बन ओं POVERTY

BAN ON POVERTY

Early this year some commercial motorcyclists (Okada riders) frustrated an attempt by some kidnappers to escape with a woman they kidnapped alongside her two kids in Port Harcourt. One of the four Okada riders risked his life to foil the abduction as the kidnappers fired several gun shots at him, yet he managed to escape unhurt. The Rivers State government latched on the bravery of these okada riders and made a public relations gain out of it. The government however rewarded the okada riders with cash ranging from two million naira and above while one of them got a brand new Toyota bus and N500, 000.

Ironically, the same government last week announced a ban on okada operation. This is payback time for the okada. The people who stopped kidnappers are now accused of aiding and abetting criminals. The reasons adduced for the ban are that okada men are largely responsible for the increase in crime wave in Port Harcourt and other part of the state. Also the riders were accused of causing majority of the accidents on the state highways with attendant deaths resulting from these crashes. Many have argued that many okadamen has no licence or qualified to ply our roads, this is a failure on the part of the various regulatory agencies. if one may ask how many people driving on our roads have valid driver’s licence? What punishment or ban has been imposed on those who use cell phones while driving? How many of the vehicles on our highways are roadworthy?

Though, okada riders are not saints, as few of them are involve in one crime or the other, blaming them for the increase in crime and insecurity in the state is cheap blackmail. It is merely labeling of the weak by the strong. In Rivers State there was a time that Mercedes 190 was notorious as cars used by assassins and political killers yet the use of the car was not prohibited in the area. Four wheel drive vehicles commonly known as Jeeps and other exotic cars have been used in some of the kidnapping cases in the state yet these classes of vehicles are not ban. Speed boats have been used in conveying some of the kidnapped persons to the creeks, use for piracy and illegal bunkering yet government has not deemed it fit to ban these boats from the state waterways. Just few months back the use of vehicles with tinted glasses was ban but after a few weeks of police harassing owners of such vehicles, usage of tinted vehicles increased in the state, because those who use these tinted vehicles are powerful and well connected. One law for the rich another for the poor.

There is a common saying that you don’t throw away the baby with the bath water. That motorcycles have been used to commit crime or involved in an accident does not mean this means of transport should be ban. The press release announcing the ban said that okada has been banned in the entire Rivers state; this is putting the cart before the horse. Besides, the riverine communities where people use canoes and boats as their means of transport, what other alternative does the Rivers man has when the ban comes into effect. Government should explain whether the ban includes individual riding their private motorbikes? I am afraid that when the ban becomes effective, security agents would be harassing, arresting and extorting money from anybody riding a motorcycle. How do you differentiate a commercial motorcyclist (okadaman) and a private person who cannot afford to buy a car but depends on a motorcycle as his family means of transport? Can an individual who has a motorcycle carry his wife, children, relatives, friends, colleagues or neigbours without being branded an okadaman? The Rivers state government should clarify whether the ban is an outright ban on the usage of motorcycles in the state or ban on commercial motorcycle operation.

Some of the okada riders are artisans whose businesses are seasonal or their businesses are not doing well and they use okada business to augment their incomes. Some of the okada riders are equally students in the various institutions in the state who pay their bills through okada business; now that the business is banned, what alternative do they have? Banning okada cannot rid Rivers state of crime as few of the okadamen would leave the state. Most of them would stay behind to device other means of sustaining themselves. In other word, “man must wack”. Those idle okadamen who have tasted the good things of life in the city may not be eager to return to their villages and some of them may soon be involve in one petty crime or the other; and this will result in the crime situation in the state getting worse.

The emergence of okada as a means of transport in the country in the late 80s is an indictment of the government as it is a confirmation of the failure of the public transportation system. What alternative means of transport does the Rivers State Government have in place for the people and residents of the state? The taxis that were bought for public transportation by the past administration are now in private garages. The state capital has no well defined and interconnected taxi routes. When okada leave the roads most residents would resort to trekking long distances to their homes as most bus or taxi routes are kilometers away from where they are living. I think to drive the okadamen out of business and off the streets government would have first flooded the streets with taxis and buses. However such abundance would have made the masses realize that patronizing okada would be an individual option and a risk, after all we are in a free economy. But as there are no alternative and reliable means of transport what option do the people have than okada? The current public bus system offer by the state in partnership with one of the banks officially closes by 10 pm so after this time what options do commuters who are going to or returning from work later in the night have? In case of a medial emergency how does a poor man rush his wife or child to a hospital?

Some okada riders may be reckless but most of the times their passengers prod them to speed and make dangerously manipulations of their bikes. If a cyclist is on a suicide mission why not ask him to drop you and pick another bike? Port Harcourt roads are currently congested and okada provides a fast way of getting to one destination when there is a traffic hold up. What about the bad roads in the state capital that has made commercial vehicles to avoid plying these routes, what would be the fate of commuters living or working along these roads? How would they get to their homes and offices without okada? What is government doing to make these roads motorable or get commercial vehicles on these routes? Government is talking about 100 taxis, and some buses, what would these be to the thousands who commute to work daily with commercial vehicles. Would these government taxis and buses provide 24 hour service?

It is worthy to note that most of the streets in Port Harcourt do not have road signs. The various one way streets in the city have no sign indicating this. And a first time visitor is wont to violate this and since the law does not accept a plea of ignorance the visitor is at the mercy of touts and security agents when he or she drives against traffic. Also there are few traffic signs along the city’s roads; I think government should do something about this.

At various fora, Governor Chubike Amachi has always stated that his heart is for the poor but recent demolition of stalls, shops and other business places owned by the less privileged does not paint a picture of a governor for the poor. The idea of urban renewal or regeneration is good but it must have a human face. I think the various markets and malls under construction by the government would have been completed and the traders asked to move there before the demolition. Also the ban on okada is a subtle declaration that Port Harcourt has no space for the poor. Your Excellency, please use you good office and ban poverty from Rivers state.