Zamfara is one state that has always been reputed for its harsh weather conditions. The heat is usually intense and has been particularly so in the last two months. The usual practice had been for people to stay back in their various business places or find some fun spots to stay until late night when the heat would have subsided and they retire into their homes.
That, however, is hardly possible now with the night ban placed on commercial motorcycles in the state. With the dusk-to-dawn ban on motorcycles, popularly called okada, the streets which once bubbled with night crawlers conveyed on commercial motorcycles and tricycles are now a shadow of their former selves.
Although night life in the state had been dealt a blow with the introduction of the Shari’a system of government by the administration of former governor of the state, Ahmed Sani Yeriman Bakura, which outlawed the operation of night clubs, beer parlours and brothels, among others, the ban on okada impelled by the unwholesome activities of bandits and other anti-social elements has compounded the situation lately.
Hamza Musa, the proprietor of a pharmacy situated at NUJ Secretariat on Sokoto Road in Gusau, the state capital, lamented that the ban on motorcycles has created a vacuum in the lives of the people of the state.
He said: “The ban on motorcycles has seriously crippled business activities. Personally, I have faced hell many times in the night since the ban was imposed. There was a time I had to trek from my shop to Samaru. I left my shop around 10 pm but did not reach home until about 2.30 am because I had to trek. I rested at intervals because I could not trek the long distance without resting.”
Musa said he would be left with three choices if he had to stay in his shop beyond 6 pm. The first is to embark on the hellish trek. The second is to sleep in the shop. The third is to patronise the few commercial motorcycle riders who defy the ban to operate at night, charging more than N300 for distances that would ordinarily not cost more than N50.
The defiant night riders, he noted, are mostly security personnel who seize the chance to have a field day, as they would not be arrested.
Musa also reckoned that to trek home, he would have to pass through many dangerous points where criminals could forcibly collect his phone or other valuables. “And where the owner is unlucky, they can even machete him or her,” he said.
The foregoing, he said, are besides the fact that he would have to pass through areas where dogs would harass him and threaten to tear him apart.
Another commuter, A’isha Sama’ila, said since the ban on okada commenced, she has had to pay about thrice the sum she was spending as transport fare to commercial motorcycle operators who violate the dusk-to-dawn ban.
According to her, night life in the state has become miserable due to lack of access to vehicles as taxis do not operate at night and the police are always patrolling to ensure full compliance with the ban.
Abubakar Muhammad, a provision store operator, lamented that he now has to close shop by 5.30 pm or trek for almost an hour to get to his house. Unfortunately, he said, he was enjoying more patronage at night before the ban on okada, as most would-be customers are at their various places of work in the day time and have only the night to make purchases, including the following day breakfast and other family needs.
He said he was feeling the negative impact of the ban on motorcycles because of the low patronage of his merchandise, in addition to the fear of small-time criminals who can easily walk into his shop and demand for the money he had made from the day’s sales.
High cost of food items
One important consequence of the ban on the use of motorcycles in Gusau and other parts of Zamfara where the ban on okada is imposed is the rise in the price of agricultural products, which is caused by the inability of the farmers, who hitherto employed the services of commercial motorcycle riders to transport their goods home from the bushes where their farmlands are located.
A lot of villagers, who are engaged in farming in the rural areas and youths, who are in search of daily bread, had acquired motorcycles with which they transported farm produce from remote areas, which are inaccessible to four-wheel vehicles to the point where the goods are loaded into trucks and cars for onward transportation into the towns and villages.
Mustafa Hassan, an indigene of Muradun Local Government Area, lamented that he has no option now but to sell his motorcycle and move to the city which, he feels, is more secured.
Hassan said there are two things to worry about, namely the bandits who, he said, can pounce on the inhabitants of the community, particularly on the outskirts, and security personnel, who he said can easily tag one a bandit. He said there is also the danger of being hit in an air strike.
A group of people from Niger Republic, who were into selling tea and making a fortune from it, recently had to relocate back to their country because they no longer enjoyed patronage, especially at night.
Rural dwellers are also at the receiving end of banditry and the measures being taken against it as their economies are being ravaged by both.
Dealers in farm products, who used to go to Zamfara from far and near, particularly the southern part of the country, are now afraid to go to the state to purchase food items. Those who still muster the courage to visit the state would rather stay in their hotels in the town to make their purchases and return to their states.
The farmers, on the other hand, can no longer bring their products to the town like they were doing before because most drivers are afraid to go into the bush for fear of being apprehended by security operatives.
A commercial driver, Malam Nasiru Ibrahim, said he, like most of his colleagues, is always living in fear. “But there is nothing we can do because we are trying to get what we can feed our families with. If we give in to fear, we cannot eat. One has to just believe in God. If anyone’s life is taken, we take it as an act of God.”
There has been a rumour that the curfew on the use of the motorcycles at night has been relaxed. Ibrahim, who said he was at Shinkafi Local Government Area, one of the worst hit local governments, at the time this report was being compiled, said he had seen some villagers riding their motorcycles into the suburban areas and engaging in various activities following the rumour that the night ban on motorcycles had been lifted