The Nation Newspaper

Tag: riders

  • Riders mark International Cycling Day in Lagos

    The United Nations (UN), in partnership with Cycology Club, a 300-member non-profit organisation, has marked the first ever International Cycling Day in Lagos.

    UNIC Lagos Director Ronald Kayanja said the UN declared the International Cycling Day to encourage the use of bicycles as tools of empowerment. He said people including women and youths could use bicycles to move their products to the markets.

    According to him, in line with the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 13, the use of bicycles will help to reduce carbon monoxide emission from the massive use of cars as means of transportation.

    It will also encourage urban cities to create routes for bicycles just as there are for cars.

    He said the idea was also to encourage young people to embrace the riding of bicycles which was prevalent in the past.

    Cycology Club Captain Bimpe Olufemi, who addressed reporters after leading members of the club on a bicycle ride in Ikoyi, on Saturday, said it was to promote a healthy lifestyle.

    “Cycology is a cycling club with over 300 registered members. It was founded in 2011 by a few cyclists to promote cycling as a healthy lifestyle and create awareness on social issues.

    “Other cycling organisations have been birthed as a result of Cycology, many of which we have strong collaborations with: African Cycling Foundation and Sustainable Cycling Foundation, to mention a few. Together we have worked very hard to deliver aspects of the World Bicycle Day initiatives as stipulated by the United Nations,” Olufemi said.

    She said the cycling world, which started off as a small community, was fast growing, adding that government bodies were beginning to take cognisance of the development.

    “There are indicators that suggest ongoing discussions at various levels of government to change the landscape of cities like Lagos, Abuja into environmentally friendly cycling cities. Not only does this make sense financially because of its positive health impact on society, but it also reduces public transportation dependency thus opening up opportunities for growth in rural areas.

     

     

     

  • Okada riders injure task force driver

    Okada riders injure task force driver

    Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Task Force) surffered a huge loss in the hands of some commercial motorcyclists (okada riders) at the weekend in Apapa.

    The windscreens and headlight of four of its trucks and two Toyota Hilux vans were damaged by the okada riders, while its officials were trying to arrest those who did not participate in Saturday’s environmental sanitation.

    The agency’s driver was wounded on the head.

    Some okada riders were arrested over the incident.

    A statement by the task force’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Taofiq Adebayo, quoted the chairman, Olayinka Egbeyemi, a Superintendent of Police (SP) as saying that the operatives impounded 27 motorcycles and arrested five Okada riders, described as Chadian and Nigerien.

    Egbeyemi urged Apapa residents to cooperate with the agency in sanitising the community.

    Those arrested are Belo Sheu, 17, Ali Don, 20, Aminu Ataru, 22, Musa Yahusa, 15, and Saliu Musa, 30.

    Commissioner of Police Fatai Owoseni has directed that those arrested be charged to court.

    “During the month of October, the agency arrested 1750 miscreants. 300 were screened out, while the remaining 1450 were charged to courts. 1105 motorcycles plying restricted routes across the state were impounded,” the statement said.

