Dictatorship of Edo Commercial Drivers

I have critically studied the transport sector in Edo State and reached the conclusion that commercial drivers over here dictate the slow velocity of the sector's development since the days of Oshiomhole's administration.

When Oshiomhole was barely six months in office as a governor, he directed that the enforcement of Edo State color code of fire red on yellow begins on April 14, 2009. All commercial vehicles in the state must paint them in this color, his administration said. If you fail to comply with this order, you will be arrested. Your vehicle will be impounded by government, and each day the vehicle is in the government's custody, you will pay a demurrage fee of one thousand naira.

Commercial drivers and their welfare associations pleaded with the government for an extension of the compliance date to paint their vehicles. Government listened, shifted the deadline to June 29, 2009. Nothing later happened. Government messaging to most commercial drivers fell on deaf ears, as only a handful of them complied with the directive to paint their vehicles. The defiant ones again requested for an extension of time. Once again, the government postponed the compliance date to September 1, 2009.

This day came and passed, with no statistically significant achievement in color code painting. I recall unwillingly riding in an unpainted commercial bus on September 29, 2009 in Benin metropolis, out of frustration, after an hour waiting for a painted one in vain. Most of the empty vehicles I saw on my route were in rainbow colors, while the few ones wearing the color code of the state were already filled with commuters. So, to avoid further delay in the melting sun, I chose to board an unbranded commercial bus flouting the government's order with broad-day impunity.

Subsequently, the Oshiomhole administration took a long nap on the color code enforcement for years. On November 6, 2013, when insecurity increased, the government woke up from its deep snoring slumber, directing in an NTA advertisement at 6:56 p.m. that all commercial vehicles must be painted in the prescribed color code or risk arrest. Despite this order, there was no full compliance with the color coding of commercial vehicles in Edo State.

It is indeed surprising that Oshiomhole, who was able to successfully ban commercial motorcycles on June 11, 2013, could not enforce the color code on commercial vehicles, even in the restricted areas of Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba-Okha local government areas of Benin metropolis. What an existentialist irony!

Bob Marley says that if there is a will, there is a way. Oshiomhole failed to ensure full obedience to the color code for commercial vehicles in Edo State because he would tell the will to enforce the color code directive, maybe due to his political and electoral phobia of losing the block vote of commercial drivers.

Obaseki's administration essentially was more interested in the revenue of commercial vehicles than whether they were color-coded at the time. Security was worsening in the state. Obaseki was a core neoliberal capitalist who sacrificed security on his money altar. For instance, he rolled out in 2022 seductive enticement to commercial drivers not willing to paint their vehicles.

His administration stated: “government offers N3,000 for security coding and N20,000 if you don't want to paint your bus, or taxi. For a transport fleet bus, it is N3,000 for security code and N30,000 if you are avoiding to paint the bus. August 2, 2022 is deadline for compliance.”

Rubbish talk, screamed several commercial drivers with obstuse mouths reeking of alcohol and cannabis. They embarked on a protest, complaining that the cost of not painting their vehicles was exorbitant. Much more, the drivers queried the timing of the deadline was inappropriate during the rainy season, while adding that government should first fix the bad roads before talking about coding vehicles.

The drivers' protest shut down Benin metropolis, leaving commuters in pathological pain. At the end of the day, the drivers won the battle to extend the deadline for compliance with color coding in Edo State. Alas, the drivers dictated their wishes to Obaseki, who in return told them that their wishes was his command.

He directed that his commissioner for transportation, Engineer Osasere Evbuomwan, to announce a shifting of the deadline for commercial drivers to code their vehicles. The ding-dong conspiracy dialectics between the government and commercial drivers continued without much mileage covered in the full implementation of vehicle coding in the state before Obaseki left office on November 11, 2024.

Put simply, in his commissioner for transport, despite the exalted flamboyance of the name given to his ministry, could not deliver on his mandate to give the state total color coding of commercial vehicles. More sickening is the realization that the commissioner always partnered with the Edo Internal Revenue Service to launch Operation Velvet thrice a year for tracking down vehicles without papers. Yet no much grounds was covered in getting all commercial vehicles painted in the approved colors of fire red and yellow. Hence several recalcitrant drivers continued to operate unpainted vehicles while pressuring the government for more time to get their revenue papers and correct color code. As if hypnotized by the errant drivers, Edo Internal Revenue Service often listens to them.

For example, Operation Velvet of the service, which began on July 18, 2016, was called off “to allow motorists enough time to regularize their vehicle code and papers.”

When the mantle of office fell on Governor Monday Okpebholo on November 12, 2024, he appointed Saturday Uwuilekhue Idehen as commissioner for transport. Uwuilekhue once occupied this office under the administration of Oshiomhole before he ended up as commissioner for solid minerals as well as Edo State's nominee to the NDDC board on September 3, 2026.

Therefore, Uwuilekhue is not a greenhorn in the Ministry of Transport. He is supposed to be an old broom in the ministry. Unfortunately, he is not behaving like one. He has joined his past colleagues in office to needlessly procrastinate full compliance with color coding of commercial vehicles in Edo State. In 2025, Uwuilekhue gave January 5, 2026 as a deadline for all such vehicles to be painted in the colors of the state. Later he shifted the date to February 1, 2026.

Nevertheless, weak enforcement led to several commercial drivers still ignoring the deadline to paint their vehicles right under Uwuilekhue’s nose in Benin metropolis. On February 29, 2026, a journalist with Independent Radio Benin, Prince Oben Okhionkpamwonyi expressed his disappointment over the failure of all commercial drivers to paint their vehicles in the approved color code. He observed that during a recent visit to neighboring Delta State, all the commercial vehicles, including those of government, were painted in the state-approved color code of white and blue.

Oben's remarks infuriated Uwuilekhue, who fired back at him: “Enforcement with compliance is ongoing. It is not rushed and punitive. Because of this course of action is taken, Edo people will still complain… . When we arrest a culprit, he is taken before a mobile court, which gives owner of the vehicle time to paint the vehicle.”

On listening to Uwuilekhue, I had only this statement to make: Welcome to Edo State. Here, after 17 years, it is still battling with the total color coding of its commercial vehicles because some drivers dictate to the government, which obeys their last order.

Weldone, Saturday Uwuilekhue!!