The Lagos State Government is working on a number of options to engage genuine commercial motorcycle operators, recently thrown out of jobs as a result of the implementation of the new traffic law, in meaningful ventures.
The Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, dropped the
hint in Lagos on Wednesday, stressing that the move was meant to give
only the registered operators a new lease of life.
Many of the okada riders, as the commercial motorcycle operators are
called, have had to abandon the business, as the new law prohibits them
from plying major roads and bridges in the state. According to the new
traffic law, only those with 200cc engine capacity can operate in the
permitted areas.
Some aggrieved operators have been protesting against the new policy
and a few people sympathetic to their cause have urged the state
government to rescind its decision in view of the multitude that will be
affected.
But Opeifa, who spoke at the 11th Business Forum of the Lagos State
University’s MBA Heritage held on Lagos Island on Wednesday, said that
there was no going back on the decision.
He said, “We are resolute about the Road Traffic Law; there is no
going back on it. But we are going to re-certify the okada operators
resident in Lagos.
“We are going to start a registration process, and in the process, if
we discover those who have skills, we will send them to the skill
acquisition centres established by the state government to hone these
skills.”
Opeifa, who spoke on the theme, ‘Effect of Transportation on
Nigeria’s Economy,’ stressed that okada could not be regarded as a means
of transportation, as nobody wished to bequeath it as an inheritance to
their children.
The commissioner, therefore, said the state government would
re-register the operators with a view to providing the genuine ones
adversely affected by the policy other job opportunities.
“Some of them could be absorbed into the LAGBUS as conductors and
drivers. We also have agriculture, where some of them can also be
useful. Apart from our farms in Lagos, we have bought landed property in
Ogun State and Abuja, and we are going to buy more in Benue for
agriculture. So, the options are there for them,” he said.
According to him, the state government plans to assist some of the
okada riders with the acquisition of skills to make them employable or
to become self-employed.
Opeifa also said some of them would be assisted to own bakeries after undertaking the needed training.
But the Managing Director, Megavons West Africa Limited, Dr. Rotimi
Oladele, expressed the view that the okada business could be
reorganised, and urged the state government to re-brand it as a
community transport system.
Although Oladele, who was a keynote speaker at the forum, commended
the state government for its efforts in transforming Lagos, he said
there was still a need for a truly masses-oriented means of transport,
which the okada business represented.
“Let us re-brand them as community transport system, license them and
restrict them to their domiciliary local government areas,” he said.
Opeifa said there was a need for the development of multi-modal transportation system for the economy to grow.
“The groundnut pyramids were moved from the North down to Lagos by
the railway; likewise, cocoa and some other farm produce. The system
worked then, and all that seems to have died now,” he said.
Opeifa advised that the review of the Constitution currently going on
should whittle down some powers of the government at the centre, so
that states and local governments could develop the modes of
transportation that suited them.
Source: PUNCH
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