42—SATURDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 3, 2012
RAGING WAR AGAINST COMMERCIAL MOTORCYCLE OPERATORS
We only restrict Okada on 475 out of 9,100 roads — Opeifa By Ishola Balogun
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trip to the National Orthopedic hos pital, Igbobi, Lagos will reveal a pa thetic situation of victims of Okada accidents. Destinies altered as many on clutches cried in pain as a result of severe orthopedic injuries, while others with spinal cord injuries groan helplessly on wheel chairs. Before the October 20 government restriction of Okada on highways in Lagos, about 65-70 percent of accident victims who have varying degrees of bone injuries were said to have been caused by Okada accidents. Many also believe that the fly-on attitude of the operators especially on the highways constitute grave danger to the lives of other road users just as they were seen to flout traffic rules at every point. But not many see the decision of government to restrict the operations of Okada especially on the highways as a welcome development. While some argue that it will further compound the problem of movement of people from one point to another bearing in mind the inadequate public Above: transportation system especialMr. Kayode ly when commuting from the executive sat and took the dehighways to the hinterlands; cision, it was in collaboration Opeifa, Commissioner for others opined that it will fur- with the CDAs, the Local GovTransport. ther worsen the problem of un- ernment authorities, and when Below: employment as many of them it got to the House of AssemGov Fashola will be thrown out of jobs. Oth- bly, they also took out some and ers on the other hand see the added some. So, what we have government approach from the is a collective agreement of the perspective of ensuring safety views of the people of Lagos. and sanity on the roads. We also indicated that in all Reacting to some of these these roads, should there views, the Commissioner of be a situation, where there Transport, Mr. Kayode Opeifa is lack of public transporsaid the decision was taken by tation, the Hon Commisthe people of Lagos. “Every- sioner should review,” he day, the traffic situation in La- stated. gos keep rising and we all the Opeifa opined that time stressed the security fa- Okada has since recilities in the state. The peo- mained unregulated ple of the state keep telling us simply because it had never that the traffic and safety situ- been part of the public transation are not getting any bet- portation system. “It arose as ter with the Okadas still on the a result of social economic isroad. On September 5, after the sues. It started with Babangisigning the traffic bill into law, da administration and since we had an agreement with the then it remained unregulated. unions of Okada where they Akwa Ibom state tried to regurequested for three things. late it, designing helmets, jackOne, that we should delay the ets, but they later stopped it.” implementation time, a review Contrary to the claim of outof some of the roads; and a re- right ban of Okada in Lagos, quest to meet the Governor.” the transport Commissioner He explained that the roads stated that it was not an outon which Okada have been right ban, it was a restriction. restricted are all major high- “We have not banned motorways, the dual carriage roads cycle out rightly; we have only and some single lane roads in restricted them on 475 out of the list of the 475 roads. Ac- 9,100 roads. It means it is just Reeling out some of the roads, cording to him, “these are the about 6 per cent of roads in he noted that Ikorodu road, roads we have adequate trans- Lagos are restricted. These are Mile 12, Ojota, Mobalaji Bank port system. Some were add- dual carriage roads, major Anthony, Awolowo road, ed by the Local government roads and other roads we have Ogunlana drive, Adeniran authorities. So, it is not that the public transportation system. Ogunsanya, 3rd Mainland
If somebody touches you while on motion, you may fall and that may be fatal. We don’t want any more deaths on our roads
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Bridge, Eko Bridge, are unsafe for Okada operations. “...aside the fact that there is public transportation on these roads, they are not safe for a vehicle that is not protected. Motorcycle is not protected. If somebody touches you while on motion, you may fall and that may be fatal. We don’t want any more deaths on our roads. If we can prevent it, why not do that,” he explained. Harping on safety, he said: “I doubt if there is any family who has not had injury as a result of Okada or any one whose friend or acquaintance has not had Okada accident.”
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ne of the arguments by the Okada operators is that they were used for the election and dumped thereafter, distributing helmets to them before the April 2011 election. Reacting to this, the commissioner said: “Giving helmet is what we hold as a social responsibility and there are a lot of companies that we have encouraged to give them helmet. It is meant towards ensuring that they are safe when operating. And that is what section 3 of this law says. So, we have not done anything strange in January to April 2011. So, if you need to do the business, you must be encouraged to operate safely,” he stated. He wondered why the hullabaloo on the government step towards ensuring safety of people in the state when some other states have tried it and
outrightly banned it. “Some states like Kwara, Delta, Rivers state including FCT, have all done it. While these states were banning them, they came down to Lagos and we did not say,’ no, don’t operate. What we said is that there must have to be restriction. We have not banned okada but we have only restricted their operations. I know no one will like to have his child on motor bike on the highway. It is unsafe and unreliable,” he noted. On the problem of inadequate public transportation which could have assuaged the pains of movement from one place to another, the Commissioner analysed thus: “We have over 7000 yellow buses on Lagos roads, we also have 1500 Bus Rapid Transport, by
our calculation, they pick about 1.5million people moving at a time. This occurs at the rush hour between 7am and 9am, after then, many of them go to Ojuelegba, Oshodi, Ojota to park. So, we don’t have to keep increasing the number of buses. It depends on the demand and supply theory. And even in the rush hour, people move in one direction and vehicle most times will not want to come back empty. So, we have to apply what is called special redistribution of resources. You will not get to equilibrium. Let me give you this analysis, if you leave for Marina, through the busiest road in Lagos which is 3rd Mainland bridge, because it moves, it takes you about one hour from Ikeja to Victorial Island. When you are coming back around 4:45pm, it will take you about 45 minutes. You will go through traffic at four points and spend about 5 minutes at each point and to you it looks like three hours. I have tried it several times. Each time I tried it, I call the traffic radio. The issue is that we are too much in a hurry.” He agrees that lack of training is part of the reasons why Okada operators consistently flout traffic rules. He insisted that the manufacturers of the okada never intended it for passenger movement, adding: “ regardless of the training they had, the urge to make more money set in, so, they become aggressive. That is why you always see them always in a hurry.” and that is why on some of the busiest roads like Allen, we have restricted them. They requested for an extension of time for them to fully comply with the law. The second thing they asked for was a review of the road, asking to be allowed on single carriage roads, (inside the neighbourhood) pending the time they will finally find their way out; while their third request was that they wanted to see the governor. On the issue of extension, on September 5, we meet every Friday, until October 20 and on the roads, we asked them to go and study the roads and pick the ones they want and come back to us. So far only the Alimosho branch signaled interest asking for Abaranje and Iliyasu roads. They also requested to meet with the governor, and they all met him except one of them, ANACOWA. And the rest said they were more convinced why they should leave the road. The organised Okada group was not involved. There are two unions – Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, (RETREAN) and NURTW.