By Tola
It's a paradox of sorts the daily gridlock that the Lagos traffic has become. One would have thought that the banning of okada would ease things up a bit; the direct opposite is the case. So I'm thinking to myself that perhaps a large percentage of the people who used bikes as their primary mode of transportation owned private cars.
I was driving past this huge lorry load of confiscated motorcycles and it occurred to me that each bike represented the livelihood of goodness knows how many people and the several thousand that in turn used to depend on them. How will they earn an income?
As badly behaved as they were okada riders provided a service. There was no more accurate a compass, It doesn't matter if it is off, off, off, off, off one obscure street; okada man will know the place! You cannot throw way for Lagos! They were also our version of the red eye shuttle –guaranteed to get you to that meeting on time regardless of the traffic situation.
What I never understood though was the psyche of an okada man. I don't understand why they presumed they were special specie; aided and abated by the traffic authorities as they mill about like swarming cockroaches breaking every law in the book. Another thing I never understood was their angst.
Almost every law that had been set up was to protect them mostly from themselves. I remember when helmets became mandatory; their response was to go on a protest. And if I remember well some of it even turned ugly. How stupid is that?
No I can't say I understand the mind set of an okada man. It's almost like they all drank from a special brew that made them wild, unruly and attempt some incredibly stupi stunts.
The more they were threatened with extinction the more badly behaved they became believing (erroneously it turns out) that they provided a service so great it didn't matter what their excesses were the rest of us would just have to 'suck it up'. It was only a matter of time really
Once again, Government has shown that ultimately it will have its way be it setting up a toll gate, removing petrol subsidy or… banning okadas on particular roads, and there's very little anyone do about it.
My unsolicited advice…? They should curb their excess and embrace the 55 or so roads they still have access to. To the teeming Lagosians whose lives just got a little bit harder, what can I say? E pele! E ku iroju!
