Okada Ban: Lagosians Protecting Eachother

The ban on commercial motorcycles and tricycles has caused adverse consequences for commuters. For instance, more non-roadworthy commercial buses (danfo) have taken to the streets, endangering desperate commuters. However, some Lagosians are determined to curb the reach of such dangers by banding together.

On the 12th of February, a danfo bound for Yaba from Ikeja was found by it's passengers to make a continuous rattling sound both deafening and potentially dangerous (listen below).

The commuters expressed their fear that whatever friction was causing that sound, could start a fire. But they were prevented from unboarding the bus, because its driver, did not reply their cries for their money.

Having paid a higher fare to board the bus, and with no assurance of getting another bus with an unexaggerated price, the passengers remained.

They did not stop at complaining, but went ahead to inform prospective passengers at bus stops that the bus made a horrid sound.

At Onipanu bus stop, they spoke more insistedly, when a woman with a child on her back wanted to enter the bus:
"No madam" they cautioned in Union "because of your baby's ears!"

On seeing a potential passenger discouraged, the driver protested by hauling insults at them.

Among the passengers were three Igbo men, who occupied the last row, where the rattling was the loudest. They led the challenge against the driver. They stated that he was selfish in preferring money to the well being of another human being, especially a baby.

Many of the passengers were strangers to each other, but became united in establishing to the driver, the wrong he had done by putting such a vehicle on the road.

While it seemed their words made little impact, for the driver did persist in his insults, they did not cower.

The passengers of that bus successful prevented two women with children, an elderly man and others, from entering the bus. The potential damage to hearing the rattle could have caused, was too great a risk for them to allow--with good conscience--this vulnerable group to take.

This tendency of Lagosians to band together in help one another survive consequences of the ban, is also evident in the case of Chikwendu Nmutaka.

Chikwendu was supported by an impromtu crowd of concerned people, when he was stopped by police men for riding his power bike on the 5th of February.

The police claimed that they received orders to confiscate all bikes; but they seemed confused, according to Chikwendu in his facebook post, as to whether power bikes would be any different.

Many Lagosians continue to decry the ban of commercial bikes and tricycles, especially on social media, as 'insensitive' to the needs of the average man; the custom hashag is #OkadaBan

- Iyare Esohe Ewaenosa