on the 1st of Jan 09, at about 0700hrs i commot for house enter my car drive enter road, for a while i feel say God been don come go without my notice but when i commot from church i realize say no Okada dey for road,, men it was the best ride ever in a city like PH where you always have to think for at least 10 Okada ryders when driving, Ol boy for the first time in over 20yrs i drive moto without looking 360 degrees for bikes in the streets of PH, Ameachi weldone,

People are grumbling in their houses over the no - bike situation in we Port Harcourt; by Monday morning there might be some form of civil action.

No Okada? roflmao!! As much as I hate the fact that this rule means lots of people are potentially without source of income, I can not help but smile at the new reality. I mean NO OKADA? I have never really been a fan of those machines, tried riding one of those once and got a whole scar on my shin to show for it. lol

Amaechi dey craze. With all the traffic in PH, how can you ban Okada? Okada is the most traffic-free form of transport there is.

Yes many will be out of job by this policy but as long as they are given an ample time to adjust, not like many Nigerian policies that always start with immediate effect.
Okada is a menace that needs curbing. It has maimed millions of people and killed thousands of people. They are eye sores. Has become an effective tool for criminal escapes after crime. Give cover for armed robbers and criminal while leaving a double life.

There use to be life without Okada. Lets have it back.

But government actions or inactions were responsible for the emergence of Okada.
They filled the void created by inadequate or unavailable transport system.
Amaechi, if you stop Okada, please bring something more modern and safe to replace Okada, not just banning it as always with knee jerk Nigeria leaders and their moronic policies.

Eziachi:

Yes many will be out of job by this policy but as long as they are given an ample time to adjust, not like many Nigerian policies that always start with immediate effect.
Okada is a menace that needs curbing. It has maimed millions of people and killed thousands of people. They are eye sores. Has become an effective tool for criminal escapes after crime. Give cover for armed robbers and criminal while leaving a double life.

There use to be life without Okada. Lets have it back.

But government actions or inactions were responsible for the emergence of Okada.
They filled the void created by inadequate or unavailable transport system.
Amaechi, if you stop Okada, please bring something more modern and safe to replace Okada, not just banning it as always with knee jerk Nigeria leaders and their moronic policies.

good riddance to bad rubbish! make dem go abeg jo. ameachi u do well oooo!

The rich man doesn't want okada to exist because it gives the poor man an advantage on the road.

What other means of transportation have they replaced Okada with.

God help us.

The presence of Okada is simply down to supply and demand. If there wasn't a need for them (due to bad roads and intolerable traffic), they wouldn't be on the road. Amaechi is playing with people's livelihoods. He needs to come up with more innovative ideas. Fashola, he is not.

Port Harcourt has long been one of the most dangerous places in the delta, and throwing hundreds of street-smart, able bodied men out of work is hardly the way to go about making millitancy unattractive.
Don't get me wrong, i'm not a fan of Okadas. I've had to fix my side mirror twice and have had to do some cosmetic repairs to my vehicle thanks to their attentions but has anyone realised that

1. Okada men, fresh out of a means of livelihood are now more likely to turn to kidnapping, with a focus on houses where they've dropped people off before
2. Replacing Okadas with buses and taxis will make a congested road network even more congested. So where i've spent an hour and half getting home from work, i should now start looking forward to 2.5 hours in holdup.


amaechi is in little danger of being kidnapped, and his MOPOL attendants will always force a path for him in traffic jams, so it's easy for him to make such decisions.

Amaechi is taking the bull by the horns and this "increase in crime theory" will not work not with the JTF looking for action. Infact the JTF will seize the bike men and kill them then relocate their bikes to their home towns up north as a reward for their self less service. Driving through town today was quite a pleasurable experience except for the police road blocks.

otokx:

Amaechi is taking the bull by the horns and this "increase in crime theory" will not work not with the JTF looking for action. Infact the JTF will seize the bike men and kill them then relocate their bikes to their home towns up north as a reward for their self less service. Driving through town today was quite a pleasurable experience except for the police road blocks.

Otokini, what of all the guys on foot trying to make it from A-B. You may be comfortable in your car but majority do not own cars.

What will not work is Amaechi's belief that this move will depopulate PH. The Okada drivers will just find another hustle.

IMO, they should have just licenced Okada. There is something we have here in London called "The Knowledge" where black cab drivers have to study for 2 years before they can get a licence. What Amaechi should have done is licence Rivers State indigenes to drive Okada and allow those from foreign states to get the licence but only after taking exams for 2 years. That should provide enough disincentive to the foreigners whilst creating jobs for River State youth.

