By Amaka Agwuegbo
When Mrs. Taiwo Agbaje announced to her family that she was applying for the Female Drivers’ Scheme at the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, little did she know what the future held for her. Now, not only does she drive a truck but takes pride in ridding the state of waste that threatened to become the new face of Lagos.

•Mrs. Taiwo Agbaje

A mother of three and a 2009 Business Administration graduate of the University of Lagos, Agbaje is among the 19 female skip drivers that were employed by LAWMA in September 2009 just before the launch of its Female Drivers’ Scheme, a job she has come to love despite the filth she is exposed to.

“When I applied for this job as an operator, I thought I would be driving a mini bus or a smaller vehicle, but I never imagined I would be given a truck. Thank I God it’s not the biggest truck as these trucks the females operators drive are specifically made for women. “Before now, I worked with the Nigerian Postal Services and due to the rightsizing exercise that took place, some of us were asked to retire. But the desire to keep busy and move forward prompted me take up this job.”

On her family’s reaction on her becoming an operator, she said “when I got to know about the opening in LAWMA, I called my children and husband and told them about the opening in LAWMA, they asked me which machine I was going to operate and I explained them that operators mean drivers. Though they encouraged me to go for it because they know I can drive very well, but they told me not to drive a big truck.

“I was surprised when I was given this truck because I thought we would be given their old Dano trucks which had become associated with LAWMA. When I told my kids that I was given a truck to drive, they told me to take a picture of it for them to see because they didn’t want me to have any problems.

I told them not to worry because we would be trained before being allowed to go out with the trucks.  When they eventually saw me driving the truck, they were all excited and went about telling their friends.

“My husband has been very supportive of my job. Due to the nature of my job, I must be awake by 4am every day, but sometimes, if I don’t wake up by then, he would wake me up to go get ready for work since I don’t have another job.”
Agbaje recalls that the only thought that crossed her mind when assigned the truck was what other road users would think about her driving a truck this big; but she never allowed that thought to deter her as she was determined to enjoy her job.

Though she never faced any form of discrimination in her work place, Agbaje notes that the major challenge faced in the discharge of her duties is that of impatience on the part of road users.

“Nigerians, especially the commercial bus drivers, are impatience on the roads. When they see female, particularly we truck drivers, they always feel like we don’t know how to drive and they wouldn’t want to give us space. But when I show them what I’m capable of doing, they hail me, saying ‘Eko ni baje’.”

The above can’t be disputed as most commuters are always left mouth agape while watching Agbaje display her skills at maneuvering her truck to fit into spacing while picking up the bins.

On what her daily routine is, this mother of three who is assigned to Simpson zone said “Every morning before 6am, I must have picked up my truck from the head-office to resume work at my place of assignment at Simpson zone, which includes CMS and environs.

I pick about 6 or 7 bins, which I take to the dump site and I’m done by 12 noon. “By 2 pm, I go for the afternoon rounds because if I don’t do so, the whole place will be littered with waste by the next day. You’ll be amazed at how people litter the place with waste, even when the bins are close by.”

While advising other women who may be interested in joining the scheme, but are skeptical about what people would say about them, Agbaje said any lady that wants to come to LAWMA as an operator must not think of what people will say about her or the nature of her job.
“What should be of importance to her is the fact that she needs the job and to do it diligently. This is because driving a truck this size is not easy for a lady and we target the picking of the waste bins such that between 8am to 8.30am, anywhere that you are assigned to must be clean before we go back for the second trip.

“They should not feel inferior if they want to become operators like me. One of the places that I go to pick up waste bins is at CMS and this is very close to my former place of work. But I’m never scared of what my former colleagues would say about my job. In fact, they come out to hail me.”

Though the job is an enjoyable one, Agbaje, who was born in Lagos, admits that she had never seen such quantity of waste till she came to LAWMA, and no day passes without her disposing wastes.

“There is no day that I wake up that I don’t work because there will always be waste-filled bins to dispose off. Even when I don’t feel like working and I come to the office, the zeal to keep the state clean overwhelms me that I would not know when I’ll jump into my truck to go pick up the bins.