The Lagos State Government is working on a number of options to engage genuine commercial motorcycle operators, recently thrown out of jobs as a result of the implementation of the new traffic law, in meaningful ventures.

The Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, dropped the hint in Lagos on Wednesday, stressing that the move was meant to give only the registered operators a new lease of life.

Many of the okada riders, as the commercial motorcycle operators are called, have had to abandon the business, as the new law prohibits them from plying major roads and bridges in the state. According to the new traffic law, only those with 200cc engine capacity can operate in the permitted areas.

Some aggrieved operators have been protesting against the new policy and a few people sympathetic to their cause have urged the state government to rescind its decision in view of the multitude that will be affected.

But Opeifa, who spoke at the 11th Business Forum of the Lagos State University’s MBA Heritage held on Lagos Island on Wednesday, said that there was no going back on the decision.

He said, “We are resolute about the Road Traffic Law; there is no going back on it. But we are going to re-certify the okada operators resident in Lagos.

“We are going to start a registration process, and in the process, if we discover those who have skills, we will send them to the skill acquisition centres established by the state government to hone these skills.”

Opeifa, who spoke on the theme, ‘Effect of Transportation on Nigeria’s Economy,’ stressed that okada could not be regarded as a means of transportation, as nobody wished to bequeath it as an inheritance to their children.

The commissioner, therefore, said the state government would re-register the operators with a view to providing the genuine ones adversely affected by the policy other job opportunities.

“Some of them could be absorbed into the LAGBUS as conductors and drivers. We also have agriculture, where some of them can also be useful. Apart from our farms in Lagos, we have bought landed property in Ogun State and Abuja, and we are going to buy more in Benue for agriculture. So, the options are there for them,” he said.

According to him, the state government plans to assist some of the okada riders with the acquisition of skills to make them employable or to become self-employed.

Opeifa also said some of them would be assisted to own bakeries after undertaking the needed training.

But the Managing Director, Megavons West Africa Limited, Dr. Rotimi Oladele, expressed the view that the okada business could be reorganised, and urged the state government to re-brand it as a community transport system.

Although Oladele, who was a keynote speaker at the forum, commended the state government for its efforts in transforming Lagos, he said there was still a need for a truly masses-oriented means of transport, which the okada business represented.

“Let us re-brand them as community transport system, license them and restrict them to their domiciliary local government areas,” he said.

Opeifa said there was a need for the development of multi-modal transportation system for the economy to grow.

“The groundnut pyramids were moved from the North down to Lagos by the railway; likewise, cocoa and some other farm produce. The system worked then, and all that seems to have died now,” he said.

Opeifa advised that the review of the Constitution currently going on should whittle down some powers of the government at the centre, so that states and local governments could develop the modes of transportation that suited them.

geeez: After Abuja and Benue, we will move into Anambra and then Enugu and then Imo and in two years we will own Onitsha, Enugu and Nnewi.

Let's go there

Dream!

Geez bros, you do have an active imagination.....i'll say that much for ya.

trash talk

misleading title.

I can't see anywhere in the article there was a question of buying igboland.

geeez: After Abuja and Benue, we will move into Anambra and then Enugu and then Imo and in two years we will own Onitsha, Enugu and Nnewi.

Let's go there

I have four plots of land in Anambra and Enugu and i,ll give it out only to ACN members.
Let them come with enough brooms,there will be lots of sweeping job to do.

what an illiterate title or is it illiterate op.

The foolish Mods are still busy smoking their pubic hair instead of calling this foolish OP to order.

Seun and his hypocritical Mods...........



Am I gonna be banned??....

its clear to me some days back that Nairaland moderators are pure tribalists.

whenever a Yoruba person post a thread to abuse igbos, it will make front page,

but if an Igbo post a thread in defense of the said Yoruba thread they will immediately delete it.
why why why?

YOU GUYS ARE GIVING US REASONS BY THE DAY THAT ALL OF YORUBAS ARE TRIBALISTS AND HATED IGBOS WITH PASSION

With ur 3 companies, two houses in Abuja one in PH, one in warri and one each in manchester and kent you still have time to make useless post. Its like your day is more than 24 hours.

geeez: After Abuja and Benue, we will move into Anambra and then Enugu and then Imo and in two years we will own Onitsha, Enugu and Nnewi.

