Abuja: One city, different taxis

The colour and beauty of a taxi is supposed to be the pride of that city but cannot be said with Abuja, which is the capital and pride of Nigeria. What is responsible for this?

SURE-P cabs

When Ben Okoroafor visited Istanbul, Turkey, after disembarking from the airplane, his first contact was the taxi driver. He was not scared to board his taxi because when he search the website before going to Turkey, he saw their taxi colour which is yellow.

In every part of the country Okoroafor visited, he freely boarded the taxi because he was confident that the taxi cabs were registered hence there was no cause to be afraid. The one that surprised him most is that the vehicles are in top shape.

Okoroafor also visited Germany; he met the same thing on ground, clean and sound taxi cabs with just one colour all over the places he visited. Okoroafor spent some years in Munich before returning home to Lagos, Nigeria.

Weeks after he returned to Lagos, he was invited for the first time for a seminar in Abuja. On disembarking from the airplane, he saw unpainted taxi at the airport; he was a bit shock because he was not expecting the same thing they do in Lagos to be also in Abuja.

As if that was not enough, as he was going to Asokoro, he came across different colour of taxi cabs. Ben became nervous because even the one he boarded was not painted. He saw different green colour, some painted with yellow roof, blue roof, some with registered number, some without, some painted with blue and yellow, while some are not painted at all and yet they were carrying passengers. Okoroafor is not the first person to notice this.

Unlike what is obtainable in Abuja, some cities in the world operate with one colour of taxi just like it is in Lagos and some parts of Nigeria. For instance, in Madrid, Spain taxis are white with a diagonal red stripe on the front doors. In Barcelona, Spain taxis are black with the doors (including the trunk/boot and sometimes the hood/bonnet) painted yellow.

In New York City official taxis (called medallion cabs) are yellow while in Germany, taxis (which are usually Mercedes) are very unusual cream yellow. 

Spokesman of the Transport Secretariat, Ifeanyi Ughamadu disclosed that the taxi in Abuja have different licensed operators hence the different colours to differentiate them. The licensed operators are as follows: National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, have green colour with blue roof; SECDA has green leaf colour with violet roof; PAT has green leaf colour with orange roof; Printfield Nigeria Limited has green leaf colour with yellow roof while RTEIN Mass Transit has green leaf colour with black roof.

Also allowed to operate transportation business in FCT are NARTO, Abuja Urban Mass Transit Company, AUMTCO and Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, RTEAN.

Ughamadu however adviced passengers to always watch out for the labels on the vehicles before boarding. “We have captured all employees and drivers of the licensed companies with their numbers. You can get any information on them from their office or the website. If you forget any of your belongings in any car, just go to their office, you will get them.

Meanwhile, research has shown that Abuja is not the only city with different colour of taxi, there are some cities in the world that also operate with different colour of taxis. For instance, in London, United Kingdom, UK they are black (and a special purpose vehicle is used for all taxis). London taxi cabs aren't always black, they are occasionally seen in other colours (white or racing green for example) and 'full body' advertisements are becoming more prevalent, which obscure the original colour of the vehicle.

In the city of Toronto, different cab (taxi) companies have different colours of car. Taxis are distinguishable by markings on the car and by the taxi sign on top.

Also in Dubai, United Arab Emirate, UAE, they have color-coded Taxi logo with Red Colored-Roof Taxi. They also have National Taxi Logo with Yellow Colored-Roof Taxi. There is also Metro Taxi Logo with Orange Colored-Roof Taxi and Cars Taxi Logo with Blue Colored-Roof Taxi. There is also Arabia Taxi Logo with Green Colored-Roof Taxi.

Meanwhile, more worrisome to Okoroafor is the rickety nature of the taxi cabs that operate in Abuja, the seat of government. He claimed that majority of them are not road worthy and wondered why such should be the case especially in a city where they have men of the Police, Road Safety, Vehicle Inspection Office, VIO scattered everywhere.

