Everyone likes to get to their destination safely and in good time. But with city roads so busy, clogged with traffic and generally poor, many commuters find themselves sulking on crammed buses and in their cars looking out the window and wondering when they will get to their destination. That was precisely what gave birth to commercial motorcycles (okada) and later the tricycle or keke, and made them popular.
They have come in handy ferrying commuters to virtually everywhere, and also sometimes landing them in hospital or even in the grave.
Okada and keke. Oh, how they are loved and hated across Nigerian towns and cities.
They are considered fast, easy to access and an affordable means of transportation.
Some people have had experiences ranging from accidents to crimes perpetrated with Keke or Okada which have made some people swear by what or who they worship never to have anything to do with them.
As snazzy as the FCT may look or sound to outsiders, some residents who stay outside the Central Business District and Central Business Area still use motorcycles and Keke as their means of transportation to their various destinations. Areas where keke and Okada operate in Abuja include Gwarinpa, Kubwa, Gwagwalada, Kuje, Asokoro, Bwari, Nyanyan, Karu, Area 1, Garki, Jabi, Utako, Mpape and so many other areas.
Some passengers Abuja Review spoke with said they only use okada and Keke because they have no choice. Their reasons ranged from inability to communicate properly with the operators because of language and poor attitude. Some said the operators are aggressive and mostly uneducated, reckless and poorly dressed.
Mrs. Gift Anumba who shared some of her experiences with Abuja Review, said: “The bike operators are something else. I am always very selective when it comes to boarding their bikes. I usually look at their outfit and their composure but I must tell you that their outfit sometimes does not depict who they really are. Some of them are very aggressive and quick to throw insult at you.”
Taiye Bello who works in an ICT firm in the Central Business District but lives in Kuje Area Council, said he uses them because he has no option.
He said, “If I have my way, I won’t use bikes or keke. They are very reckless and always ready to fight and the painful thing is that some of them are underage. I wish there is a policy that would be introduced to regulate them. It seems as if all they need to become riders is to purchase the motorcycles; ones they do, they are automatically operators.”
Usman Musa said the riders sometimes feel they are like the proverbial cat with nine lives. They ride carelessly and as if they are in competition with cars. He said what most of them fail to understand is that occupants of a car are more protected than those on motorcycles whose only protective shield is the helmet which they even find difficult to use.
For the dangers associated with using these means of transportation, some areas go as far as placing bold notices at the entrance of their estates or complexes to keep tricycle and motorcycle operators off. It is believed that such measures would sanitise their areas and reduce the rate of crime credited to unidentified riders.
Another user who gave her name as Tunrayo said it is difficult to identify the riders as most of them are without number plates. The use of tricycles and okadas on roads has also contributed largely to the rate of accidents.
It is believed that armed robbers, kidnappers and other criminals use motorcycle most especially for ease of operation. Out of the total crashes recorded by FRSC, FCT had the highest cases of road traffic crashes in the year 2016 with 1,373 crashes and this is a city where tricycle and motorcycle operation still abounds. This complaint and many more have led to the call for the ban of motorcycle riders in some cities by federal government and state government.
No doubt, they contribute largely to the economic growth of the country.
In an interview, the National President of Amalgamated Commercial Tricycle and Motorcycle Owners Repairers and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN), Sheu Babangida said, among other things, that the association has engaged the service of a consultant to sanitise it.
He said, “We have engaged consultants in sanitising and registering our members nationwide by getting their data through biometric capturing. The exercise has started in the Southwest, in about three states because of our numerical strength, the company does not have the capacity to start at once. We started by targeting the highly densely populated states of Ogun, Oyo and Lagos and we are preparing others from the north too.
“We were facing two challenges, the first one is the rate of accident that has bedeviled our members and the use of the motorcycle to perpetrate atrocities by some undesirable elements who are not our members but they hide under that guise. With the data capturing, we are going to know each and every of our genuine member. We would be coming out with a code that would identify our members.
“Also, every motorcycle or tricycle that has been captured, there would be a tracker attached to it that wherever you are and at the comfort of your home, you would know where the machine is with the tracker device.
On the absence of number plate on most motorcycles and tricycles, Babangida said: “We are working with the Transportation ministry to ask the state chapters to come up with a unified position of number plate price, that would be affordable because what is making our members not to register is because there is no uniformed price for the plate number. Some states charge higher than others and that makes some of our members run from the state they are operating to go to another state where the charges are less and the state would be losing revenue. To address that, we have discussed and we are coming up with a unified price so that it would be flat rate everywhere.
Also for licenses, the President said 80 percent of his members operate without licences. He however said he has discussed with the Transportation ministry, Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) and FRSC to work out something mild and affordable.
“80 percent of our members currently do not have licence and you can imagine the amount Nigeria losses to that because of wrong pricing. It is a flat rate for all vehicles, motorcycle, tricycle, lorries and trailers. We feel it is not fair because we are the low income earners in the transport sector and that should be considered. I am begging that the price be N2000 or maximum N3000. If we quantify the volume of money we loss as a result of their refusal to get it and if the price is reduced, then the country can imagine how much it would generate at the end of the day. We have over 12million members and not one percent of our members have license. If the price is reduced, the money that would be generated would be high because as it stands now, government is losing a lot.
On how accidents and crimes would be curbed, he said the association would introduce a code for members. “The code would address the insecurity aspect of it because everybody would be known by his code. At a point, when a law enforcement officer stops a rider, all he would ask is for the code. To get that code, you must have undergone registration in your unit where you operate. So the era of policemen disturbing our people and even saying for security reasons they won’t operate between stipulated hours would be addressed. The code would be boldly written on their bikes.
On recklessness, he said: “the biometric capturing would enable us assess them individually. In the process of registering them, they would need to go to VIO for certification. VIO told us that they intend to increase testing grounds in the country. The rate of accident through that process would be addressed and underage issue too.
