For commuters in Nigeria’s commercial city, Lagos, these are trying times. Weeks ago, the Lagos State Government announced a restriction on the operations of commercial motorcycles and tricycles in six local governments – Apapa, Eti Osa, Ikeja, Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland and Surulere.
Motorcycles and tricycles – popularly called okada and keke respectively – not only provide quick getaways from the maddening gridlock the city is cursed with every day, but they are also the only reliable means of transportation for hundreds of thousands of residents to move to and from workplaces and navigate the inner streets of the overpopulated state.
The restriction, which came into effect on February 1, was not the sort of New Year gift residents looked forward to. Already, okada riders have clashed twice this week with the police in the Lagos suburbs of Ijora and Iyana Ipaja.
