Sir: There are two main differences between Idumota Bus Stop on Lagos Island and UNILAG Bus Stop on Lagos Mainland. At Idumota Bus Stop is a disused pedestrian bridge. But UNILAG Bus Stop is a zebra crossing that most motorists ignore with impunity.

However, both bus stops have a common feature: Bedlam.

At the two places, commercial vehicle and Keke Marwa operators operate without caring a hoot about the law.

Idumota Bus Stop is a haven for louts, the scruffy-looking urchins always ready to start a fight over anything, just for their pleasure. It also harbours an array of LASTMA officials whose preoccupation is ?alms? collection rather than traffic management.

UNILAG Gate Bus Stop, however, has no louts on open parade; it has the university?s security personnel, Civil Defence, and LASTMA officials watching the daily display of chaos ? unperturbed. Like the yellow-shirted and black pants-decked state traffic officials at Idumota, their pockets come first.

Sadly, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has a permanent office at the bus stop. Its personnel obtain clearance from commercial motorists and keke riders to gain access to the building. One day, I took the issue to the security operatives at the main gate. What was their response? ?Something will be done,? they assured me.

Trust my beloved country: nothing has been done.

The second time, in the same week, I was at the security post near Henry Carr Hall. The same old promise: ?We will act.?

But as you read this, there is likelihood that the bedlam is still raging there, unchecked. Honestly, I don?t understand why the university management appears indifferent to the chaos at their main gate.

A few years back, the authorities built two bus stops ? one immediately after MRS filling station and the other after the canal on University Road. The primary reason was to decongest Gate Bus Stop.

But after the millions of naira spent on the two bus stops, they remain unused. Are the university authorities waiting for a fatal accident or violence by the unruly drivers and Keke operators to occur at the bus stop before sanity would be restored there?

If the management does not want to wear a thinking cap, a free solution is hereby offered: Barricade the Main Gate Bus Stop from Erastus Akingbola Hostel to the Canal (from St. Finbarr?s College Road, now Rev. Fr. Slattery Road) to the canal. Use plastic barricades on the way from the Gate to St. Finbarr?s College Road from the campus.

I refer the university management to a known proverb in Thomas Fuller?s 1732 book, Gnomologia; it says: ?A stitch in time saves nine.? (THE NATION)

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