Yesterday, I wrote an article titled Lagos, BCAN and Graduate Bus Conductors where I advised graduates to swallow their pride so they can swallow the 50,000 naira the Lagos state government wishes to pay them for working as bus conductors. Being a fresh graduate myself, I pondered over the issue again and realized that there are some underlying issues that first need to be settled.
The first problem many graduates have with the graduate bus conductor scheme is that its existence was not officially announced by the Lagos state governor. It was announced by Comrade Israel Ade, the national president of the Bus Conductors Association of Nigeria (BCAN), through the Lagos State Ministry of Transport. In other words, a serving or former bus conductor told Lagos graduates that they would soon be employed as bus conductors. Many graduates saw this as demeaning and insultive. It would have been better if the state governor announced it himself. At least, they would be able to brag that their job of conducting buses was so important the state governor took his time to personally announce it.
The second is packaging. Graduate and conductors are two words that should not even appear in the same sentence and even when they do, they should be separated with as many filler words as possible. Comrade Ade broke this rule when he separated “graduands” and “conductors” with only five words. According to him, “…graduands would be employed as bus conductors”.
“Graduands who have been to the University or Polytechnic and completed their National Youth Service Corps service year and have nothing doing at present apart from maybe, having one night stands as Toke Makinwa advised the other day would be employed as bus conductors” would have been more appropriate. There are forty-two words between “graduands” and “conductors” which is very okay. Most of the words are unnecessary but they serve a purpose. Without them, the line between graduates and conductors would become so blurred that some would soon start referring to these new breed of conductors as “graduate conductors”.
“Graduands who have been to the University or Polytechnic and completed their National Youth Service Corps service year and have nothing doing at present apart from maybe, having one night stands as Toke Makinwa advised the other day would be employed as bus conductors” would have been more appropriate. There are forty-two words between “graduands” and “conductors” which is very okay. Most of the words are unnecessary but they serve a purpose. Without them, the line between graduates and conductors would become so blurred that some would soon start referring to these new breed of conductors as “graduate conductors”.
If Lagos BRT drivers are called “pilots”, LAWMA waste disposers are called “sanitation officers” and Lagos street cleaners are called “highway managers”, why then should Lagos graduate conductors be called graduate conductors. Lagos state really needs to take a cue from Aregebesola Osun state’s O-YES scheme, whose members are called “cadets” irrespective of the fact that the majority of them sweep roads and pack waste. The cadets are in different units we like to think are called “brigades” and are most likely led by Brigadier-Generals or senior Colonels.
There is the Green Gang, which beautifies the state; the Sanitation Czars who are the Osun state equivalent of LAWMA; the Sheriffs, who are glorified security men; the Teacher Corps, which is self explanatory and the Public Works Gang, which maintains public buildings and facilities. Many of these cadets are graduates and they are doing the work happily since the packaging is very okay. It makes more sense to say you work as a sanitation czar than as a waste packer. Before whoever you spoke to can guess what czar means, you are off.
As an end note, I would advise governor Akinwunmi Ambode, the Lagos state Minister of Transportation and Comrade Israel Ade to put their heads together so they can come up with a classy name for the scheme. The name chosen should be forwarded to the redundant National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) because they would be the two major bodies providing the manpower for the scheme. I would have advised them to use “bus coordinators” or more preferably, “mobility officers” but they know better. Comrade Ade himself should be ready to change the name of the association to suit the incoming graduates else his association would have a new faction to deal with in a few years time. Meanwhile, other Lagos graduates like me who are not interested in taking up the graduate conductor jobs, irrespective of what it is called, can continue having one night stands as Toke Makinwa advised.
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