Minors at the Wheel

A bus park in Benin City Edo State

At major bus parks in Benin City, the sight of minors as bus drivers and conductors has become a worrisome issue, but the government is looking the other way, reports Hopewell Ukpebor

Bright Osanogie was 12 years old when he started out as a bus conductor about a year ago working all day; wearing a pair of bathroom slippers, a dirty white singlet, and a small towel around his neck, as his driver traverses some parts of Benin, from the popular Ri

ng Road to Five junction, all the way to Ugbowo, and then to Oluku. His life has changed dramatically.

As he hustles in the scorching hot sun in Benin, hoping to make enough money to make ends meet, Bright seems to have developed a kind of notoriety and ruggedness that comes with the territory; harassing anyone who stands in his way, almost manhandling commuters to get aboard his rickety bus, and as he clings menacingly to the bus, he doesn’t tolerate nonsense. He’s ready to throw a punch at the slightest provocation.

As the months have passed, Bright has developed a thick skin, as such; he is rarely intimidated by passengers who refuse to pay their bus fares, deceived that they can go scot-free, because of his small stature. When he argues in his strong command of vernacular with touts bent on extorting him, you will most likely be moved by emotions seeing a rag-tag, innocent child struggling to make a decent living, while his contemporaries are inside the four walls of  their classrooms.

When THISDAY spoke to Bright, he confessed that his wish was to go to school. However, due to the frail economic situation his parents have found themselves in, he has had to grow up quickly and assist in providing daily bread for the family. The issue of school was thus thrown out of the window. Bright does not have a strong command of the English language, but he is very adept at the street slangs that seem to be common place in Benin City. He gives one by saying that his situation is God’s will.

Bright, in his fragile, youthful demeanour admits that he stopped schooling, as his poor parents could not afford to send him to school anymore, while the same fate awaits his younger siblings; two boys, whose names he gave as Divine and Goodness.

Bright told THISDAY that he stopped schooling last April due after his parents couldn’t keep up with paying for his school needs, and couldn’t even afford to give him money for his daily feeding. Refusing to go to school with an empty stomach on a daily basis, Bright missed school days on a regular basis, eventually dropping out.

This is the ancient city of Benin, in Edo State, where underage bus conductors and drivers have become a recent phenomenon.  This trend is seen by many as a tribute to resilience and hard work, however dangerous the venture is for the teenagers.

Boys aged as low as 10 or 11 operating as transport workers can be seen regularly in and around the Ring Road axis, which can be said to be the epicenter of the city.

With the Benin Museum and its 500 year old bronze statues,  the Edo State House of Assembly, and the Oba of Benin’s palace located along the Ring Road, it is little surprise that the area attracts a lot of attention from locals and visitors alike, thus providing a veritable spot for making money for bus drivers and conductors.

Another minor who to THISDAY, a shy-looking Collins Evbare, said he has never known his father, while his mother has moved elsewhere, without any concern about his welfare. “I don’t know my father’,’ he said.  “My mum travelled since and she has not returned. I have been staying with my relatives and they said they could not afford to send me to school.”

On a daily basis, according to THISDAY investigation, the minors are paid as little as N50 to N100 for a single ride, while a full day’s work might earn them close to N1,000 or more, depending on the proceeds for the day’s work. After earning such, the minors are able to fend for themselves, for the meantime, at least.

Interestingly, what used to be an exclusive job for adults has been hijacked by underage drivers hoping to make money in a bid to survive the harsh economic realities of the country.

Ehigiator Sunday, 25, who has been carrying out research on the proliferation of underage drivers and conductors in Benin, believes that there are other reasons aside money that serve as motivation for the kids that get involved in the job.

For their daily routine, they sit along the corridors of the buildings and kiosks in and around the Oba market at Ring Road, waiting for any of the bus drivers to call for their services, the minors merely wash their faces in the morning, chat, play and sleep, while awaiting work.

Ehigiator, who is also an undergraduate from the University of Benin,told THISDAY that his observations have led him to many shocking discoveries about the conduct of the boys who he said are mostly below age 14.
“They are always looking unkempt, untidy and tattered’’, Ehigiator said. “At the end of their day’s work, some of them start to hang around the bus parks and the garages, engaging in all manner of illicit activities. It makes you begin to wonder if they are orphans or if they don’t have a place to rest for the night. And if they do have parents or guardians, are the parents aware of what the kids do, or do they have the backing of their parents. So a lot questions come to mind as regards the issue. It is indeed disturbing.

