Most of us take or have taken bikes at a point in our lives.
So,you can get that haughty 'I've never taken an Oh-ka-dar in my life' look off your face.
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| I'm sure that's you in the middle. |
Phew!Nice to deal with that elephant in the room straight away.
Last week marked a watershed in the lives of Lagosians with the banning of commercial motorcycles popularly known as 'Okada' on the city's highways.
It was something the people had canvassed for years.
And so many facts support the ban.
1)The high accident rates with its attendant high death and injury rates.
2)The security challenge associated with the uncontrollable influx of aliens a.k.a Aboki into the city.
It's a free country but the rate at which Lagos has been invaded is nothing short of alarming.
Blast me,but there's an Aboki bike rider for every tree in Lagos.
So,the Lagos state government in it's wisdom and in support of the previous yearnings of millions of Lagosians,introduced wide and far reaching restrictions on Okada activity.
And boy were the repercussions unexpected!
Bus queues longer than Lady Dame Jonathan's entourage to Germany for her 'period of rest' *wink wink*
People quarrelling and fighting for space on the few available buses.
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| Queue to nowhere |
It was a return to the days of yore.
Even the Israelites crossing the parted Red Sea could not have been more chaotic than the scenes witnessed in Lagos last week(I can just imagine the last guy on the queue crossing the Red Sea.Nigger be pushing everyone in front of him frantically.Poor sod!)
And that was just the first day!
The second day was hell on earth,with probably the worst traffic gridlock the city had ever witnessed.
There's this particular guy with an Honda 'something something' that I always seem to meet on V.I roads.The brother always speeds past me in my jalopy like my car was moving backwards.
Met the guy in traffic on said day and I kept making funny faces at him.
I'm like 'cat got your wheels?'
Mscheeww!
So we're caught between the proverbial Devil and the deep blue Oniru beach.
Does the government keep the restrictions in place and maintain sanity on our roads at the expense of the suffering masses or does it lift the sanctions and keep filling our orthopaedic wards and mortuaries at our hospital.
Does it keep exposing it's citizens to the Aboki bike rider who doesn't seem to fully comprehend the fact that because there's a slight gap between two trailers does not necessarily mean he has to pass through that gap or better still under the trailer!
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| Once had an Aboki drive me like this from CMS to Yaba.I swear! *straight face* |
I'm all in support of the Lagos State government plan but when a government(at all levels) has failed in the provision of cheap,decent and readily available public transportation,this is what you'll get.
My final word is,21st century Lagos does not have a bus system.
21st century Lagos does not have a rail system.
21st century Lagos does not have a ferry system.
But 21st century Lagos has a functional if chaotic Okada system.
And has my father used to say,'A bird in hand is worth two dancing Azonto in the bush'
