OCTOBER 28, 2012
By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Amid the stand-off between commercial motorcyclists and the authorities in Lagos over the ban of Okada, mind-boggling figures show high Okada fatality rate in the state.

Commercial motorcycle,popularly called Okada, came into being in Lagos State to mitigate the transportation challenges due to the chaotic traffic situation in the state. The state, classified to be a megacity, according to United Nations, UN,  has a population of over 18 million  people.

But the other side to the mitigation of the transportation challenges in the state is that Okada has brought in its wake high incidences of fatal accidents on the roads and cases of armed robberies.

A visit to orthopaedic hospitals in the state would confirm the commercial motorcyclist fatality as those who have lost limbs and arms litter the facilities while many children have become orphans by the recklessness of Okada riders.

No less than 619 people were among victims either killed or seriously injured in commercial motorcycle accidents across Lagos in the last two years, a record by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) showed.

The records from the Planning and Research Department of LASTMA also revealed that out of the number, 107 people died while 512 sustained serious injuries as a result of the accidents showing further that of those who died in the two years, 71 were male while 36 were female.

Details of the accidents between January 2011 and October 2012 further revealed that a total of 442 commercial Okada were involved across the state during the period out of which 271 occurred in 2011 while 171 occurred this year.


Crushed motorbikes
Also, according to the records, in 2011 alone, 47 were killed and 98 others sustained serious injuries while from January 2012 to date 63 people have been killed while 59 others sustained serious injuries.

Police records also revealed that a total of 513 fatal accidents recorded in the state in the last two years were caused by Okada. According to the records, out of this number, 305 happened between January and December 2011 while 208  happened between January and June this year.

The records also revealed that of the 30 armed robbery incidents recorded in Lagos between July and September this year, 22 involved commercial motorcycles. Details, according to the records, show that of eight robberies that occurred in July, seven involved the use of Okada while Okada was also used in 10 out of 14 robberies in September and five out of eight robberies in August.

Governor Babatunde Fashola, on August 2, 2012 ,assented his signature to the Lagos Road Traffic Law partly to contain the Okada riders recklessness by stopping them from plying 475 roads comprising of major highways and bridges in Lagos.

’I AM RUINED’

The ban marked the beginning of a rough time between the state government and the Okada riders who  argued that the government move was to deprive them of their means of livelihood. Truly, the state government had resorted to the seizure of erring Okada  and burning them. No fewer than 300 of the confiscated Okada were said to have been burnt by the state government. On Monday,the Okada riders took to the streets to protest the action in the course of which they destroyed at least 10 Bus Rapid Transit, BRT,  buses along Ikorodu Road..

The protesters later converged on Mushin area where they engaged law enforcement agencies in another violent confrontation.

One of the Okada protesters, who spoke to

SundayVanguard without revealing his identity, said they resorted to attacking BRT buses because because they were  owned by government which had forced them out of  business..

He  lamented that his bike had been seized twice by overzealous officials over flimsy traffic violation.

According to him, he had been in Okada business for over five years in Lagos during which he had been using the proceeds to maintain his two wives and children. “With this ban now, my life is hopeless. I don’t have any money to start a new business. I am ruined.”

Alarmed by the violence by the Okada riders, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly   are contemplating outrightly banning Okada in the state.

Speaker of the House, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, while condemning vandalisation of government property by the Okada riders, frowned at the action, calling on the state government to further strengthen security agencies to protect lives and property.

Ikuforiji warned that the House would not hesitate to ban Okada out rightly if the riders continued to destroy government property and constituted nuisance in the state.

Hon. Bisi Yusuf, a member of the parliament, noted that Okada had been banned in Yola, Yobe, Kano, Abuja, Rivers and some parts of the Osun, saying Lagos would not be an exemption.

