Against the backdrop of the ban on the operation of commercial motorcycles in some states in the North, FCT satellite towns are teeming with the operators, AWAAL GATA writes
Sani Mohammed, 26, is an Okada man in Gwagwalada. He is an indigene of Kebbi state. At the age of 10, his father, who is now late, took him to Minna, the capital of Niger state, for Qur’anic education. Ever since, he only returned to Kebbi once.
He learnt Qur’anic recitation and memorisation the hard way in Minna, surviving on the food and money he begged in Bosso neighbourhood where he lived. Five years ago, as begging was no longer lucrative for him perhaps because of his age and having understood the need for him to fend for himself, he secured the consent of his ‘Malam’ and started Okada business in the city. With the money he made from the business, he was able to get married. The marriage, he said, has now been blessed with a kid.
“I would make N3,000 or N2,000 or N1,000 daily, depending on my luck. My family solely lived on the money I make from the business,” Mohammed narrates to Blueprint in Hausa because he cannot speak English.
However, as the government of Niger state banned the operation of Okada in Minna last January, Mohammed means of eking out a living was wrestled out of his hand.
“We couldn’t get the keke Napep that the government was sharing and had to leave the town with our bikes to places where there is no ban. Some of us that came to Abuja went to Nyanya, Mararaba, Zuba and other satellite towns, about 200 of us came to Gwagwalada on February 1,” Mohammed explains.
His story typifies the stories of thousands of Okada operators now operating in the FCT satellite towns.
There have been Okada operators in the towns for a very long time, but they were never as many as they are now. The situation is, however, taking toll on the financial gains of the business.
Habib Manzo, a polytechnic graduate who has been doing the business in Zuba since 2010, said the surge in population was caused by “the ban of Okada in most northern states. Kano has banned it. Niger the same thing; Yobe too, and now Kaduna.”
According to him, “any time they ban it in the states, the Okada guys move to Abuja. Now Abuja is too populated with Okada guys”.
At the backdrop of this, Manzo said: “Those that have been in Abuja for long are no longer making it. Here in Zuba, I used to make about N2,000 daily but I hardly make N1,000 now just because we are too many.”
Beside Zuba and Gwagwalada, operators in other satellite towns have the same sentiment.
Musa, An Okada man in Dutse, also rue the surge in the number of the operators, saying: “My brother, market no dey again o. Everywhere full. Na manage we dey all manage for FCT now.”
In the states that the operation has been banned, security was given as the reason that led to the ban. There have been reports of how Okada riders were used to perpetrate crimes, including bombing in some states in the North in the recent past.
Although no such incident had been reported in Abuja, the management of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and the police should be conscious of this, stated Mr Emeka Eze, an FCT resident of Gwagwalada.
He suggested that the FCTA should also consider to deal with issues of Okada transportation in the FCC satellite towns.
“Security of lives and properties in FCT should not be restricted to the city centre. The satellite towns should be considered too. With the number of Okada in the satellite towns now, one should be really afraid. You know they were chased from the north because of crime, we really need to be careful here too”, he said.
As the number surges, commuting within the satellite towns has become a difficult task. The roads are narrow, hence it is difficult for cars and motorcycles to ply the roads, which are mostly riddled with potholes, at the same time.
To watch this menace, the FCTA Transport Sector should start to plan for effective transport system that would eradicate the Okada transportation in the satellite towns.
The transport model should encompass, among others, the construction and expansion of roads within the satellite towns to encourage taxis to ply within the areas
