Before The Ban on Okada Takes Effect in Kaduna State
By
Ibraheem A. Waziri
iawaziri@yahoo.com
It was widely reported within the first week of May, 2014 – BBC, ChannelsTV and News Agency of Nigeria – that Kaduna State House of Assembly has passed into law a bill prohibiting the use of commercial motorcycles, popularly known as Okada or Achaba, in some major cities of the state. This week (2nd Week of May, 2014) many other news outlets reported that the governor has signed into law the prohibition. This new leaf follows a similar prohibition of the same type of commercial activity in Abuja, Plateau, Niger and Kano States, some time ago. The ban is taking effect on the 21st of May, 2014. Its aims are in symphony with the efforts of the state to further curb insecurity. There is the claim that the ban on the neighboring states has led to the explosion of the activity in Kaduna with most of the business owners sleeping in uncompleted buildings and market places. This increased – it is said – the potentials for crimes, as criminals may easily masquerade as Okada business owners.
Some believe the state government did the right thing. Others think the newly created situation coming after the effective ban will work largely to serve our pervasive situation of insecurity rather than curb it. Considering the fact that any logic that will put about 100, 000 adults – by some estimates – out of job, rest their only known skill and means of lively hood, cannot in anyway lead to a better social security.
Of course I do not fall into the category of those who blindly accuse the present Kaduna State Government of insensitivity, working against the interest of the disadvantaged or being cluelessness about the ways to come round the many challenges associated with governance. I believe in its sincerity of purpose. I only feel I should intervene here again having once done so, only to see that it really has been considerably useful. I don’t claim either the wisdom of the unforeseen. I only have a reflection about the situation and the practice. Also a number of solutions that I hope can be useful again.
It is my conviction that the first resource of any modern state is human beings or their numbers who are resident or interested in coming under authority of a state. If anybody anywhere doesn’t like them, let them be given to us. A good modern state proves its mettle by being able to convert its vast human resources to something very useful to itself and the human resource elements, themselves. Developed economies see in them a gold mine and an endless source of revenue when properly controlled and their energy well utilized.
In this sense, the mistake of closing shops for the vast human resource elements in Kano, Plateau, Niger and FCT, should be seen as a boost and a blessing to Kaduna. The state should now be determined to show a higher level of dynamism and creativity in turning what others throw out, to diamond.
I appreciate though the concerns of the state that led to the ban. But the palliative intended to cushion the effect of the ban will only benefit the earlier beneficiaries of the services being offered by Okada. This, by way of replacing it – as a means of transportation that finds its ways into the nooks and crannies – with tricycles that can serve the same purpose. But where do we leave the hundreds of thousands Okada business owners that are now unemployed and present a serious security threat to our communities?
Achaba or Okada has been one of the easiest businesses that can be established on a meager amount of a Hundred Thousand Naira with a guarantee of a return that will sustain at least, a nuclear family. Ranging from feeding, school fees of children and house rent for those who sustained a period in it. Banning it carries the potential of registering a commensurate negative effect on the business owners and those living under them.
I have a feeling that the government should have taken the needed steps to benefit from the venture and further enhance the benefits of the business owners. It takes only the imposition of ground rules and provisions for business operations, by the state. From economic point of view, a 100,000 hundred thousand people, under a union and interested in working, earning through a business, can be ready to part with some amount every day to the treasury of the state. Imaging if all Okada business owners will be required to register with a state agency for a fee, whether they are indigenes or not. Imagine if each month they will be required to pay a small portion of their monthly earning to the treasury of the state.
With modern tools of information technology, Okada riders or business owners’ registration will easily include pictures, finger prints and all accessories that will facilitate safe bearing and guarantee maximum security. Their information can be stored in a magnificent electronic database that can always be accessed and details of any violator of law and order – including defaulters from payments of monthly levies – be churned out in a speed of light.
It is with this kind of arrangement that a state can tame its citizens and inculcate in them a culture of disciplined and ordered disposition. It will make them formal, useful and productive members of their society. It will curb social insecurity and generate revenue for the state to further service its responsibility drive with relative convenience. If a 100,000 Achaba business owners will be required to register their business at a rate of say, N1000:00k, the state will have a once off income of about N100, 000,000:00k. Considering that the number of the business owners being quoted is a very conservative figure. Their numbers may run into hundreds of thousands or even a million. Then, imagine the much that can be gathered from a a tax levy of just N10:00k per day for each and every business owner to be paid monthly.
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