New regulations announced last week by the Lagos State Special Adviser on Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, will radically affect commercial motorcycle operations in the state from July 1, 2010.
Although not altogether new, these regulations are now to be strictly enforced. They include “Nobody below 18 years should ride a motorcycle; no horn, except that of a motorcycle should be fixed on a motorcycle; no car stereo should be used; and no motorcycle should ply a dual-carriage way.” So also is the requirement that both the rider and passenger must wear helmets, and that no commercial motorcyclist should carry more than one passenger at a time.
However, seemingly "controversial" ones are that no commercial motorcycle (or Okada) operator should carry a passenger with a load, or a school child, a pregnant woman or a woman with a baby strapped on her back.
The Lagos State Government truly appears determined to tackle the menace of Okada riders’ recklessness and deserves to be applauded. Any pedestrian or motorist will tell you that operators of this popular mode of commercial transport throughout the country are a terror. They observe no traffic laws, do not recognize the rights of other road users, and have scant regard for their passengers’ lives – or indeed their own!
Their hair-raising bravado on the roads, as they weave through traffic at dangerous speeds, gives the fright to anyone watching them. Not surprisingly, they are prone to frequent accidents, and countless are the tales of woe of those who have fallen casualty to the Okada men’s recklessness. Even worse, some Okada riders have quite often been known to engage in criminal activities, including robbery at gunpoint, causing some estates and neighbourhoods to ban their presence outside certain hours.
The Lagos State’s good intention is thus easy to understand. Even the seeming "controversial" rules are definitely an attempt to protect these vulnerable members of the public from the well-known hazards of the Okada means of transport. Likewise, passengers bearing heavy loads can render the two-wheeled taxi more unstable and prone to mishaps, especially over the pot hole-filled, untarred, flooded and ill maintained roads in many parts of the metropolis.
The principal challenge, however, will be how to answer the questions: given the present rickety, chaotic and grossly inadequate public transportation facilities in the state – despite the salutary effects of the Bus Rapid Transit scheme so far – what are affected Lagosians to do, as from July 1, when they will become stranded in their hundreds of thousands, if not millions – if no alternative to Okada is provided by the government?
There are many remote, semi-rural, blighted, government-abandoned communities in the state, which today are served solely by the two-wheeled taxi, despite its known hazards. Terrible will be the anguish of school children, pregnant women and nursing mothers forced by economic necessity to dwell in such areas. Is it fair to sentence them to trekking kilometres daily, to and fro their schools, businesses and social engagements?
What about obvious legal difficulties that may arise in the implementation of the new rules, for example, how are the law enforcement agencies to determine a pregnant woman? By physical appearance or laboratory test? Or does the state government mean ‘obviously, or heavily, pregnant’ women? Even so, what stage of pregnancy will fall within this definition? Will an emergency service, incidentally, be established, by July 1, to provide transport to heavily pregnant women dwelling in Okada-only-public-transport areas, in order to deal with critical emergencies?
The point here is that at times, even a risky means of transport may be better than none at all.
Moreover, the regulation prohibiting pregnant women from using Okada is easily susceptible to abuse by our law enforcement personnel, whose excesses are justifiably notorious. We foresee women being harassed, delayed, detained, indecently assaulted or even sexually abused in the process of determining who is a pregnant woman. This could cause uproar, leading to a breach of the peace, as no husband would tolerate such abuse of his wife.
Again, who is a school child? What is his or her age? If it is dangerous for a two- or three-year toddler to perch precariously on an Okada, on the way to or from school, what about the 17-year-old SS 3 student going to take her final examination, trapped in a traffic snarl, and who may miss her paper – unless the government can provide her a helicopter? And how is a ‘school child’ to be identified? By uniform? Supposing he chooses not to wear his uniform till he gets to school? This is a discriminatory – and, we think, unconstitutional – regulation.
As for passengers with loads, what size or weight of a load will make it an offence for a passenger to carry while on a motorcycle? This needs to be carefully defined to prevent abuse by enforcers.
We believe, in short, that the time will be ripe to enforce these aspects of the Okada regulations only after efficient commuter transport is available throughout Lagos State. What seems feasible now, in our view, is for the government to tighten the process of issuing the driver licence to commercial motorcyclists, and to ensure that only trained, licensed, law-abiding and registered riders are allowed on the roads.
