It is no longer news that Lagos has assumed the status of a mega city. Indeed, the United Nations has stipulated that a city with a population of over 10 million automatically assumes that status. Lagos’ population is over 20 million.
In the world today, there are only 33 mega cities with Africa having three of such. These include, Lagos (Nigeria), Cairo (Egypt) and Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Kongo). These come with challenges. And the challenges include providing enough infrastructure to support the high population-enough accommodation, transportation, good roads. All these are peculiar to mega cities and Lagos is not an exception. In spite of these, the state has been lucky to have been administered by visionary leadership especially since the democratic journey began in 1999. From Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who laid the foundation for what the state is today, to Babatunde Raji Fashola, who built on that foundation and the present governor, Akinwumi Ambode, who could be considered a worthy successor, sustaining the legacies of development he met on ground. Presently, the major albatross for the state is the commercial motorcycle menace also known as Okada. The Fashola administration, in tackling that problem had restricted them to certain roads in the state. It was a palliative step and did not completely solve the problem. But one thing became clear after the partial restriction from about 500 roads out of over 9000 roads, there was a major reduction in Okada accidents. In those days, the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, was said to have dedicated a ward to Okada accident victim. A myth which was quite popular then in view of the ubiquitous nature of the commercial motorcyclists with the attendant accidents which were hourly at the time.
I am convinced that the overworked caregivers in Igbobi would also have heaved a sigh of relief with the reduction in accident rate. But with recent realities and the resurgence of Okada on the roads and the security risks they have constituted, a total ban on Okada as a means of commercial transportation is inevitable. Not only that, there should be a conscious effort to beautify the landscape of Lagos especially now that the golden jubilee celebration is billed for next year. Outright ban of commercial motorcyclists should be given a major consideration.
The world will not end if such action is taken. There have been major cities in the country that have banned Okada as a commercial means of transportation and those states are better for the decision- accidents have reduced, robbery has been curtailed, among other things. Even in India which has a higher population than Nigeria and where some of these okada are imported, it only serves as a means of private/personal transportation and the riders follow traffic rules since their personal safety is at stake.
Though, Lagos state has not come out categorically to state it will place total ban on okadas, the earlier the state government summons the courage to do this, the better for all of us, especially in the wake of the resolution of the Mile 12 crisis, which was caused primarily by commercial motorcyclists. In actual fact, part of the solution and as agreed by the major stakeholders was to ultimately relocate the market and restrict the commercial motorcyclists on the roads they had always held the people to ransom- the Agiliti, Meidan environs.Governance is about making life more comfortable for the citizens and the present administration in Lagos is not an exception, it should consider the impact of a total ban on Okada and the attendant fallout and take appropriate steps.
What would become of the riders? Would there be adequate means of transportation for the people? As some people would want to ask. It is really quite simple. The commercial motorcyclists would find another means of livelihood, but if the state is still concerned about their survival, the interested among them could be registered in vocational centers to learn new skills. The Nigerian society is facing a dearth of carpenters, mechanics, electrician, and the like because everybody wants quick and easy money that Okada brings. This trend would be reversed if some of these riders are placed in vocational centers. Some of them can also be in farm settlements while being provided with all the facilities that would make life comfortable in such settlements. This would also solve many problems. Apart from providing food security, jobs would also be created and this would ultimately move some of these people out of what would have constituted unemployment with its attendant social disruption.
On whether Lagosians would be able to cope without commercial motorcyclists, the converse side is; before the influx of Okada, have Lagosians not been moving around? The same argument was proffered when the state was going to ban the accident-prone Molue buses, today, nobody is missing those mobile coffins especially with the introduction of BRT. What clearly needs to be done is extend the BRT service to other parts of the state, as soon as possible, while good, motorable roads should be provided. Already, the state seems to have realized that this is the way to go with the rehabilitation of several roads and the concept of constructing two roads per LCDAs.
With more BRT buses and the soon to commence blue line rail, Lagosians will definitely not miss the commercial cyclists. Enough of okada menace.