Let's go there

Sorry but we do not accept primitive people in our communities.
We will receive you with open arms only if you will sign agreement with us that you wont be shitting in Nylon bags like you do in Lagos. And you will allow us patch your tiger marks with Ibeto cement as those marks makes you look horrible and uncivilized. Other than that, you are not welcomed.

Mr Kayorode Opeyirifa will run back to lagos with his heels touching his head or with his tale between his legs if he hears the price of a plot of land in those igbo states you mentioned. You think those igbo states are like Ogun, Benue, Ekiti and many Iyoroba state where they buy land for N40,000 a plot? That's why iyoroba man cannot buy land in Onisha. Unless he want to sale hectares of land only to buy a plot. Even when their mosque were demolished. The whole Iyoroba muslims in Onisha could not raise money for half a plot. Gov. Peter Obi had to pity them and dash them 2 plots of land with a plan to build them a new mosque. Fashola cannot be this hospitable.

Geeeeeeeez! Are Yorubas this jobless?

Kai! If I got a penny each time 'Igbo', 'Ibo' or 'Igbo' was used on nairaland, I would have built a mansion from that income stream alone.

...the registration and certification must have ethnic data to properly identify igbos in Lagos. There is need for a containment scheme.

9ja voice: YOU GUYS ARE GIVING US REASONS BY THE DAY THAT ALL OF YORUBAS ARE TRIBALISTS AND HATED IGBOS WITH PASSION

we don't need anyone to tell us that! It is very evident on Nairaland.

basher: Kai! If I got a penny each time 'Igbo', 'Ibo' or 'Igbo' was used on nairaland, I would have built a mansion from that income stream alone.

What if I got half of that each time I come across the word 'Yoruba', I would have bought a twelve room mansion in Bel Air now

berem: we don't need anyone to tell us that! It is very evident on Nairaland.

We dont hate you, you hate yourselves. It is not only in Yorubaland or Yorubas that want to contain you.....it is the same in Ijawland, same in Urhoboland, same in Tiviland, same in Kanuriland, same in Hausaland, same in Gwariland. All these people cannot be wrong and you are right.

....check yourselves!

lol.....fashola don dey mad......

ODUA_NEGRO:

We dont hate you, you hate yourselves. It is not only in Yorubaland or Yorubas that want to contain you.....it is the same in Ijawland, same in Urhoboland, same in Tiviland, same in Kanuriland, same in Hausaland, same in Gwariland. All these people cannot be wrong and you are right.

....check yourselves!

Nwokem mechie onu gia na esisi!!!

It will be a lost investment for Lagos to buy land in SE because igboland is very barren and you need fertile land for agriculture.
Fashola is sensible enough to know the best lands are in SW and North.

Wow. So igbos can be angry at the slight suggestion of buying land in their region? Talk of hypocrisy. I don't blame them, I hope gullible Nigerians are seeing this.

Title is misleading.

@ poster u are a big fool, is there any I will buy igbo land in that ur post.
Its like these moderator allow people to post anything they see

malele: @ poster u are a big fool, is there any I will buy igbo land in that ur post.
Its like these moderator allow people to post anything they see

And is there anything like Lagos 'will' in the post? I said Lagos 'may' ....

Go back to school

ODUA_NEGRO:

We dont hate you, you hate yourselves. It is not only in Yorubaland or Yorubas that want to contain you.....it is the same in Ijawland, same in Urhoboland, same in Tiviland, same in Kanuriland, same in Hausaland, same in Gwariland. All these people cannot be wrong and you are right.

....check yourselves!

DUDU/ODUA NEGRO I have made promise never to involve myself in any unnecessary argument.its not worth it at all.

Ricky_Ross:

Sorry but we do not accept primitive people in our communities.
We will receive you with open arms only if you will sign agreement with us that you wont be shitting in Nylon bags like you do in Lagos. And you will allow us patch your tiger marks with Ibeto cement as those marks makes you look horrible and uncivilized. Other than that, you are not welcomed.

Chai e nwe onu...maka abum onye nkuzi M nye gi 10/10 for such a spotless precondition...

So what's the big deal if Lagos go to the East to buy land? Hmn

Let's wait and see naa..