A Nigerian woman who is an interstate bus driver has said she has a passion for the job which she has used to train her children. The 59-year-old woman called Mrs Onokpite Agbaduta Beauty revealed that she started her transport business in 1992 after the passage of her husband.
She started commercial transportation in Warri, Delta state In an interview with Daily Trust, the woman said she started by buying buses for drivers who gave her regular returns but had to drive herself after they mistreated her.
She said:
“I started interstate commercial transportation 30 years ago when I was in Warri, Delta State in 1992. That was shortly after I lost my husband in 1991. I was plying Warri to Benin to enable me give education to my children.” How Mrs Onokpite started the transportation business in Lagos Onokpite later relocated to Lagos where it was an entirely different experience.
She said:
“I relocated to Lagos and set up a business, but the then governor of the state, Raji Fashola, took over our business premises. That was how I lost the business and had to go back to transportation business. “I started the transportation business in Lagos by giving vehicles to drivers to bring returns for me at the end of the day, but they were messing me up, so I had to take over the vehicle.
“I remember how one of the drivers came back one day in 2011 and just threw my key at me. I was annoyed, so I went to the park and started taking passengers from Ebute to Ikorodu garage. After that, I started plying Ojota to Maryland.”
Mrs Onokpite’s children are graduates now Mrs Onokpite has come a long way in the transport business, and she has used it to raise her children. According to her: “When I started in Lagos in 2011, one of my friends called me and asked why I had to take to such a business and I had to tell her that I was using the business to take care of my children. “I started this business when I was 39 years old and I am now 59. My first child is married with children and doing fine with his family. The second one, who has a master’s degree, is teaching and earning N40,000 monthly. He is still living with me. My last daughter graduated last year and is doing the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme.”