‘NO GOING BACK ON ENFORCEMENT’

Meanwhile,Fashola says the ban on Okada on the listed roads in the state has come to stay. The governor, speaking as a guest  of the Metropolitan Club, Victoria Island,Lagos at a special session on law and order in the state, entitled, “Freedom from Fear”, noted that a lot depended on the citizenry in ensuring an orderly society.

He said everyone must build a consensus that the idea behind the new traffic law is one that involves the quality of life of everyone, the protection of the assets of every resident of Lagos and his business.

Tracing the various well organized public transport systems that had existed in the past like the L.M.T.S and L.S.T.C, he said it should agitate the minds of citizens and members of the Club how the state arrived at its present state in terms of the unbridled operation of commercial motorcyclists.

According to Fashola, in less than two decades, Okada has gained so much prominence that it has become a phenomenon which should not have been allowed in the first place, stressing that the elites also contributed as many encouraged their staff and employees to start taking Okada to run errands quickly.

“The only way to stop the business from flourishing is by not patronizing them. It is a business that if the income from it dwindles, the business proposition of those in it will change”,the governor stated.

”As a governor, I  always take it upon myself to fight against any attempt by Very Important Personalities to close roads and the people must be ready to fight against behaviours and conducts that are hazardous to healthy and secure existence.

“This is a law made by the State House of Assembly,a law that I swore on oath to defend and that is my duty. I make no

apologies for doing it and I will continue to do it. If we continue like this, we are on the road to Bangkok in Thailand”.

Fashola said there should be concerted efforts by everyone to ensure that Nigeria does not reach the notorious status of Bangkok in terms of traffic because Bangkok is a city that loses about one million dollars every year to traffic congestion and where the training of the average traffic police officer includes the delivery of babies from pregnant women who are trapped in traffic.

Urging business executives and corporate leaders to rethink the types of ventures being supported, the governor said the tricycles known as Keke Marwa represents the sign of India’s age of poverty which the country is striving hard to move away from as it is now busy manufacturing TATA buses and wondered why that is what Nigerians are now embracing wholeheartedly.

He added that the same applies to motorcycles which originated from China, saying currently the Chinese are making fast trains for their usage while Nigerians are helping their economy by patronizing their Okada.

Noting that those who break the law with impunity are,often more than not, aliens with no respect for rules and regulation, Fashola revealed that within 24 hours,over 100

people from Niger Republic had been escorted out of Lagos, stressing that there was no going back on the enforcement of the State Traffic Law.

According to him,the presence or absence of law and order in any society is what determines whether the people will live in fear or without it.

He stated that traffic should not be viewed as a problem but rather a sign of of prosperity in any emerging megacity like Lagos because as more people move into the city there would be congestion.

The governor, however, explained that the traffic being complained about is the rush hour traffic which is not peculiar to Lagos, adding that in the United States of America, it is better to walk in Manhattan than to drive a car, admonishing that Nigerians should stop feeling sorry for themselves whenever they are in traffic.

Giving an insight into some of the proactive steps being taken to manage traffic, Fashola said the state government had gone a step further by introducing the traffic radio to give advance information to members of the public on how they can plan their trips adequately.

He explained that the new road traffic law has made provision against drinking or eating behind the wheels because government believes that only split seconds stand between fatal accidents and surviving as any momentary loss of concentration could have catastrophic consequences.

On the  suggestion that the Highway Code should be a subject of study in schools for children to learn at the formative stage, the governor said government was already working on how to develop a basic curriculum that would be developed from a book on same subject without encroaching on the basic school curriculum.

Sunday Vanguard gathered last week that since the  aggressive enforcement of the road traffic law commenced after about three months sensitization and public enlightenment, many displaced Okada riders who are still lucky to have their motorcycles are relocating to neighbouring states of Ogun, Oyo, Osun to continue their okada business.

It was also learnt that there were about a million Okada riders, registered and unregistered, in Lagos though there are only two recognised associations, one of which is  Motorcycles Association of Lagos State, MOALS.