On his part, a resident of Abuja, David Okonofua said some of the taxi drivers in Abuja display insanity on the road. According to him, “Whenever they are looking for passengers, they can park indiscriminately without regards to other road users. They park anywhere hence causing unnecessary traffic logjam in the area. I don’t like driving to some places because of the way taxi drivers behave. They drive recklessly without cause for other road users. I doubt if some of them have drivers’ licence.

“The annoying aspect is that they do all these in front of policemen and VIO. At Wuse Market junction, they park on the road while the policemen watch without arresting them. Even the VIO men are not helping matter. I wonder what they are inspecting if we have so many rickety taxis scattered across the city. They are more interested in flashy cars and those they think they can easily intimidate,” he noted.

Recall that at the popular Wuse Market bus-stop, a taxi driver stripped naked after he was arrested for driving recklessly and causing damage to the car belonging to a private car owner. After his plead seems to fall on deaf ears, he stripped and that led to people scrapping for safety including the owner of the car.

A typical scene when they are struggling for passengers

There is no doubt that majority of the taxi drivers in FCT are not educated hence they display their ignorant on the road. Some of them don’t even know the driving codes hence they drive without trafficking, some don’t even have side mirror let alone brake light, while some have theirs broken.

Many of those vehicles are not road worthy while some emit smoke from their engines. It is a common thing to see a taxi cab with about four different colour. If the car had accident, the owner changes the bumper to a different colour, the bonnet is different, the roof and the body and since they are not confronted, they drive the vehicle like that without spraying it. Some do half-spray and use it like that and these people operate in the FCT.

Public Relations and Enlightenment, VIO, Kalu Emetu disclosed that it is only FCT that has Computerised Vehicle Inspection Centre. He said also attested that most of the vehicles in the city are not road worthy hence they have impounded many of them.

“Certificates are issued to vehicles that have been tested and certified worthy. So many vehicles don’t have road worthiness certificates and because of our enforcement, it seems our image is bad. It is impossible to arrest all vehicles at once. We are quite aware of the economy situation hence the consideration.

“The population of the city is growing on daily basis due to influx of people. Many of the rickety vehicles you talked about don’t operate in the FCT, they come from the neighbouring cities. We will continue to maintain the standard but you know some of our people find it difficult to obey the laws, it is a cultural thing.

Abuja is not only dominated with different colour of taxi, there are also unpainted taxis, which some people refer to as kabu-kabu. These are taxi owned by private car owners who pick passengers with their cars. They are visible in all parts of the city and the worrisome aspect is that security agencies not only see them but also patronise them most times.

Due to the negligence on the part of the FCTA, some criminals use their vehicles for illicit acts especially one-chance. These people use their cars to kidnap innocent persons who must have waited endlessly for the registered ones.

A passenger told our correspondent that he would rather prefer to join private car owners and pay more to get to his destination on time than wait endlessly for BRT buses or others.

We gathered that the private car owners now capitalise on the current transportation situation to charge higher than the required transportation fare.

This type of cab also patronise Abuja road

A resident, Josephine Akpan disclosed that, “Rickety taxis are scattered across the city while the ones inaugurated recently are nowhere in the city instead they are used for long distances where BRT buses are supposed to be operating.

Transport Secretariat spokesman however said Task Force is in place to get rid of all the rickety vehicles in the city. “The more you apprehend, the more they come but we are not relenting. They are becoming problems and we are going to sanitise the system.”

He however warned the residents to stop patronizing unregistered taxis (kabu-kabu). “If you want to use your vehicle for transportation, why not register it under one of the licensed operators otherwise the law enforcement agencies will catch up with you.”

An official in the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA who confided in our correspondent disclosed that they cannot tackle the menace of the taxi drivers because they are under-staffed. He claimed that when the men of the Civil Defence were approached to assist, they were given a long list of demands hence they were left out.