BLUE UNIFORMS AND NUMBERED CABS

BLUE UNIFORMS AND NUMBERED CABS

Order from above,
No more naked cabs
No more shabbily dressed cab drivers
Those were outlawed
Gone were the days of the
Multicoloured attired cab drivers
That was the order, right from above.


Herald a new dawn,
In came taxi cabs born anew
Proudly displaying numbers
Emblazoned on both sides
Like a street kid bearing scars
From last year’s fisticuffs.
Those numbered cabs looked like race cars
Proud as peacocks in football jerseys.


Cab driver uniforms,
Blue shirts over black pants,
That was the rule
That was cab driver law
Came into effect immediately.
The driver’s side
In all Ghanaian cabs were awash
In all shades of blue
And dashing black.
Drivers looking kingly on their mounts
Prim and proper,
They sure did look it.


After two years,
Cab numbers have faded out,
Others bear no identifying numbers at all,
They probably fell off in sweltering heat.
Then again, regular visit to the carwash
Might have taken a toll on those poor number tags.
We are now back to where we started off
Cabs without tattoos in numbers
Cab drivers in all sorts of attires.


Almost two years after
We tried making an aesthetic impression.
Cabs and their drivers are back to old ways,
The days of blue on black
Long gone
Quickly forgotten.
Back to the days of anything goes
As long as it’s not a uniform.
It’s back to the days of the
Multicoloured attired cab driver.


Hours spent in enforcing the law
Money spent in printing stickers
Bearing identification numbers
Among other logistical nightmares,
It’s back to the good old days
When cabs were only identifiable by
Number plates
Vehicle models
And other obscure features.
I can’t help but ask,
What was the point of this exercise then?
Was there ever a long term plan?
Did this directive have an expiration date?
Whose idea was this anyway?
What was the point of this whole undertaking?
My cab driver is no longer blue on black,
His cab now bears no number tag.
Those numbers sure made them look like race cars,
I sometimes felt like I was in the Dakar rally
When riding through town in my numbered cab,
Call me a dreamer, but I sure did love those cab number tags.
The blue and black made the drivers presentable,
Brought about uniformity
And a sense of professionalism.


No more uniformed drivers
No more numbered cabs.
Has any one of you seen my uniformed cab driver
Or the number christening his adorable red and yellow cab?
It seems they’re gone with the wind
A fad, a fluke, just another hoot.
They have become a rare breed,
Almost extinct.
Why did we bother doing this at all?
What was the point of all this?
Can anybody tell me why?
Again is ask, what was the point of all this?
Please bring back my uniformed cabbie
And his numbered ride,
If for nothing at all,
They brought new shades of colour to my traffic stream.