Ibime:

Otokini, what of all the guys on foot trying to make it from A-B. You may be comfortable in your car but majority do not own cars.

What will not work is Amaechi's belief that this move will depopulate PH. The Okada drivers will just find another hustle.

IMO, they should have just licenced Okada. There is something we have here in London called "The Knowledge" where black cab drivers have to study for 2 years before they can get a licence. What Amaechi should have done is licence Rivers State indigenes to drive Okada and allow those from foreign states to get the licence but only after taking exams for 2 years. That should provide enough disincentive to the foreigners whilst creating jobs for River State youth.

Ermmm! "The Knowledge" is for Foreigners or Non-Londonders?

Okadas on the road are nightmares.
I always hate driving in any state other than Abuja cos u hav to deal with very rough okada riders.

This is a welcome development - anyone who is crying shld go and eat banana and pap for breakfast, gaari and juice for lunch and amala plus water for dinner. Mr Rotimi, thank God for your life o.

Knowledge is for everyone in London. But PH should implement it for non-indigenes.

@bronx dog

I feel you

@Ibime

Okada is gone for good. If it can work in Abuja then it will work in PH. SKYE bank has their own version of BTS only we do not dedicate a whole lane for it. Those Okada men can go for training and become Conductors in the busses or better still get a license and drive danfos.

Do you see BTS operating through the narrow streets of Ogbunagbali or from Rainbow to Mothercart? Or Rumuomasi? How about Okrika island where the roads are only wide enough to allow one car through at a time, where the ONLY way of getting around the town is Okada?

Until Government organise the roads and ease congestion, they have no moral right to get rid of Okada. If they are unhappy with the reckless driving of Okada men, they should simply licence it, teach the Okada drivers road ethiquette through the driving exam, and police them properly. Ever since I was 10 years old, my preferred mode of transport in PH has been Okada because I no get time for traffic. Thats why you always used to see the Oyinbo's on their powerbikes in PH. Naija man always like to look regal in his car, even if that means spending 5 hours in traffic.

The busses for now are on Aba road. Other places like the transamadi you just mentioned already have taxis but we are always in a hurry to no where. More taxi's will be rolled out under a PPP initiative for such areas like rumuola, choba, mile 3, wimpey, rumuomasi, rumuokoro, old and new GRA to mention but a few places. Is okrika under port harcourt local government. Thought they had their own okrika local government which is not included in this arrangement.

Seun:

The rich man doesn't want okada to exist because it gives the poor man an advantage on the road.

I hope this is purely sarcasm because it would be very sad if you really meant what you typed.

@ Muza

Do you like the Kano state government to also ban okada? I think they cannot because of the very high numbers of Okada there, see this article published on daily trust months ago about okadas in Kano.

---

Achaba; A Disaster Waiting to Happen
By; M.M. Isma’il

Achaba or Okada as called in some parts of the country are motorcycle riders commuting people from one place to another mostly within an urban area for a negotiated fare. Tenderly, Achaba or Okada has become one of the Jobs available freely to so many percentages of the Nigerian unemployed youths, including University Graduates, and others who have one or more skills. Usually, Achaba riders are living in the area or city they are commuting people, though some of them flourishes from villages near major cities.

Frankly speaking, Achaba or Okada is not a Job, because it is not classified in the class of employment anywhere in the world, so in this context, all Achaba or Okadas are economically unemployed, in a good instance, any Achaba that is given a Job whether in the Private or Public sector, he will undoubtedly give up the Achaba Job and take up that employment.

Presently, Kano State has the largest number of Achabas in the country, as a result of the state government’s effort to combat unemployment they have distributed thousands of Motorcycles to the unemployed masses, they have even gone far to distribute tricycles to many unemployed people in the state. In such instance, the Emergency Departments of our General Hospitals are full of those favored with the Motorcycles; of course, those that distributed Motorcycles or Tricycles to them will not attend to them at the hospital when cars hit them or when they clash with themselves. Many accidents occur every single day in the city involving Achaba. Likewise, my point will be widely accepted if I said it is not wise or helpful to make Okada a permanent Job for the unemployed people, though it is our people’s high ignorance in governance that patronize personal gifts more than infrastructural development, and community development in general.

