VENUE; PDP STATE SECRETARIAT, GRA IKEJA
TIME; 9.AM PROMPT.
I, Dr. Segun Ogundimu, a former chairman Lagos state water corporation, commissioner for transport, chairman petroleum & petroleum products distribution & monitoring committee, and former Lagos state commissioner for Health, personally welcome you gentlemen of the press to this program , on behalf of the travelling Public to lend my solo voice to the ongoing appeal to our Excellency Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) to please temper justice with mercy on this new traffic laws, christened “Draconian” by the people of Lagos.
Your Excellency I know Governance is not an easy thing and I do appreciate the stress of Governance, and its varied challenges you are saddled with on daily basis which could be strong and worrisome enough to make a Governor hit at unintended hapless public. The law as relates to the okada operatives and whatever the challenges on your plates should not make you lose sight of the necessity to protect the travelling public. You should avoid been labeled an anti- people government. When an aggressive mosquito lands on “the place” caution is necessary to get rid of the nuisance pest, else the force will break “the place “and the mosquito will escape ‘this is a Yoruba proverb’. With benefit of hind sight, I recall with mixed feelings, my tenure as Lagos state Commissioner for public Transportation in the early 90’s. The problems, I was confronted with then, are not any different from yours, though I must admit that the population and the aggression is not as serious as now. Not with standing, no one tries to kill an ant with a sledge hammer without damaging the platform on which the ant rests. The challenges then, which are not different from what obtains now include but not limited to;
1. Increasing population of okada operators.
2. Untrained, ill-kitted and unlicensed operatives.
3. A very sizeable no of operators are unemployed school leavers( some of whom are graduates) are non- indigenes who have noticed the yawning gap in the State’s supply side of public transportation and taken up the gauntlet in challenge created by this inadequate support for the travelling public. The primary aim is to irk a living rather than engage in more devastating tendencies to keep body & mind together.
4. Increasing tendencies of operators to be hired by negative groups to perpetrate nefarious activities state- wide, especially rendering Reece services to people of questionable characters.
5. Active and outright participation of operators in armed and unarmed crime as been reported by security operatives.
6. Increasing violation of traffic laws e.g. riding against traffic flow with overloading.
7. Increasing road traffic accidents with serious orthopedic consequences to outright death of one or both rider & passenger.
8. There are so many others too numerous to catalogue here.
No doubt, these are very worrisome challenges confronting your Excellency but I make bold to say with respect sir, that not serious enough to attract such reactions currently plaguing and incapacitating the travelling public, a blackish I want to believe was not thought of ab-inito.
The law strangulating the operations of the okada operatives must be looked into again for the sake of the travelling public.
The alternatives opened to the public are
1. The BRT operations, good concept but badly operated from stand point :
a) Of ever escalating cost per person.
b) Poorly maintained vehicles.
c) Recklessness of the drivers and occasional fatal consequences.
d) Restriction on areas of coverage as they cannot operate in state & most local Government roads because of very bad, ill-maintained & narrow road network.
2. Taxis: these charge exorbitantly because of high rapid returns on service of the high loans given to operators. You may not know this ,the lucky few participants or allotees of the STATE-OWNED private partnership access to purchase of taxis under the scheme is excruciating and at the end of the rope are the travelling public whose take home pay does not take them home.
3. Use of the popular danfo and Molues with the attendant infestation with bedbugs, unkempt rough seats and risk of ‘one chance’ a common parlance associated with regular robbery attacks in these vehicles.
4. Trekking up and down the dusty/ muddy streets of Lagos. Good as this may be health-wise, certainly does not fit into the 21st century Public transportation arrangement.
The only viable and swift means of affordable Public transportation in Lagos today is the OKADA mode.
A transportation mode analysis done in Lagos in 1994 shows the following percentage usage by the travelling public as
97%- Road Mode
2%- Rail Mode
1% -water Mode
This led to my initiating, on the strength of the reports of Dar al- andarsal Consultant to world-bank on metropolitan Lagos, the” Rail-Road- Sea” intermodal coordination which was aimed at reducing the road mode, a major cause of traffic congestion in our city. A beef up of Rail & Water Modes was intended then. We actually commenced the process of integration of these 3 modes, but for the constant change in Governance at that time. With the assistance of the Federal Government, a second pair of rails was laid from Ijoko Railway Station to Ijora Wharf. We did put in place a double-deckered katamaran Boat M.V, Odoragunshen (with 1,400 passengers capacity) to Ferry commuters from Ijora to Apapa -and C.M.S from where smaller buses transport commuters to Ikoyi, Federal Secretariat, Obalende, bourdillon, Awolowo road, Ebute-ero, Osborne and beyond. I really do not know the where about of M V Odoragunshen bought with $2 millions Lagos state money. Please tell us.
In collaboration with Federal Inland Waterways and their ferry fleet, we mass- transported commuters from Ijora to Oworonshoki -to Ebute ero-to Ikorodu-Maroko to mention a few.
I believe there are more serious developmental program in the transportation area to tap into and occupy your plate, than running after miserable souls who are out to make a living, no thanks to our poor educational system that is skewed towards white collar jobs instead of a policy that produces employers of labor as against job seekers.
