A GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE INDEED: OKADA BAN IN PARTS OF BENIN CITY AND WHAT IT PORTENDS

Comrade Adams Oshiomole. Edo State Governor

On Monday 17th of June 2013, low-income residents of Benin City, Edo State began to feel the impact of the ill-advised decision of the Comrade Governor, Adams Oshiomole to ban the use of commercial motorcycles and tricycles popularly known as "okada" and "keke" respectively.

Residents have continued to express dismay at what is considered a betrayal of massive proportions considering the fact that Comrade Oshiomole stated many times over that he never intended to ban the use of this alternative and very convenient means of transport. As they trekked under the blazing sun, nice words about the governor were in abundant scarcity.

The comrade governor made this announcement a week ago after the state Security Council meeting at the Government House in Benin City. He listed Ikpoba Okha, Oredo and Egor LGA's which constitute the Benin Metropolis as the areas to be affected by the ban. The ban came to effect yesterday regardless of several protests against it since the announcement. The comrade governor attributed security challenges and fatality rates of accidents as the reason for the decision to ban the activities of commercial bike riders.

While the concern of the comrade governor is admirable, it is premature as it is illogical. While it is well-known that okada riders have proved to be nuisances on the roads as well as becoming tools to perpetuate crime, the same could be said for motorists. No mention was made of the fact that the deplorable conditions of the road infrastructure contributes massively to the accidents.

Okada riders in the Benin Metropolis.

Going down to criminality, it is quite unfair to point to some okada riders as the cause for the increasing wave of crime. How often to do we hear that robberies or kidnapping are carried out by the use of commercial bikes? Statistics would show that the governor's premise is a very faulty one as cars are just as often involved in accidents and used to perpetuate crime.

The insincerity of this anti-people policy is more glaring when no serious attempt was made to regulate the operation of commercial bike riders with legislation or other form of restraint. This ban is akin to throwing away the bath water along with the baby. Why didn't he come up with this policy before he ran for second term? It is highly hypocritical for the Comrade Governor to attribute this sudden change of heart to the increasing spate of accidents and crime wave when it was an agenda he nursed from the very beginning.

The economic consequences of this policy will have far-reaching effects. It is no news that unemployment in Nigeria is at its zenith while infrastructure, despite taking leaps in recent times, especially in Edo State under the comrade governor's administration, there's still a lot to be done. This ban will affect negatively a high percentage of the commercial riders who have this as their only means of income with no visible alternative. What becomes of their families? How many people can afford to take cabs which are still ridiculously expensive in Benin? Will this policy not bring about an increase in crime rate that it seeks to cure in the first place?

I find it quite inhumane that the poor have to be at the receiving end of every policy or legislation that attempts to sanitize the mess Nigeria has become. The failure of government in its duties has led the masses to improvise in order to survive. Taking that away without providing a viable alternative is heartless to say the least.

This is the norm for politicians in Nigeria who kowtow to the electorate when they seek their votes and afterwards, suddenly become insensitive to their plight. Comrade Adams Oshiomole has joined the long list of governors of Nigerian governors who have bitten the hands that fed them. His betrayal is particularly painful because it was the unflinching support of commercial riders and commoners who rallied together to ensure that his stolen mandate was returned. This is the thanks we get.

It is understood that most times, change is rejected but it is inevitable. No doubt, this ban will sanitize Benin Metropolis but this is a democracy. Alienating the electorate by carrying out unilateral decisions such as these without regard to the untold hardship it will occasion is not right. There was no form of consultation with those to be affected. In fact, they were lulled by a false of security that the comrade governor was of a different stock considering that at a time, he fought on the side of the common man. At the end of the day, all politicians are the same.

A word of caution to all politicians: it is apparent that when politicians enter into public service, they get faced with an entirely different reality as they enjoy the unnecessary trappings of office and inevitably develop amnesia to the reality on ground. Nigerians are suffering! If you will not better the living conditions of the people, do not make it worse.

With Oshiomole's embarrassing antics at the just concluded LG elections and this new policy, he has just alienated further the people who believed and voted him in. This may have dire consequences for the ruling party in Edo State, the Action Congress Nigeria (ACN) in the long run. The hero he was once touted to be has begun to diminish gradually in the eyes of many. He just may live long enough to see himself become the villain.

Malcolm O. Ifi.

Photo Credits: Google.