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Merit Ibe
With the ban on operations of motorcycles (Okada) and tricycles (Keke) in some local government areas and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) with effect from February 1, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has recommended an urgent stakeholders’ engagement with the government to fine tune the traffic law and enforcement strategies.
The chamber, which noted that laws are made for man, not the other way round, suggested that the current wide-ranging routes covered by the restriction should be reviewed to cover only major road corridors, saying this would give some room for the ordinary citizens to commute. LCCI Director General, Muda Yusuf, who made the recommendations in Lagos recently, advised that the tolerance and latitude for operation of tricycles should be expanded as they play vital complementary roles to other forms of transportation. He explained that tricycles are affordable, scalable, divisible, flexible and less of a nuisance than the motorbikes.
The LCCI boss, further noted that regulatory capacity should be strengthened to ensure traffic discipline among all categories of road users.
Lagos State Government had banned the operations of motorcycles and tricycles following enforcement of the Extant Transport Sector Reform Law 2018. The local government areas and LCDAs affected include Apapa, Apapa Iganmu, Lagos Mainland , Yaba, Surulere, Itire-Ikate and Coker-Aguda and Ikeja. Others are Onigbongbo and Ojod, Eti-Osa, Ikoyi-Obalende and Iru/Victoria Island, Lagos Island and Lagos Island East. The state government also listed highways, bridges and roads where the law also banned motorcycles and tricycles from operating.
The director general said: “One of the biggest challenges of urbanisation is traffic congestion. This is more so in a state like Lagos which has the largest population and the smallest land size in the country. The growth in the number of vehicles has consistently outpaced the road capacity. “We also recognise the increasing traffic and security nuisance that some of the commercial motorcycles and tricycles create in the state. “Clearly, these are situations that call for drastic action by the government. However, it is important to situate the conversation within the context of a Root Cause Analysis.
“Proliferation of commercial motorcycles and tricycles in Lagos State are manifestations of the shortcomings of the transportation system in Lagos State. They are the symptoms of deeper issues in the transport ecosystem.
“Some of these symptoms include rapid and growing population in the state without commensurate planning for intracity transportation.
“Rapid urbanisation and internal migration issues because of the security issues in other parts of the country.
“High vehicular density, intractable traffic congestion and frequent lockdown, especially during peak periods of traffic. “Impossible traffic conditions resulting from the state of the roads. The Lagos Badagry Expressway and the Apapa axis are good examples.
“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.
These are fundamentals issues we need to fix to achieve a sustainable solution. The enforcement of the traffic law in its current form would have a profound social, economic and political costs. “Some of these unintended consequences include commuters would suffer untold hardship 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 hike 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.
“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. There will also be massive extortion by enforcement agents.”