A lot can also be done to improve enforcement of standard regulations like the use of safety helmets, observance of speed limits, traffic lights, maximum number of passengers, one-way driving rules, among others, for all Okada riders.
Although not altogether new, these regulations are now to be strictly enforced. They include “Nobody below 18 years should ride a motorcycle; no horn, except that of a motorcycle should be fixed on a motorcycle; no car stereo should be used; and no motorcycle should ply a dual-carriage way.” So also is the requirement that both the rider and passenger must wear helmets, and that no commercial motorcyclist should carry more than one passenger at a time.
However, seemingly "controversial" ones are that no commercial motorcycle (or Okada) operator should carry a passenger with a load, or a school child, a pregnant woman or a woman with a baby strapped on her back.
The Lagos State Government truly appears determined to tackle the menace of Okada riders’ recklessness and deserves to be applauded. Any pedestrian or motorist will tell you that operators of this popular mode of commercial transport throughout the country are a terror. They observe no traffic laws, do not recognize the rights of other road users, and have scant regard for their passengers’ lives – or indeed their own!
Their hair-raising bravado on the roads, as they weave through traffic at dangerous speeds, gives the fright to anyone watching them. Not surprisingly, they are prone to frequent accidents, and countless are the tales of woe of those who have fallen casualty to the Okada men’s recklessness. Even worse, some Okada riders have quite often been known to engage in criminal activities, including robbery at gunpoint, causing some estates and neighbourhoods to ban their presence outside certain hours.
The Lagos State’s good intention is thus easy to understand. Even the seeming "controversial" rules are definitely an attempt to protect these vulnerable members of the public from the well-known hazards of the Okada means of transport. Likewise, passengers bearing heavy loads can render the two-wheeled taxi more unstable and prone to mishaps, especially over the pot hole-filled, untarred, flooded and ill maintained roads in many parts of the metropolis.
The principal challenge, however, will be how to answer the questions: given the present rickety, chaotic and grossly inadequate public transportation facilities in the state – despite the salutary effects of the Bus Rapid Transit scheme so far – what are affected Lagosians to do, as from July 1, when they will become stranded in their hundreds of thousands, if not millions – if no alternative to Okada is provided by the government?
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| Pix: Okada riders |
What about obvious legal difficulties that may arise in the implementation of the new rules, for example, how are the law enforcement agencies to determine a pregnant woman? By physical appearance or laboratory test? Or does the state government mean ‘obviously, or heavily, pregnant’ women? Even so, what stage of pregnancy will fall within this definition? Will an emergency service, incidentally, be established, by July 1, to provide transport to heavily pregnant women dwelling in Okada-only-public-transport areas, in order to deal with critical emergencies?
The point here is that at times, even a risky means of transport may be better than none at all.
Moreover, the regulation prohibiting pregnant women from using Okada is easily susceptible to abuse by our law enforcement personnel, whose excesses are justifiably notorious. We foresee women being harassed, delayed, detained, indecently assaulted or even sexually abused in the process of determining who is a pregnant woman. This could cause uproar, leading to a breach of the peace, as no husband would tolerate such abuse of his wife.
Again, who is a school child? What is his or her age? If it is dangerous for a two- or three-year toddler to perch precariously on an Okada, on the way to or from school, what about the 17-year-old SS 3 student going to take her final examination, trapped in a traffic snarl, and who may miss her paper – unless the government can provide her a helicopter? And how is a ‘school child’ to be identified? By uniform? Supposing he chooses not to wear his uniform till he gets to school? This is a discriminatory – and, we think, unconstitutional – regulation.
As for passengers with loads, what size or weight of a load will make it an offence for a passenger to carry while on a motorcycle? This needs to be carefully defined to prevent abuse by enforcers.
We believe, in short, that the time will be ripe to enforce these aspects of the Okada regulations only after efficient commuter transport is available throughout Lagos State. What seems feasible now, in our view, is for the government to tighten the process of issuing the driver licence to commercial motorcyclists, and to ensure that only trained, licensed, law-abiding and registered riders are allowed on the roads.
A lot can also be done to improve enforcement of standard regulations like the use of safety helmets, observance of speed limits, traffic lights, maximum number of passengers, one-way driving rules, among others, for all Okada riders.
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