Yemisi Izuora
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, has blamed lack of planning To the proliferation of Okada riders in Lagos,saying that the authorities have neglected rapid and growing population in the state without commensurate planning for intracity transportation.
In its reaction to the ban on Okada and Keke in Lagos state, Director General, DG, of the Chamber, Muda Yusuf said that rapid urbanization and internal migration issues are consequences of the security issues in other parts of the country.
This has caused high vehicular density, intractable traffic congestion and frequent lockdown, especially during peak periods of traffic.
He also observed that impossible traffic conditions is as a result of the state of the roads and that Lagos Badagry expressway and the Apapa axis are good examples.
According to Yusuf, Absence of a robust mass transit system suitable for an increasing population and emerging megacity, limited road capacity which has been long outpaced by the vehicular growth, absence of complementary modes of transportation, especially water transportation, rail and subways, weak institutional capacity for enforcement of traffic regulations, are factors leading to the menace.
He said that there are fundamentals issues authorities need to fix in order to achieve a sustainable solution.
He said, that enforcement of the traffic law in its current form would have a profound social, economic and political costs.
He listed some unintended consequences include suffering of untold hardship by commuters as there is no immediate alternative to fill the gap which the wide-ranging restriction would create.
“There would be high transportation cost as commuter buses hikes their fares. They would naturally take advantage of the surge in demand.There is also the investment effect on emerging innovative investments in the commercial motorbike sector some of which have invested billions of naira in the sector and Connectivity of domestic economic agents would suffer a deceleration. The tempo and momentum of economic activities would experience a slow down as the velocity of business transactions would be adversely affected. This would also take a toll on the huge and vibrant informal economy in the state and there will also be massive extortion by enforcement agents.” he said.
The LCCI recommended an urgent stakeholder engagement to fine tune the traffic law and enforcement strategies.
The current wide-ranging routes covered by the restriction should be reviewed to cover only major road corridors and this would give some room for the ordinary citizens to commute, it said.
It urged that tolerance and latitude for operation of tricycles should be expanded as they play vital complementary roles to other forms of transportation.
“They are affordable, scalable, divisible, flexible and less of a nuisance than the motorbikes and regulatory capacity should be strengthened to ensure traffic discipline among all categories of road users.” said Yusuf
