades or side mirrors were smashed or removed by transport union boys.

According to him, they are usually the easiest things to remove from the vehicle once drivers or their motor-boy insist not parting with any money or not paying the full amount demanded by these union boys, also known as agbero.   

“We cannot always be working for these touts who claim to be union boys. So, sometimes, we object to paying them or not paying the exact amount they demanded. Most times, they do not care whether we are making, all they are after is to collect money from transporters,” he said.
   
That many commercial buses in Lagos are rickety would be no news to residents and visitors to the state who commute using non-state owned commercial buses.

Also, it is a norm to see buses including tricycles with damaged seats, badly cracked side mirror, no side mirrors, broken wipers or no wipers as well as smashed wind screen. Some even have broken floodlight. 
   
While some of these vehicle parts disappeared from collusion with other vehicles, majority of the vehicles no longer have side mirrors, wipers, and broken windscreen because they were damaged or removed by the transport unions, National Union of Roads Transport Workers (NURTW) and Lagos State Parks Administrators that used to be Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN).
    
The Guardian observed that these transport union boys also deface commercial vehicles through writing on them with markers. It was noted that as some of the transport unions collect money from these transporters, a mark is inscribed on the vehicle as evidence of payment, as most of the transport union officers do no issue ticket. This is why on some commercial vehicles all kinds of coloured mark are on them. 
   
Sharing his experience, a commuter, Segun Ogunbajo, said he took a bus from Orile to Iyana-Iba. He added that almost all the bus stops the driver stopped to pick passengers or to allow a passenger to alight, touts demanded money from him.

Ogunbajo said that at Abule Ado, when his motor-boy objected to giving them money, promising that he would do so when he returned from the next trip, the union officer insisted he must do so. 
  
“With the motor boy not yielding to parting with the money being demanded, the union boy removed the wiper. Initially, he wanted to remove the side mirror, but he had difficulty, so, he just forcefully removed the wiper, as the driver tried to move away from the bus stop.”
    
Another commuter, Blessing Chukwuemeka, said she experienced transport unions vandalising commercial vehicles over disagreement on payment around Oshodi. She disclosed that the bus picked her at Ojota with her destination being Iyana Itire.

According to her, some passengers alighted at Oshodi while the driver needed to pick more passengers. She said over seven boys had collected money from the motor boy, yet more of the union boys came around demanding for their money.
  
“I noticed that the motor boy was giving each of the boys between N50 and N200. But at a point, the driver shouted at him, wondering if he was going to give out all the money they had made for the day. So, when two other boys showed up, the conductor promised to give these boys something on his return trip. They objected saying why should theirs be different from others that had got their money.

“While one of the union boys was threatening to remove his wiper, the other said that he would break his side mirror or remove the bus fuel tank cover. At the end, as the drive moved, one of the boys just smashed the side mirror.”
   
Chukwuemeka disclosed that the driver lamented that he just replaced the side mirror not up to three weeks after the union boys broke it over disagreement what should be paid.  
    
Commenting, the Chairman of Self Employed Commercial Drivers Association of Nigeria (SECDAN), Mr. Job Abifarin, said the union field officers carry out their job with impunity.

Abifarin said these union boys usually boast that they are a government and representative of government in power, so when they damage any vehicle, nothing would happen to them.
 
 He added that a number of their members have had their vehicles damaged by union boys over disagreement on what should be paid. He said most times, it is not that the driver is unwilling to part with money, but the union boys often object what is offered to them, arguing it is not enough.
 
On his part, the state Chairman of Coaster Bus Drivers Association, Mr. Akinlola Dauda Salaudeen, said many of the union boys are usually very rude to his members. 
 
He said aside from vandalisation of vehicles, the union boys beat their members with stick, cane or rubber pipe once there is disagreement about what should be paid, or sometimes, delaying to pay.
 
Salaudeen, therefore, appealed to the state executive of the different transport unions and the state government to stop the unions’ field officers from being armed with any weapon including sticks, cane and rubber pipes while on duty.
   
He disclosed that the rate at which the boys vandalise coaster vehicles has reduced, because as a group, they take the matter to the union’ state executive members, who rein in on the field boys.  He said if not for that effort of complaining to the state executive, the terror posture of the field officers would have continued.
   
According to Salaudeen, another trick being deployed against drivers, especially coaster bus drivers, is that they usually threatened to liaise with Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) or taskforce to arrest or impound their vehicles based on flimsy excuses.  He said that sometimes, their members’ vehicles had been impounded for driving on a lane not publicly pronounced that they should drive on.
 
“For instance, commercial buses have not been officially prohibited from riding on the fast lane of the Okoko-Orile Expressway. But you see these union boys engaging LASTMA and taskforce officers to arrest our members and their vehicles. Yet, our members are not driving on the BRT column of the road. The goal is to waste the drivers’ time and extort them.”

Attempt to speak to the state chairman of the NURTW, Musiliu Akinsanya, did not yield fruit. His phone line said it was busy after several times it was dialed while he did not respond to the message sent to him.