Recently the PUNCH newspaper, a voice and soul of the masses reported the burning & crushing of 3,000 motor- cycles in Lagos. Many people could not believe their eyes, but for the reliable source- PUNCH. Your Excellency 3,000 struggling poor souls reduced to more joblessness and asked to bite the dust. Millions naira loans from some financial institutions down the drain, just like that. Rather than confiscate and crush or burn their motorbike, I will suggest a more pragmatic look into their case again, so that we don’t jump from fry -pan into fire. These trampled upon and bruised people may become more violent and take to daring armed or non- armed robbery attacks on people to irk a living. More devasting effect of the ban on the Okada riders in certain areas is made manifest in the harrowing stress imposed on the travelling public, the increase in transportation cost, high morbidity rate, clear and present danger of loss of job for coming late to work place by the working class that patronize these riders even at the risk of their lives in the absence of an affordable alternative. Congregation of the travelling public in black spots, like Oshodi, Marine beach, Marina CMS, ojuelegba, ojota, Anthony Under-bridge to mention a few, increases the risk of attacks by the league of hoodlums that would be swelled by the deprived Okada riders. What is then the joy of been governed by Midas touch- hearted Governor.
The case of ONDO’s Mimiko is quite instructive, where the people spoke loud and clear with their votes in support of their listening Governor’s second coming. Please take a cue from the Federal Government that listens to the cry of the people:
1. The change of position on fuel increase.
2. Change of position on the N5000 notes
3. Change of heart on the Niger Delta militants.
4. Bakasi issue and the practical assessment of issues than the sentimental clap trap attached to ownership based on false premise.
Rather than the current war on Okada operatives, I call on you to please revisit the issue and work out a master plan on how to accommodate these avoidable challenges. I believe in strong regulation rather than outright ban. Implementing stronger regulation will even generate more jobs within the sea of these unemployed graduates in search of a lively hood.
If you will put aside our political differences I am willing, for the sake of the Okada riders and the travelling public, to share notes on how to salvage this ugly situation that has refused to go way and getting worse by the day. It will be difficult to wish these riders away without a viable source of income and affordable swift mode of transportation for the travelling public as an alternative.
Finally, your Excellency, may I humbly draw your attention to the ever present deplorable conditions of the State and local Government roads and drainages. It is as if all the Local Government simply went to sleep after the LASEIC Chairman, a retired Judge in our state awarded victory to all the 57 LCDA, , without a mention of votes scored for or against almighty ACN in Lagos. We thank the same judiciary for seeing these anomalies and now set to do justice.
The State and Local Government roads and drainages if put in place and commensurate with the monthly FAC allocation and IGR to our LGs in Lagos, things will be better than they are now. All the feeder roads and tributaries would be opened up, there will be less tension on major axial roads(inward and outward) like Ikorodu road, Herbert Macaulay, Western avenue, agege motor, isolo, ikotun-egbe, Egbeda roads, Abeokuta-Express way ; all the link roads will be put into full use, there will be less stress within the round house in alausa and less tendency to vent anger on these struggling souls. I tell you with authority as someone who has been closely associated with roads and drainages in Lagos that, global warming is not a major cause of flooding in our state. Rather the major causes are, the deplorable state of all our non-flowing secondary and tertiary drains and the incessant sand- filling of our water body with attendant rise in the water-table below the ground, in the state in an attempt to create empire for the novoriche and greedy hawks in power. The six primary channels in Lagos are totally blocked. Some are now places of abode to giant reptiles, crocodiles, alligators, monkeys and other animals, while Government is playing pranks with others channels 2-6. A major channel to the lagoon is the famous Odo iya’laro, between ojota and Maryland, that is totally blocked. All storm water westwards from ikeja environ are trapped and hence the flooding in those areas. Your Excellency you may not know this, not 1 (one) secondary or tertiary drain flows in any Local Government. I challenge you to take a tour to any of your LCDA to prove me right or wrong.
Many years ago this State witnessed regular competitions amongst LGA from stand point of cleanliness, roads and drainage repairs and maintenance. Are these no longer the duties of our Local Government offices? You really need to wake up these officials so you can have peace of mind rather than stirring the Horner’s nest. The roads in areas like Ajegunle, ajangbadi, alaba, ijagemo, akowonjo, agege ,tabon tabon, iju agbado, ikotun egbe, ikorodu, Somolu, Bariga, oworonshoki, Badagry etc. It is as if these rural roads are cursed, yet they get allocation from FAC regularly apart from the IGR milked from the people monthly. Your Excellency please wake up your Local council areas, the people there are really suffering. Ikoyi Victoria Island, Lekki and Ajah areas are not all spared of the rot in our road network. You must do something about real issues in the state rather than pursue Okada riders all over the place.
My words of caution to the established Okada association in Lagos, please do not take the laws into your hands,remember two wrongs don’t make a right. Violence is an ill-wind that blows no one any good, continue to adopt dialogue because at the end of any struggle we still end up at a round table.
Human right activists and the civil liberty societies the whole world is watching this avoidable unfolding drama playing out.
Let’s avoid a state of anarchy in an otherwise peaceful State.
Your Excellency, the fact that this is your last stanza does not mean you throw the people to the marines are careless about their plight. Be mindful of history and posterity.
This is the only state you can call yours.
I salute and wish you well.
Gentlemen of the press, I thank you all for your attention.
-Dr, Segun Ogundimu, MBBS, FWACP
PDP, CHIEFTAIN IN LAGOS.
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