  • Riders for Health: Taking healthcare beyond boundaries

    Riders for Health: Taking healthcare beyond boundaries


    There is no doubt, that the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations (UN) and many other non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as various parastatals have over the years, embarked on numerous programmes to provide health care for mothers and children across less privileged communities in Africa. Interestingly, the more these health organisations make efforts, the less their efforts go in reducing maternal and child mortality, thus, the need for ‘Riders for Health’. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports in 2014, Nigeria loses about 2, 300 of her under five year old children per day, which is approximately 839,500 children in a year. The same report has it that 145 pregnant women reportedly die either at child birth or after child birth per day. And this amounts to 52, 925 women per year. Given this statistics, Nigeria, like many other African countries, ranks high as one of the countries with large contribution to the under five and maternal mortality rates in the world. Worthy of mention here is the fact that many of these deaths could be prevented if aid gets to those who need them, regardless of their locations – rural or urban settlement. It is largely true that the coverage and quality of health care service delivered to communities that are at the outskirts or in far rural areas has continued to fail both women and children in Nigeria. Thus, the need to introduce a project called: ‘Riders for Health’. ‘Riders for Health’ is an international social enterprise that strives to manage and maintain vehicles for health focused partners in sub Saharan Africa with the view of delivering health care services to communities far from cities. The expertise to be put in place by this project in transport management will enable health workers deliver vital health care to rural communities on a reliable and cost effective basis. The need for 'Riders for health' became pertinent considering the challenges faced by health care givers in reaching communities that are far removed from urban settlements. What this means is that, not only that those members of communities that are far from cities often struggle in vain to get health care, even health care workers likewise struggle in a bid to save affected Riders for Health employees the use of every form of motor vehicles to deliver health care facilities as well as move health care givers to concerned communities. Among the motor vehicles employed by this project include motorcycles, ambulances and other four wheel vehicles used in the delivery of health care in seven countries across Africa. These countries include Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and The Gambia. The project is in collaboration with ministries of health, international and African NGOs, private sector organisations, local community based organisations and religious groups, to improve access to health care, Furthermore, the project has the capacity to take care of an estimated 14 million people across the seven African countries mentioned above. For example, one single motor vehicle plus one rider has the capacity to cover 56.7 kilometers and beyond within a month covering a total of 5.1 million people. At the core of this community focused project is both training and preventive vehicle maintenance. The essence for running reliable vehicle fleets cannot be separated from the need to ensure that the chain in health care delivery is never broken by failing vehicles thereby increasing health workers’ The same way, prevention is better than cure in human health, so is maintenance better than repair for automobiles, hence the need for constant maintenance, which is also cheaper to keep a vehicle running efficiently over time than to repair it when it breaks down completely. The programmes have been designed to provide training and employment opportunities to build local  a project focusing on human health, the service of highly skilled technicians becomes vital to regularly travel to service vehicles in the communities in which health workers serve. In addition to training health workers to drive safely in the difficult terrain, there would also be training for them on how to carry out daily checks on their vehicles. This is because, majority of the population of sub Saharan Africans live in rural areas where the best roads are little more than dirt tracks. Public transport is infrequent and delivering health care on foot or by bicycle between sparse villages is an exhausting and ineffective task. Simply put, without reliable transportation system, the millions of pounds invested in vaccines, drugs, bed nets, condoms and to train health professionals every year will be wasted because they will fail to get to where they are needed on time. There is therefore every reason for this project to achieve the set goal in order to have a safe and healthy world.

  • Boko Haram: Okada riders to assist FG with vital clues

    Following growing cases of insurgencies across the country, occasioned by Boko Haram sect and other criminal elements in the country, the commercial motorcycle operators (Okada riders), under the aegis of Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN), have resolved to furnish the federal government with “vital information” that could help bring the situation under control.

    This is coming just as the Speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly, Prince Surajudeen Adekumbi, charged members of the association in the state to be vigilant and adopt internal monitoring mechanism to ensure that none yields himself as instrument of criminality.

    Adekumbi, who spoke shortly after laying the foundation stone for the N25m Secretariat of the state’s ACOMORAN in Abeokuta at the weekend, also charged the body to contribute financially to the Security Trust Fund (STF) of the Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s administration.

    On insurgency, the group said the resolve to henceforth assist the governments at all levels with data bordering on “security challenges,” would among other things, be their “contribution” towards ensuring “national progress, love, tranquillity and national interest.”

    This was contained in a Communique issued at the end of its tri -ennial National Council Meeting in Garki, Abuja, and made available to The Nation, where they equally declared as null and void, the dissolution of the “legitimate leadership of ACOMORAN in South West” by Alh. Sani Hassan and others.

    The Communique was signed by ACOMORAN’s leadership – Chief Alfred Opara(Board of Trustees Chairman), Alh. Babangida Shehu Maihula(National President), Alh.Shamsudeen Apelogun(Chairman, South West Zone), Moses Wakama(Chairman South East), Zaid Abubakar(Chairman, Northern States) and Adeosun Egunjobi (BoT member).

    And also during the meeting attended by participating leaders from 22 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, the Association urged President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene on the side of the Okada riders by helping to lift the restriction of Okada operation in “South – South and South – East regions of Nigerian.”