A signage at the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, the seat of Lagos State Government, where motorcycles are prohibited. An Okada rider and passenger could be seen on the other side behind a red vehicle on Thursday, February 11, 2021… Photo: DENNIS EREZI
When the authorities in Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial capital and one of the country’s most populous states, banned commercial motorcycles and tricycles from major routes in Lagos city, officials said the move was aimed at securing lives and sanitising transportation in the city.
Traffic in the city is maniacal, frenzied, time-consuming, and can be outright dangerous.
To reduce the number of hours spent daily in traffic, thousands of residents of the state resort to using commercial motorcycles and tricycles – okada and Keke Marwa as they are popularly called. Their sizes provide ease of navigating through hellish gridlocks.