With the launch of 500 mini-buses in Lagos, AKIN ADEWAKUN reports the implication of the move by government on commercial motorcyclists and residents’ reactions.
The launch of 500 new mini-buses in Lagos on May 18 this year, many believe, represents another effort of the state government at finding lasting solution to the knotty and seemingly intractable transportation issue that has been the lot of the metropolis and its residents, in recent times.
Codenamed First and Last Mile Transportation Scheme (FLM), the state governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu had argued at the launch, that the time had come for the state government to address the problem of transportation in Lagos, and one of such interventionist efforts, he stated, was the FLM scheme.
According to him, “As a responsible government, we are launching this scheme in response to two major issues. One is the alarming statistics of fatal accidents recorded from the operations of okada in Lagos, between 2016 and 2019, and the use of okada for the facilitation of crime across the metropolis.
“The goal is the full implementation of a safer and more efficient alternative transport solution that takes out the need for okada and replaces them with safer buses that will help us curb incidents of okada-related accidents, crimes and robberies.”
Not a few would agree with the governor on the issue of keeping the city safe. Of late, especially since the EndSARS protest which was meant to end police brutality was held in the city, the number of crime perpetrated on commercial motorcycles has continued to rise. A development many Lagosians find scary.
For these residents, just as the governor had said, okada always provides perpetrators the escape channel after a crime must have been committed.
“What we are having now is like going back to those inglorious days in Lagos, when okada was a major security risk in the city, then,” argued Segun, a resident, while pitching his tent with the governor on the ban of okada, and the launch of an alternative transportation scheme.
Interestingly, Segun was speaking from experience. A few weeks ago, he was a victim of okada robbery around Alausa, the state’s seat of power.
“I was walking along Alausa area, trying to see whether I could catch a bus to my destination when these two boys on okada moved near me. I never knew their intention until they snatched the bag, containing my iPad, a handset and other valuables I was holding. What actually surprised me was the fact that this was taking place in a broad daylight, and somewhere very close to the seat of power,” he stated.
But Segun is not alone! There are others too who believe the activities of commercial motorcyclists in the metropolis can never be regulated, except an outright ban.
For instance, Mrs. Rebecca Ayeni, who resides in the Egbeda area in Alimosho Local Government Area, was robbed at gunpoint in the wee hours of a Saturday, on her way from a vigil, some months ago.
“It was around 5.45am, and I saw this bike from afar. There were two people on the bike. My thought was that it was the rider with a passenger. When they sighted me, they came towards my direction and stopped. I was even trying to tell them where I was going, thinking they wanted to pick me, but to my surprise, the supposed passenger pulled out a gun and asked for the bag, I was holding. I had to quickly hand over the bag to them. Thank God the bag only contained my handset, my transport fare, and my bible,” she narrated.
So, Mrs. Ayeni would not mind to see Okada phased out. The unfortunate incident, she said, continues to echo in her head, anytime she sees any bike at all.
Though Jimoh Alamu, another resident, is in tune with the above sentiments, his reasons for calling for an end to this malaise is a bit different.
“They hardly obey traffic rules, and they are very reckless. They’ve sent many to their early graves just because of this, while others have been maimed for life. For instance, despite being banned from BRT lanes, and other dedicated routes in the metropolis, for them, it is still business as usual,” Alamu stated.
Toyin Adams, a marketing communications practitioner, lost his friend recently, due to the recklessness of a commercial motorcyclist in Ikeja.
“It was somewhere around Ikeja. This friend of mine had gone to drop his kids in school, when he ran into a gridlock. He was actually driving, but when he discovered that the traffic was not moving, he parked and took a bike to avoid a situation where the kids would get to school late, due to the gridlock. He got to the school safely, dropped the children, and took another bike to where he parked his vehicle. But he never got there.
“On their way back, the rider of the bike he took was trying to beat the traffic light around Allen area, and got in the way of a speeding vehicle, with the right of way. The bike was knocked down, he died instantly. Interestingly, the commercial motorcyclist escaped unhurt. It was a costly but avoidable error. Now look at where that error has landed the family of the deceased,” he stated.
Curiously, despite these misgivings about the activities of commercial motorcyclists in the city, not a few Lagosians still see them as ‘necessary evil’. Some are even of the strong belief that it will be very difficult to phase out this particular means of transportation, despite their shortcomings because of their ‘nuisance value’, and the obvious infrastructural challenges the city is facing.
Interestingly, Inienbong, a commercial motorcyclist plying Aboru to Iyana Ipaja is unperturbed by the development. According to him, the state governor is only toeing the path of his predecessors in the state, and this effort, like others before it, will not work.“Did Fashola and Ambode not try it? Did they succeed? I think it’s left for you to answer,” he told Nigerian Tribune.
According to Inienbong, such policies only last for a few days before they fizzle out. “There was this apprehension when these buses were commissioned in May. But I knew it would fizzle out. My reaction was that of caution then, but now everything is back to normal,” he stated.
Another rider, at the Iyana Ipaja Park, Raheem Ajibola, who also spoke to Nigerian Tribune, believes the state government is simply being insensitive to the plight of the citizens it governs.
Ajibola, who was once a driver with one of the new generation banks before the COVID-19 pandemic put paid to that employment last year, explained that he had to resort to the job as a way of making ends meet, and fending for his family.
Another resident, Bimbo Ariwoola, sees it as a ‘storm in a teacup’, therefore not worth losing sleep over. But Ariwoola and other skeptics may be in for a surprise, if the words of the state’s Commissioner for Information, Mr. Gbenga Omotosho were anything to go by.
Omotosho had on a television programme, insisted that the state government was serious with its decision to phase out the new transportation scheme, this time around.
According to him, figures of okada-induced fatalities and injuries at the orthopaedic hospital in Igbobi, had made the intervention inevitable.
He also dismissed the ‘insensitivity claim’ of some residents, adding that the mini-buses are ready for individuals, including commercial okada riders, ready to ‘upgrade’.
But soothing as those words are, they may still not be enough to douse the tension the launch of the FLM buses has created in residents. Perhaps, the actions of the state government in the coming months will determine whether such fears being expressed by residents are unfounded or not, and if the new transportation scheme will sound the death knell for the ubiquitous okada in the metropolis, this time around.
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