There have been some politically- motivated statements and articles of late about the role of the okada, the commercial motorcycle, in the lives of Lagosians, and some of them have not done justice to the conscience of the commuter. When the matter came to the boil about a year ago, the misunderstanding was clear.
The Babatunde Raji Fashola administration introduced a restriction in the circulation of the machines. But swiftly the spin that went to town was that it was a ban. This is a misuse of language for a tendentious end. But at the time it was not read as an act of overt political counter-narrative against the Lagos State government.
The state made it clear that it wanted to restrict their operation for a number of reasons. Not among this reason is the inconvenience it potentially could impose on the average commuter in the city. The principal reasons were linked with safety. In some of the hospitals, the okadas had become synonymous with slow lynching. Some of the hospitals in Lagos had become acquainted with the gloomy images of the victims. Legs broken, charred flesh bleeding profusely, tears in deluge, deaths to tell the story. And newspapers, including this one, reported many of those stories, gory pieces of young, old, men and women, frittered away in one okada’s nervous tilt into disaster.
Governor Fashola announced a restriction from the major arteries of the city, where the heavy traffic snarl is characterised by such heavy duty vehicles like the trucks, trailers that sometimes bear crates without hinges. The roads also came with various lanes making the trajectory of the okadas so serpentine that they lost their bearings and collided with these mammoth contractions. If cars could meet perilous destinies on these roads, the matter of the thin, fragile okada without unprotected passengers was a foregone conclusion.
That informed the decision of the Lagos State government to the bold step. In spite of the restrictions, the okadas still operate in 95 per cent of the roads in the city. The statistics bear out the wisdom of the action. From the records so far, before the restrictions the number of accidents per month was about 600 on the average. By the recent reports, it is about 100. Deaths per month averaged 15. Today, it is about one. Sources say in the past few months, no deaths have been recorded.
The decision may have started in Lagos, but others have since followed suit. And the decision has not had any partisan flavour. Abia State, Akwa Ibom State and Rivers State are a few of the states that have followed that path.
So, anyone who wants to politicise a matter of public safety because of the ambition for power must be courting death and disaster for people and their families.
