I was really thrilled by the STC report carried in the Daily Graphic of Thursday, January 29, 2015, and credited to Abakah Kakraba Darbah. “STC REBORN: Inter-city operations in high drive” was the title.
The story told readers about the silent revolution going on in the once biggest transport company in the country to recapture lost glory.
There was a picture of the new fleet of STC minibuses accompanying the story. They appeared to be ready to move into action and to show that indeed STC had been reborn.
The information given by Mr Darbah showed that he was an insider, possibly a Public Relations Officer (PRO), and not an ordinary reporter who only went to STC to nose around for news.
I am happy to learn that “the dwindled fleet size has, however, not discouraged the workers from embarking on a crusade. After years of confrontation with management over static salaries, they have resolved to help transform the company into a viable entity which should be able to pay its workers their deserved remunerations.”
It is also gratifying to hear an assurance from the Chairman of the Senior Staff Union, Samuel Korley Clottey, that the workers have resolved to support initiatives by the Managing Director, Mr Samuel Nuamah Donkor, to transform the company in the shortest possible time.
He said it was only when the company was viable that it could pay increased salaries recommended by the Board of Directors.
Describing Mr Nuamah Donkor as an inspiration, the union leader observed that the MD’s nine-month presence at the company had brought about positive changes, including the prompt payment of salaries from the company’s own resources, the settlement of GH¢130,000.00 owed the workers’ provident fund and the involvement of the union in all critical decisions necessary to revamp the company.
These testimonies are indeed a welcome piece of good news. No establishment or organisation can grow when there is industrial disharmony. It is only in an atmosphere of good relationship between management and workers that the best results could be achieved by any organisation.
Challenges of STC
STC has seen good and bad times. The bad times are only a recent development. They started when it appeared there was so much interference in the management of the company. STC then went through a series of branding with change of names due to change of management and ownership.
The workers were left stranded as the in-fighting continued. It was a case of the grass suffering when two elephants were fighting.
With so many changes taking place at the top, the workers, some of whom had spent their entire working life at STC and had also been witnesses to the good times, were left with no choice but to join the fray.
It came to a time the workers even said they should be allowed to buy off the company and be the owners. I don’t think their efforts yielded any good dividends.
It was as a result of all these problems, especially bad management and infighting for control of the company at the highest level, that STC was brought down to its knees. In no time, all the buses were grounded.
There was no money to buy new ones or even procure spare parts to put the broken-down ones back on the road. It was indeed sad to see STC so much disorganised, completely shattered.
As STC lost grounds, the private transport companies cashed in. There was a vacuum which had to be filled and that was exactly what the private companies did.
All the patrons started moving to the Neoplan station to look for buses to carry them to various destinations. New companies emerged to take over from STC.
Patronage
That was how VIP, VVIP, M-Plaza, O and A Tours and others came into being. The fear travellers, especially students, had for private transport companies began to disappear as the new companies tried to win the confidence of travellers by ensuring that they were not involved in rampant accidents. Their safety records carried the day.
How can STC win back the market and recover lost grounds?
Some of us still remember the good old days when it was known as Government Transport. It provided the most reliable buses.
I still remember my first experience when I was travelling to Accra as a freshman at Legon sometime in October 1967. Before then I used to travel by train during my secondary school days at West Africa Secondary School, (WASS) between 1960 and 1965. There was never an occasion when I travelled by road until after my “O” Levels in June 1965.
That June, there were heavy rains that washed away the railway lines at Achimota and everybody had to travel by road to Kumasi through Aburi and Koforidua.
However, when I gained admission to Legon in 1967 I had to do what other Legon students were doing, to travel by Government Transport. We would get down at Achimota and pick a taxi to Legon.
Even though initially I used to feel nauseous and vomited a lot in the bus, I became used to it. Ever since, Government Transport became my mode of transport, from Kumasi to Accra or Accra to Tamale later and any other route.
Those were the good old days of Government Transport that later came to be known as STC, or State Transport.
I am sure until about 10 years ago STC still remained supreme. It was the number one choice for any traveller who would look forward to a safe and comfortable journey.
Those were the days when the STC yard, whether Kaneshie, Kumasi, Tamale, Wa or Bolgatanga would be full of travellers waiting to catch one of the buses to any part of the country.
It was always difficult to find space on the buses at any of the terminals when schools re-opened. Anxious students would be moving up and down to see if somebody could help them get tickets for their destinations.
I still remember those days when from Accra there was an hourly movement of buses to Kumasi. Sometimes one would have to buy an advanced ticket a day before travelling.
In the same vein there would be about four buses leaving Accra for Tamale daily while there was a bus going to Takoradi every two hours.
It is unfortunate that somebody would sit down and allow such a laudable venture to collapse. STC should have been a national asset, especially since the days it was called Government Transport. There should have been very little interference from the powers that be so that it would be run on a purely commercial basis.
Unfortunately, many of our profitable ventures are allowed to collapse because as soon as there is a change of government, there will be jostling from the supporters of the new government to take over. And when they get in, they run the ventures aground.
Maybe the time has come for us to be more proactive and behave like the Ethiopians with their Ethiopian Airlines.
Ethiopian Airlines is a national asset to the Ethiopians and no government would like to change anything there because it wants jobs for the boys.
It is this attitude of jobs for the boys that is killing most national enterprises. If today the workers and management have found a saviour in Mr Nuamah Donkor, the man should be given a free hand to carry out his vision and never should any adventurers be entertained to start undermining the MD because he has succeeded in putting STC back on track.
Let us see STC recapture the glory of the past. Best wishes.
