Photo credit: Punch Newspaper
Okada used to be an unsung village. Those were the days before the Esama of Benin Kingdom, Chief Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion. When he made his billions, he did not forget his place of birth.
He promptly established a university there. That university is named after his family, Igbinedion. However, when the students found that motorcycles were the most convenient form of transportation in the university town, motorcycles were promptly given a baptismal name, okada.
We used to have Okada Airline. However, that one was an Abiku because it suffered an untimely death.
The motorcycle as okada has continued to contribute to our national economy in various ways. For instance, it has saved a lot of people from traffic gridlocks when they had appointments.
Again, people are continuing to find the okada invaluable when the government has conveniently failed to construct roads leading to their respective residential abodes.
When the goggled Sani Abacha was the landlord of Aso Rock, he made things very difficult for the people. Whoever opposed him was hounded, tortured, and if possible, killed.
Our own Nobel laureate, the nemesis of dictators, the revered Professor Wole Soyinka had to speak with his legs to safety.
Maybe it would have been better to say he had to speak with his highly respected professorial haunches on an okada.
When in the second term of the three-in-one man as governor, Fashola decided to ban okada from Lagos highways, I knew he was fighting a lost battle.
In fact, if the okada operators had come for consultations, I would have told them they did not need to do any watch night or watch morning in prayers. They didn’t even have to part with a dime as an offering.
The okada is now even more popular than danfo in Lagos. It is a more convenient means of transportation. The only thing is that I don’t really know which is much more notorious.
Like all human activities, it comes with its peculiar disadvantages. When okada mishaps occur, they are generally serious. Doubting Thomases need to pay visits to any of the orthopaedic hospitals. In most cases, special wards are devoted to okada accident victims.
Since most of us who love our president so much, do not have the cash backing to support our interest and are not in a position to make us enjoy government-sponsored trips abroad, don’t you think it will be fantastic to travel to London, not to see Mama Charlie?
On okada!!!
We are going to London to see our president. After all, if Mohammed refuses to go to the mountain, the mountain will move to Mohammed.
In any case, it would not be the first time a Nigerian is doing that. Who remembers Olabisi Ajala? Yes, the guy who travelled across Europe on a scooter.
It will only be the very first time a nation will be moving en masse on well-tarred roads constructed by the party in power.
I have been informed that so many of our public officers will also love to openly identify with the masses in a rare show of patriotism. They are willing to go to London on okada. Think of how much foreign exchange this their very first unselfish act will save us.
While there, government work may stop. Great, after all, we are talking of the life of the numero uno in the country. What work is done at the highest level anyway? The more the merrier!
What’s as good as a fever?
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