The "Okada" Society

I am aware that several state governments (virtually the entire South-South and South-East in addition to Plateau) as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja have placed total bans on operation of commercial motor-cycles, otherwise known as “Okada” in their jurisdictions. These decisions were implemented without as much as a whimper from indigenes and residents of those states, with the exception of Plateau where it was politicized due to the ongoing conflict between the indigenes and the settler community, which were preponderantly the “Okada” operators. Apparently our people respond quietly and compliantly to militaristic bans! In Lagos, I am aware the State Government agonized for years on the menace (yes, menace!) of hundreds of thousands of commercial motorcycles riding in an uncontrolled and uncontrollable manner all over the state. They were a societal concern for several reasons-health and safety, security, transportation economics, urban and city planning and even the effects on population and demography. They were the highest single source of road accidents in the state, with daily fatalities, lost limbs and orthopedic incidents all across the state. One single day last year or so, I witnessed three such accidents-one right inside my estate and one fellow lay dead; minutes later blood and tears on the Lekki-Epe Expressway approaching Victoria-Island, and later in the afternoon in Lagos Island, a third incident in which people had suffered grievous injury! One Saturday morning while jogging, a lone “Okada” rider, probably intoxicated and underage, and clearly untutored on the mechanics of the machine, fell down unconscious practically at my feet. It took us a few minutes to revive him. I wondered what would have happened if he had a passenger! They were also a security issue. The Police and State Government have both confirmed that the preponderance of armed robberies are carried out by commercial motorcyclists, who enjoy key strategic advantages over their victims and law enforcement-mobility; flexibility in traffic; possibility of escape through alley ways and un-motor able areas. Those bothered about potential terrorism also had cause for concern! In the North-East, commercial motorcycles are the main facilitators of terrorist activities, for similar reasons that armed robbers have also found them convenient! Among Okada riders are a large number of foreigners-Nigeriens, Burkinabe, Camerounians and Malians, just about the same nations the “Boko Haram” group has been associated with! Beyond these negative side effects, the fundamental issue of course is that motorcycles were not designed for public mass transportation! The logic of mass transit is clearly that the more passengers a “vehicle” can carry, the more economically sensible and sustainable the mode of mass transit. That’s why buses, aeroplanes, ships and trains have developed as the primary means of public transport. Cars, which are used as taxis generally carry the least number of people, and are hence usually more expensive. In Nigeria, we managed somehow to zero in on the most inefficient, most dangerous, least sustainable option-motorcycles as our dominant means of public transport! And some of our educated and articulate citizens insist this gross anomaly must continue!!! And these are people who kept quiet when the FCT and other states imposed a complete ban on the operations of Okadas!!! As I mentioned earlier, Lagos State unlike these others spent years thinking through a more rational solution-they introduced a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system with bus routes to Mile 12, CMS and other (Lagbus) buses all over the state. I am aware the BRT routes are being extended to Ikorodu and Mile 2; they are building a light rail system as well as a ten-lane expressway along the Mile 2 corridor; they have built so many roads and highways all over the state; and then they settled only on a partial restriction of the Okada system on 475 out of the 9,100 roads in the state, and introduced sensible rules for their operations wherever they were not restricted. It’s a complete mystery that it is in Lagos where the government invested in a negotiated and sensible compromise, rather than a total ban that protests have been loudest!!! Is Lagos in some people’s conception some sort of jungle, an urban “no man’s land” where there can and should be no laws, and where people can do whatever they wish? And I notice that every time we attempt to examine the reasoning (actual lack of it!) behind the pro-Okada argument, the resort is to blackmail-the elite do not want “Okadas” because they have cars or similar posturing! The point is when Lagos State built BRT routes, were they for the elites? When they provided BRT and Lagbus buses, were these for the elites? The people who are killed or maimed daily due to accidents involving “Okadas”, are they elites? The victims of robberies carried out on “Okadas”, aren’t they preponderantly our poorer compatriots? Is it elites that will use the light trains being constructed? Are elites the users of the numerous passenger overhead walk bridges constructed all over the state? That accusation is of course pure blackmail and underserving of response! I support the Lagos State Government’s restriction on the operation of commercial motorcycles in Lagos State. A good government cannot allow their continued operation on expressways, bridges and major highways. Indeed a proactive government will continue to work towards their eventual replacement by more modern, efficient, safer, more sustainable and indeed cheaper means of public transportation.