At rush hour the densely packed traffic of Lagos should be buzzing with okadas, the motorcycle taxis that weave through the heaving streets, bearing passengers clinging on for dear life, hoping to beat the notorious jams.
But last month authorities banned the motorbikes, thought to cause almost 50% of all traffic accidents in Nigeria’s most populous city, throwing thousands of people out of work. Among them is Fatai Ogunbanwo, who sits idly beside a provision store in Somolu, one of the 10 districts hit by the ban, his okada nowhere in sight.
“When I first heard on the news, I thought it could not be true. I work within the streets of Somolu and did not see why we should be banned. It is totally damning and I do not know what to do now,” Ogunbanwo says.
“I take care of my family through this job. If I cannot take care of them as before, how much longer before my wife leaves me for another man and my kids become another man’s children?”
The governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, placed a ban on the commercial motorcycles in September after a pilot project on some roads reduced accident and crime rates. He said it would be “indefinite and total”.
The state authority’s strategy is intended to curb crime – robberies are frequently perpetrated by criminals on motorcycles – and reduce accidents. Of the 1,712 accidents recorded in the city in the first quarter of this year, 767 were caused by motorcycle taxis, according to Gbenga Omotosho, state commissioner for information.
Ogunbanwo’s search for a new job has not been fruitful. But every day he returns to the empty okada parking area he shared along with hundreds of other drivers.
He used to make between 6,000 and 7,000 naira (£12-£14) daily but brings in nothing now. For about three weeks, Ogunbanwo has not gone home to his wife and two children in the city’s Ketu district because he does not have any money to give them. Instead, he is squatting with a friend in Somolu, defaulting on the school fees of his children – who could soon, he knows, be asked to leave the classroom.
“Look at the clothes I am wearing,” he says, drawing the neck of his tightly fitting kaftan. “It is not mine. Someone gave it to me so I could have a change of clothes.”
The impact of the ban has extended to the roadside engine oil and tyre sellers who serve the okadas, and has also angered commuters, who often rely on motorcycles to avoid traffic gridlock and to reach far-flung parts of the city not served by buses. For Okuo Blessing, a resident of Isolo who works in Yaba, the ban means getting to work late. Motorcycles helped speed her through the city’s notorious early morning traffic but not any more.
“You could take one [okada] from the front of my house to the bus stop to get keke [a three-wheeler taxi] or bus. Now, we have to trek to the bus stop and it’s quite far. Most times when I have groceries and can’t trek, I have to take keke to the front of my house for 500 naira when I’d have just taken a 100 naira bike.”
Nigeria’s jobless rate keeps rising and many of the country’s 42.5% unemployed youths work as okada drivers to make ends meet.
Ahmed Semiu, chairman of Ogunbanwo’s okada unit, points to men chatting in the distance. “Look at all those people seated over there. They are all motorcycle drivers who have no place to go. [The government] should at least offer us an option so we can start living again.
“It is just as if the government snatched food out of our plates. The ban was sudden and some of the people in my unit here have not been the same since. Some of them stand by the roadside to beg for money now. Our people are hungry.”
Iyanuoluwa Bolarinwa, an analyst at BudgIT, questions whether the blanket ban on motorcycles is an effective solution to tackling crime and improving road safety in Lagos.
“Most motorcycle riders [take up the work] because they are unemployed and do not want to get involved in crime,” he says. “Motorcycles help give riders a source of livelihood, and if you look at the people who actually use okadas in Lagos, you see it is a large number. I think the government should return to the drawing table on how to better regulate the okadas.”
Ogunbanwo agrees. “I have been trying to get other jobs but I have not found a good one. Most are just out to short-change you. I pray God helps me.”
