Guardian

IRETIOLA Ajibolorunsoro lives in Ejigbo. She works in Victoria Island. Everyday, she wakes up at 4am to prepare for office. On this day, she over slept and woke up at five am. By the time, she had finished preparations for office and boarding a bus, it was like taking a walk to the beast, the ugly of transportation. The ordinary drive from Ejigbo to Island was almost like a journey to hell. And there was no Okada to ride on.

But her case is far better than that of Ladipo Adedina. He went through hell when he visited a family member staying on Ologun Agbaje Street, Victoria Island.

According to him, when he got to CMS, he was told he had two options to link his cousin’s house. It was either taking a bus going towards Eko Hotel and alights at Bar-beach or through Adeola Odeku to alight at Post Office.

He said that he preferred the Bar beach route, he had to walk not less than one kilometre. When he was going back, he was told to go through Adeola Odeku. He still had to walk not less than five hundred metres, because his cousin’s house is at the beginning of the street.

In banning tricycles, the State Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Kayode Opeifa said that the action was meant to protect the lives and property of the residents.

He warned that tricycles were not a replacement for motorcycles, as it is not a sustainable means of transportation for the state especially Lagos that is a megacity.

Lagos is called a megacity not because of its huge land mass or the level of infrastructure but due to its population. It, therefore, means that the city would experience some challenges occasioned by the presence of these residents and those who interface with the city.

These challenges, no doubt, would be more peculiar considering Lagos as a city is not endowed with appropriate landmass.

Also, situated in a developing country with huge infrastructural challenges and poor maintenance culture, it therefore implies that commuting within the city surely would be problematic.

It is also a fact that majority of those who gave the city the mega status are the middle and low class status, which constitute the majority in the city.

Some residents have argued that it seems the state government and its machinery sees the megacity status as one of beautification and class rather than helping the residents, mainly the mid-class and the poor, who gave the city that categorisation the room to live and benefit from the grading.

When the state government banned motorcycles from plying some roads, it was not done pragmatically. There was no alternative means in many of the routes. It was the operators of the motorcycles who felt they should remain in business through operating tricycles.

And this is evident in the sudden pronouncement by the state government that tricycles are also banned from some routes. Even the ban on motorcycles as many Lagos residents are trying to fully come to terms with the ban on Okada as they are still adjusting to the consequences of the ban. When motorbikes were banned, many saw tricycles popularly Keke Napep as alternative means of commuting.

Many riders of motorcycles also bought tricycles to started plying some of the routes to cater for commuters who were stranded as government never made any concerted effort to provide alternatives on these routes. Those who thought it was government who provided the alternative means of tricycles in these routes would have a change of heart about that thinking now with the ban on tricycle by government weeks after.  Yet, many places where okada used to station or ply, Keke Napep had not started plying the routes.

A rider of commercial tricycles, Mr. Isaac Chukwuemeka, who spoke with annoyance, said that government should do whatever it likes. And if it wants to punish the people, it should go ahead to implement it though he maintained that the policy was not a well thought out one. He wondered if the government does not know that there are low-level people in the society, who could not afford to buy car to hire a taxi when going out. When The Guardian tried probing further, he declined comment.

Another tricycle operator, Mr. Bassey Sunday, begged the state government to rescind its decision because it would have negative effect on not only the commuters but also the riders. Using himself as an example, he said that he used to ride motorcycles but when it was banned he was still riding because he had no alternative means of providing for his family. According to him, it was only about two months ago that somebody stood as a surety for him to allow a microfinance bank in Ogba to finance the purchase of a tricycle on loan to be repaid through a weekly contribution.  He further said that he was shocked by the news because he has only worked two months and had paid back less one hundred thousand naira to the microfinance bank.

For Mr. Onyema Onovo, a commuter, the government has no reason to ban keke since it has banned okada. He said that the action is not proper because keke does not pose any security threat.

Mr. Ifeanyi Ebie said that the decision would cause a lot of hardship except government is willing to provide an alternative means of moving people in the places where the ban would be enforced. He wondered how people who cannot afford to buy a car or rent taxi would survive when they need to visit the areas keke were banned.

To Segun Adeola, the policy is a harsh one and when government is making its policy, it should know that apart from the upper class in the society, they should also know that there is the middle and lower class in the society. He argued that the decision would increase the stress of Lagos residents who visit or ply those routes but cannot afford a taxi. He however said that if government is banning tricycle, it would do well to help the masses to provide a viable alternative.

On why he prefers Keke to bus, Samson Adedapo said it saves time. According to him, a bus needs fourteen passengers to get filled but most Keke with three passengers they move out of their park. He said it would take four times the minutes spent waiting to get the Keke filled for bus to get filled.

“So, you see why people would naturally go for Keke instead of bus. To me, Keke should even be preferred by the state because of space. Tricycles and cars could accommodate the same number of passengers but the space a car occupies is twice that of a Keke. So a state like Lagos that is challenged in terms of space should prefer a means of transportation that will occupy less space on road.”

He also stated that if it is reckless driving, the commercial bus drivers are reckless than any transporter in Lagos, but the Lagos State Government has not banned Urvan buses on Lagos road. If the motorcycles are driving roughly on the road, effort should be to make them fall in line and not say they should go off the road.

Efforts to speak with the Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, on what alternative plans the government is putting in place, were not successful. He did not pick his calls neither did he respond to the text message sent to him.

‘Government Needs To Make Buses, High Capacity Vehicles Available’

Prof. Adesanya Adesoji Adesanya is Head, Policy Engagement Division, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan. In a chat with GBENGA SALAU, he spoke on the action of the government against the commercial use of tricycles and the challenge of transportation in a growing megacity like Lagos.

When you look at transportation, what it is supposed to give is efficiency, adequacy and capacity. In terms of road usage, tricycles are not better option.

Viewed from the road space usage perspective, they are not efficient users of road space. Again, if you look at it in terms of capacity, most of them are not high carrying capacity vehicles. They carry between three and five passengers.

Under normal situation, for a city like Lagos, you need efficient vehicles of high carry capacity to be able to move people. But in case of tricycles, most of them ply on major highways and they are slow moving vehicles so they compete with fast moving vehicles, which is not very good. What can be done is to limit them to secondary roads or residential areas. But unfortunately government has not done enough in conjunction with other stakeholders to make sure that buses and high capacity vehicles are available.

In some places, especially Asian countries, where we the idea of tricycles came from, they have banned their use just because they are not efficient means of transportation. What you need in a place like Lagos are high capacity vehicles that can make effective use of space.

For example, if you put three tricycles together, the space they will cover in terms of length, that will take approximately about two cars or buses, but if you take the number of passengers two buses will carry, in terms of space now, you will notice that buses can carry more passengers and space more efficiently. So you look at it vis-à-vis congestion, you will find out that the more the number of tricycles you have on the road, the greater the problem of congestion they create, as they are slow moving, not fast.

Unfortunately, this is coming at a time things are a little bit difficult. People will say it is a means to provide temporary employment, yes; but in terms of efficiency, quick movement of people, they are not at all. What Lagos can do is to allow tricycles to provide interior services for now. The problem is that things are very bad and as alternative, people just have to use them.

If the transport system were well planned, clearly buses and other vehicles would have been provided. It is just that we are not forward thinking in this country; otherwise alternative means would have been made. More buses could have been put on those roads so that at least those who are public transport dependent could have a means of moving themselves.

I will say that high capacity vehicles should be encouraged, because of its advantage in terms of space usage, efficiency and pollution.