So many people now rely heavily on the Okadas to commute them from one place to another, while so many people prefer to escape the outraging carelessness of the Okadas, and other health risks and instead take Taxis and Mass Transits popularly called Hayis for their transportation. Kano has since become a hotspot for many Okadas that were banned from other cities like the FCT, making the city host so many crimes in one context, and making it dirty in the other context. So many cases of Lung cancer were found to be from non-smokers of cigarette but from smokers of the Achaba motorcycle carbon emission, which is the most deadly substance in our atmosphere, posing great threat to our future, without any plan to control this Carbon, Kano will one day witness acid rains or the like, and so far it is predicted to suffer more in the Global Warming scenario.

Indeed, there is the need for every single person to contribute in reducing the amount of Carbon being sent to our atmosphere every day. It is quite disturbing to note that most of this threat will return back to the poor masses of the country, not those that buy the Carbon machine and distribute it free.

The Solution to this disturbing disaster can be worked out extensively by a team of experts both in economic, safety, and health sectors. The economic team should analyze different ways of replacing the Okada Job with a more tangible job, while the safety team will try and enforce laws on using helmets by both drivers and passengers, and the health team to find ways of protecting people from the Carbon produced to our atmosphere everyday, as the case may be, it affects our water, food, the air we breath, our animals and so many other diseases caused by Carbon emissions.

In a more developed country, this type of disasters would have already undergone series of research on how, when, and where the solution should come, indeed it is a great problem. Comparing the atmosphere of Abuja and Kano, one will undoubtedly see that Abuja is more eco-friendly and atmospherically better than Kano. Abuja have already tackle the problem in its own sense, but in general sense, it did not, because most of whom that lost the Okada Job in Abuja either leaves the city and come to cities like Kaduna or Kano and continue making the atmosphere unfriendly, or start illegal Jobs like stealing, robbery, etc. It will take series of years before the problem can be totally tackled, government needs to plan extensively, and this is the right time to plan, if not, no one knows how our city will look like in few years to come.

It should now be profoundly useless and harmful to even sell Motorcycles in Kano city, rather than distribute it free, the present government has ordered thousands upon thousands of motorcycles and distributed them freely to some youths, which is supposedly shameful. For instance, when the country turns to what we do not want it to turn, many people will try to leave the country, most of these Okadas are normally serviette to only what they are used to, that is they are unskilled, they cannot work in so many parts of the world, in fact even in neighboring African countries, they cannot work. Government should introduce a program specially tailored for the Okadas, when ever an Okada get the required skill then he should be given capital to embark on a safe and permanent job. Government should also introduce a more robust and atmospherically clean mass transit to cover as much areas as possible. This and more will further enhance the livelihood of our dear Kano City, and will make it cleaner and safe to stay.

Federal Government should further not allow any state governor, chairman of a local government, or any councilor to give commercial motorcycle or tricycle as a gift, the Federal Government should make it totally illegal and punishable by law. Training youths in different jobs and providing them with permanent employment opportunities in many sectors of the economy is what all arms of government are supposed to be doing not distributing motorcycles or tricycles.

nice write up

well as much as i hate okada it is still a neccessity in phc. i live in abuja but i've been in phc for the last 2 week on hols. phc does not have the road network to support cabs usage economically. in abuja i enter cabs(drop) for a distance like woji to waterline for 200 naira but in phc i would have to pay close to 1000 naira just becos i pay for the drivers time in hold up. what amechi should have done for now was to keep the bikes of the main arteries of the city e.g aba road, east/west road et al and allow bike to act as feeders to the major busstop to this route. this decision is just going to make the traffic suitation much worse, cause more individual are going to put their personal cars on the road and some of the bike guys too would swicth to cabbing

Thats another angle superboi has raised. Things in Port Harcourt are expensive to a fault and for no reason. Even a bike man won't carry you from Woji to Waterlines junction for 200 naira.

Ibime:

Knowledge is for everyone in London. But PH should implement it for non-indigenes.

Hypocrite!!

superboi:

this decision is just going to make the traffic suitation much worse, cause more individual are going to put their personal cars on the road and some of the bike guys too would swicth to cabbing

Hmm, didn't know that people with personal cars dropped them for okadas.
If that is the situation, lagos should be "hold up" free since peeps should have dropped their personal cars for the "fast, traffic free" okadas.
I guess we learn everyday.

romeo:

Hypocrite!!

