Saving Women and Kids From Okada Risk

Saving Women and Kids From Okada Risk

Each time I see a pregnant woman or nursing mother having her baby strapped to her back on commercial motorcycles popularly known as okada (or going or achaba), my heart leaps into my mouth. This is because of the high risk involved in moving around on those motorcycles especially in the condition of those women. The okada riders are the most reckless road users in Nigeria, causing accidents on daily basis as a result of their carelessness. They have little or no regard for traffic laws and regulations, and most of them are said to be on drugs, as a result of which they ride their motorcycles with reckless abandon.

They overtake vehicles anyhow, and they can emerge suddenly from the right or left of the vehicles they want to overtake. They can appear from nowhere and suddenly cross the road in front of a moving vehicle, thereby causing fatal accidents which claim their lives and those of their passengers. Many lives have been lost in such accidents, while those who survived ended up with broken limbs or arms and other serious injuries.

So, whenever I come across pregnant women and nursing mothers with their babies fastened to their backs on okada, I wonder why those women prefer to endanger their lives and those of their babies by opting for that deadly means of transportation. A pregnant woman is in a very delicate state, and she would hardly survive the shock and impact of any possible okada accident. Not to talk of the innocent baby in her womb. A nursing mother also puts the life of the baby on her back in jeopardy by riding on okada, for, in the event of an accident which those okadas are very prone to, a baby would most certainly not survive the impact.

Some women, apart from the babies on their back, would even squeeze their other little kids on okada to and from school, like one (or more) in-between them and the okada operator, and another on top of the motorcycle fuel tank! Sometimes, the women sit on the carriers and sandwich their kids between them and the okada operators. That is how careless and thoughtless some mothers can be.

And many people are so addicted to riding on okada that they would not use the bus or taxi even where they are available. They prefer okada because it takes them straight to their destinations, even right in front of their homes irrespective of the locations. Some roads are not motorable but accessible through okada. Besides, taxis and buses would not go beyond certain points unless they are chartered, even when the roads are motorable. They often do not branch from the main roads. But considering how unsafe the okadas are, methinks it is better to avoid them as you would avoid a plague. It would do no harm to drop from the safer options of a taxi or bus at the nearest possible point to one’s destination and walk the remaining distance. It is even a form of exercise which the body needs to stay healthy.

The sight of a pregnant woman or mother backing her baby on okada gets me so unsettled that I often find myself offering a silent prayer for them. Then I would console myself with the thought that those babies have angels, whom God has assigned to guard them, and they are without sin, so, God would protect them and their mothers for their sake.

You can, therefore, understand why my joy knew no bounds when I read some time ago in the papers that the Lagos State Government had banned the use of okada by pregnant women. The okada operators were also banned from carrying pupils and women with babies strapped to their back.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa who announced the ban as part of new traffic laws and regulations that would guide the operations of commercial motorcycles in the state, had explained that the law became necessary as the government was determined to protect the lives of its citizens. “Many lives who could contribute meaningfully to the development of the state and the nation are being lost through the menace of okada operators on our roads”, he had observed.

It was a huge relief to me to hear the news of the ban, and I commended the Lagos State Government for taking such bold step to protect the lives of those women and children in my WOMANHOOD column in the defunct SUMMIT Newspapers. It was very thoughtful of that government and as I urged other state governments to borrow a leaf from the Fashola-led administration to save the women and children from the dangers of okada riding then, I am calling on those governments which have not taken that step, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where I reside, to do so now in the interest of the women and children. If the commercial motorcycles cannot be banned outrightly, they can at least be used with caution and wisdom.

By Nike Oluwole.