Don’t worry about okada ban or fuel scarcity; just buy a BICYCLE!

Interesting the many trends we get to see in Lagos state.

While we are still trying to fathom how to cope without the ‘mad’ driving okada men, the Lagos state commissioner for transportation has given us what he thinks is a remedy. He says we should all go and buy bicycles since they are already mapping out plans to provide us with bicycle lanes.

He says it’s an alternative to okada and advised us to cycle from our homes and then tie our bicycles on a pole that will be provided at bus stops, and then proceed to take the BRT buses. If I park my bicycle there, person come thief am nko?

I can imagine me with my heels and probably gown, pedaling my bicycle with all furiousness just to get to work in good time. I laugh at that thought!


He actually said offices need to provide showers so that when the weather is intolerable and probably one is sweating like someone that ran a marathon from Abuja to Lagos, we can get to shower before getting down to work. This man seems to think everyone works in an office abi?

So these Alaba and Ladipo boys should build bathrooms too so that they can shower before getting to work? Just imagine everyone in your office comes in sweating and then there is a long queue waiting to use the bathrooms…. Na baf u come work to baf?

There are times comparing our lifestyles to that of our western counterparts seems laughable. This fellow said we should take a look at other countries where riding bicycles around has worked and imbibe it… think for a split second about it!

Personally, I do not see his suggestion as a reasonable option. If you own a bicycle and wish to ride around in it, fine and good… but telling us to park our cars and roam the city in bicycles irrespective of the state of health of the person at present is quite unthinkable.

I wait to see how welcome that his suggestion will be. Sometimes I think that these people holding public offices need to listen to themselves when they talk.

We know riding bicycles is a form of exercise but using it as a serious form of movement?