Abi you don't like trade-protectionism? 

superboi:

well as much as i hate okada it is still a neccessity in phc. i live in abuja but i've been in phc for the last 2 week on hols. phc does not have the road network to support cabs usage economically. in abuja i enter cabs(drop) for a distance like woji to waterline for 200 naira but in phc i would have to pay close to 1000 naira just because i pay for the drivers time in hold up. what amechi should have done for now was to keep the bikes of the main arteries of the city e.g aba road, east/west road et al and allow bike to act as feeders to the major busstop to this route. this decision is just going to make the traffic suitation much worse, cause more individual are going to put their personal cars on the road and some of the bike guys too would swicth to cabbing

I was going to suggest the same thing. Imagine being stuck in traffic from Woji to Artillery for 2 hours. If not for Okada, I don't know how guys in Woji would survive.

How can you copy Abuja when Abuja has a modern road network system whilst we are still surviving with Aba road and such which the British left for us.

NO OKADA??. . . . Y?? . . . .  I love em jor!!!!!! 

no mot, no insurance, no training whatsoever. for those of us flying bikes here and there, have u ever paused for a second to ask if d rider is ok or qualified? some of dem dey down shekpe and things finish and dem dey ride around town dey give folks injuries. abeg abeg abeg make dem go rest for half time.
the terrible state of our ph roads don't justify their presence. perhaps this is a wake up call to rerrange and expand our roads.
it's sad to say but even the town planners and developers are not making use of their heads. can u imagine how the accesibility of the recently developed settlements (borikiri sand-filled for example) are messed up? maybe okada union people lobby dem to make the roads small like that so dem fit sell land and promote okada. i tire men.

The presence of okada riders in PH and Nigeria in general have eased transportation problems as well as sent people to their graves but what I do not get is that fat Amaechi throwing people out of their jobs when guns and drugs are aplenty on the streets of PH. The other day he went about destroying fences as if that was the most important problem in PH.

He knows the roads in PH are narrow, traffic jams are terrible, yet he cannot address these issues before looking for an activity to make him seem as if he is doing something. As with all Nigerian politicians, they act and talk before they think and If they ever do any thinking/planning, it takes forever like what Yar'adua is doing.

My own suggestion would be to restrict their routes and ensure only trained riders are allowed to operate. This would bring sanity to the streets and not a blanket ban. How would his task force distinguish between a commercial bike man and someone carrying his friend to a destination on a bike? Or maybe in the usual Nigerian style, decide that people with private motocycles should sell them and use those horrible buses??

For any ex-Okada rider, It would be best to relocate to other parts of the country but be aware that very soon this order will be nationwide and so it would be best to learn a trade to suffice (that is if you are still young). There is a dearth of credible carpenters, masons, painters, welders, car mechanics and plumbers in PH.


@Ibime

I am disappointed you are going on about that 'indigene' theory. Okada riders are Nigerians and have the right to be in any city of their choice. That said, you raised good points about the need for control. He has thrown people out of their jobs while he is sitting in government house stealing public funds that might have given the folks soft landing.

I love we country, nothing dey happen as people dey comply but i get small story when they tell me. Some guys dey villa for Akwa Ibom and one of them works in warri and na bike e drive come. So them tell am say e gat to go through aba - owerri - onitsha to warri as rivers state don lock up. The guy say no wahala naim the following day all men find them way. Naim this bike man come say nna how e go dey do isrealite journey say e go try am. No be from aba after oyigbo e go for eleme junction follow east west road fast fast enter EMOHUA LGA as the law no reach there so in move.

At Eleme junction, the boys were waiting and na so dem catch am carry am lock inside Rumukrushi Police Station. The guy beg tire na so dem leave am 2 days make in head clear well well. The guy gat to call him guys who come bail am 1st then bail the bike 2nd. They na get to arrange the policeman 2000 naira make e drive the bike along east west road from Rumukrushi to after Choba bride wey be Emohua from there the guy go continue reach warri.

In as much as i appreciate the courage of this Dynamic Gov.( Rotimi C. Amaechi) i must say dat banning okada entirely 4rm P.H is totally irrational. His Reasons, (1) They(Okada) are used for robbery. Is cars not used for same too?
(2) They involved in many accident thereby bringing many deaths. Wot about cars
among other reasons.

So wot will happen to about 50,000 registered okada men in P.H? This is just happening after the same Govt sent thousands of citizens back to poverty in the name of demolition of unauthourised structures.

He has also promised to provide transport vehicles to replace the okada. Hw many of these okada opperators will be able to get the vehicles. Lets assume he can provide for all of them, which road will additional 50,000 okada opperate in P.H.?