“A lot of times in buses, you see the kids actually misbehave, and become generally aggressive towards the bus passengers, and those are behaviors that you usually will not associate with kids their age. And of course the average Benin man is always conscious of respect, they demand respect, as such when these kids behave in a way that is not acceptable to them, they get harassed, often times in a violent way’’.

Ehigiator also revealed that these kids are always in harm’s way due to the dangers prevalent in bus parks and garages. Exposure to such dangers at their relatively tender age could be detrimental to their growth, he argues.

“The possibility of falling off, that is losing grip of the bus is very real. When you consider that they are very young boys, and the way they would hold the bus will not be exactly the same with the way an adult will hold the bus, tells you that they are always in real danger in that regards, and that is not just mere speculation.

“Late last year, a curfew was imposed around ring road, after some bus drivers and their conductors started protesting, almost rioting, after a 14 year old boy was killed. The boy was said to have fallen while hanging on the bus the way they usually do, and the next thing you know a truck was fast approaching and of course he was crushed and died instantly. The truck driver was nearly lynched, but that does not take away the fact that these kids’ lives are in danger, it is like they are being thrown in the firing line’’.

Ehigiator is not alone in his assessment of the recent menace, Otuya Friday, 21, a commuter, who himself admits to have been worried about the recent sojourn of under aged boys into commercial transportation, told THISDAY that the trend seems to be growing by the day, and faulted the government for failing to nip it in the bud during its early stages.

According to Otuya, “It has become very rampant and worrying as well, you see kids of like 9 or 10, and you are shocked.  I saw one recently, and I had to ask myself what this baby is doing here, while his mates are in school.

“I believe most of them don’t stay around these part, they come from Ogida, Ewvhotubu, and the other suburbs of Benin and begin to hustle. I believe they are just in it to survive.

“I think their parents have not shown adequate concern for their kids, because I believe every father or mother should take care of their children at that age, and should only be concerned with ensuring that they are in school. Maybe they can thereafter help their parent in whatever way, but certainly not as bus conductors, and not during school hours, and at such a tender age’’.

Like Bright, many of the underage bus conductors attribute hard times as the singular most important reason for becoming bus conductors. The claim is that they can’t even go to school, because they can’t afford to pay for school fees and school materials, feed well and buy other valuables. Working for commercial buses thus becomes an attractive option to keep body and soul together.

“It will be very wrong if it is their parents that encourage them to do such jobs, I believe there are other jobs that can be done that do not essentially expose these kids to danger, because sitting in that position that the conductors usually sit, is putting their lives in grave danger, and then the influence that they come under. Some of them begin to learn how to smoke, they start to drink at such an early age, sometimes even indulge in hard drugs, you can never tell. Actually some of them have been caught trying to snatch people’s purses and bags at the Oba market and you can imagine what kind of treatment they would have gotten’’, Otuya  contested.

However, THISDAY investigations revealed that smoking and alcohol indulgence were not the only vices that the minors have been introduced to, as an adult bus driver at the Ring Road bus park who gave his name simply as Osagie said that some of the boys had been sighted patronizing prostitutes that hang around the place at night, with the money they had earned during the course of their work.

To be sure, the worrisome tales of road accidents in Benin City cannot be totally extricated from the activities of underage drivers with no prior experience on driving and no driver’s license. All that is needed is a crash course from one of the adult drivers around, who themselves seldom have a driver’s licence, and the child is ready to drive.

The pain of losing loved ones due to preventable accidents caused by unprofessional driving from under aged kids who are not supposed to be behind the wheel, shatter the dreams of innocent people has become a worrying trend for the people and the state government alike.

For this reason, some residents in Benin City have called on the government to take appropriate action to ensure that the road is rid of minors engaging in commercial transportation, and ensure that they are put back in school.

“The government should identify these kids, trace them to their homes, and see where they are coming from, and also engage the parents in something productive so that they can provide for their kids, I believe that no parent would want to see their kids suffer, but it seems their hands are tied because they can’t afford to send them to school.