Nigeria's 1st Female Train Driver Isa Fatima Says She Was Laughed at

- The first female train driver in Nigeria, Isa Fatima Abiola, has called on women to join the transportation industry as train drivers

- She says she decided that she would be a train driver when she was a 12-year-old girl living in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital

- Isa said people laughed at her when she started driving a train, including her male colleagues

- She has been driving trains for four years, proving to everyone who doubted her that what a man can do a woman can do better



The first female train driver in Nigeria, Isa Fatima Abiola, has shared her experience driving a train and becoming the first woman to do so in the country.

In an interview with BBC News Pidgin, she said people laughed at her when she started driving a train, including her male colleagues.

Isa was a 12-year-old when she decided to be a train driver. According to the female driver, she was walking with her grandfather when she saw a train in Ilorin, Kwara state, and she promised herself that she would drive it someday.

She said people thought she would quit after a year, but she has been driving it for four years and her determination has proved them wrong.

 

Isa said there is a need for women to join the transportation industry as train drivers because a lot of development is ongoing in the area of rail transport.

The woman has a dream to be one of the best train drivers in the world and to also train more than 100 females on how to drive train.