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I was born in Lagos and grew up here, in the late 60s, 70s and even 80s, I don’t recall seeing commercial motorcycles on our roads, living then at 6, Michael Ogun street in GRA, our closest bus stop was kingsway bus stop just by Nitel office and we would walk the rest orf the way home about 1.5km , we didn’t die instead I believe we were healthier for it. What am saying is that the emergence of okada and tricycles by itself is more an abnormally rather than a norm.
London is a Mega city probably with the best transport network in the world but even in spite of that, people still walk sometimes up to a kilometer to reach their homes unless they want to use minicab or Uber, options that are available here too.
The APC government is a compassionate government and I proudly say that in the 7months that even governor Sanwoolu has been in charge, he has done so many things that proves his care for the poor and needy that make the labor party write up nonsensical, don’t forget that Governor Fasholas government completely stopped okadas on major roads and cleared street hawkers from our highways, but for the indiscretion of Ambodes government that sought to undo everything his predecessor did, this would have remained a won battle. But the Okadas and tricycles came back in droves almost with a vengeance, driving on one way, even BRT lanes, so many miscreants joined them and we started to experience attacks in traffic again and all manner of security issues including kidnapping etc.
However this administration realizing that the first responsibility of government is security of lives and property of her people commenced campaigns on all media sensitising people on its plan to regain orderliness on Lagos roads, enough notice, and when the ban came now 7months later , it was not even in all local governments , how more considerate can a government be? I drove in IKEJA today and all I could say is God bless my governor, the compliance was high, roads were free of okada nuisance and traffic.
What am saying is that if we will listen to cheap populist opinions, you will never do the things that can make a state great, we the people also need to be safe and maybe government can consider allowing small cars like Nissan Micra to operate as mini cabs to take passengers that can’t afford Uber into inner areas that are not reached by buses. There should be no looking back, it may be inconvenient a little at first but the gains of the decison is more than whatever possible loss.
We need to stand with our governor and criticize constructively if there is a genuine need, but on this one I honestly won’t trade security of Lagosians for anything, let’s continue to remind all that this is not a total ban yet in all local government, I STAND WITH BOS on this, in fact in his place I would have done it months earlier, I salute his compassion.
