Emeka
Ibemere
Despite constituting half of the road accidents
recorded in 2013, some Nigerians still want commercial motorcycle operators,
notoriously known as Okada to be on the high ways and other roads network in
Nigeria. This was contained in report recently released by CLEEN Foundation in
Lagos State.
Nengak Daniel Gondyi, Programme Manager said the report was compiled after careful
and timeless research carried out by the organization. He said the essence was
to sensitize Nigerians on the need to be road wise on the Nigerian roads and
how to be safe driving and using the roads.
It would be
recalled that the group had earlier in their public presentation of survey finding on road safety
and Accident in Nigeria held at the CLEEN foundation Resource Centre: 21
Akinsanya Street Ojodu, Berger, Lagos State, on 18 December, 2013, reported
that 80% of Nigerian drivers have no valid drivers’ licence.
On the report about Managing the Okada Challenge
on Nigerian roads, the Foundation stated that use of
motorcycles as commercial taxis (commonly called Okada) has become popular in
Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.
According
to the group the choice of Okada by many Nigerians as a means of transportation,
was favoured by commuters for okada’s ability to reach remote areas with poor
road infrastructure. Despite its fancy, the report linked Okada to accidents
and it’s notoriety for causing traffic congestion and disorders; as well as the
leading vehicle involved in road accidents in Nigeria.
However, in
recent years, there have been serious campaigns and laws in some states to ban okada
as a means of transportation while in some states they are limited to rural
areas.
The report
from the CLEEN says those who favour the proposals to ban Okada said the order
would restore sanity on the roads and that without Okada the rate of accidents are
likely to drop.
But it was
gathered that others worry about the hardships citizens would be exposed to
especially where taxis and busses are not available.
CLEEN Foundation said in 2013, nearly half (47%) of
the road accidents in Nigeria involved an Okada.
The Group also stated that other vehicles involved in
road accidents included commercial mini-buses constituted (30%), while cars
alone caused 7% accidents. Private buses also caused 7% while commercial luxury
buses constituted another 7%.
Trucks and trailers were the least accident prone
vehicles on the roads with 3% accidents in their kitty and followed by mini-vans
and SUVs which caused 4% accidents last year.
“So should Okada be banned in Nigeria or not? A
national average of 36% of the respondents interviewed nationwide expressed
their support for the banning of commercial motorcycles. Disaggregating this
support for banning by states, it was revealed that there was nearly a
unanimous consensus among residents in Bayelsa and Plateau (90% each), followed
by Abia (81%), Imo (77%), and Rivers (70%)”, Nengak Daniel Gondyi stated.
“The lowest support for the banning of Okada came
from Kaduna and Oyo (15% each), Kebbi (14%), Kastina and Zamfara (both 13%),
Ondo (12%) and Kwara (11%). 41% of those who supported the banning of Okada
said their main reason is that it causes accidents”.
He equally said the finding agrees with the high
frequency of okada in road accidents as observed above.
Nengak
Daniel explained that another 34% said okada promotes crime while 26%
supported the ban because too many people die in okada accidents.
“Others (25%) were concerned about the reckless
driving of Okada riders, 6% said it cause traffic congestion on roads while
another 3% expressed their support due to the menace/trouble Okada usually
cause to pedestrians”, he said.
“Close to 3 in every 5 respondents (57%) opposed the
proposal to ban okada. Common reason given by respondents for the ban was that
it will create unemployment (54%), 32% said it will increase crime another 32%
also said it will increase suffering of the poor and 9% said they did not
support due to the social unrest or strike actions which could result from such
a ban”.
“There was a direct correlation between the support
and opposition for okada as States where opposition was fiercest were Kwara
(94%), Ondo (84%), Zamfara and Ebonyi (both 83%) while the opposition was weakest in Rivers
(27%), Imo (22%), Abia (18%), Plateau (15%) and Bayelsa (7%).
Abia, which were all 0% each, followed by Osun and
Plateau which recorded 3% and 5% respectively”.
Nengak Daniel Gondyi said
the report was reached in an attempt to develop a holistic dataset which allows
for an all-round measurement and analysis of security and public safety in
Nigeria. He said the National Crime and Safety Survey (NCSS) in 2013, included
a comprehensive section on road traffic safety in Nigeria.
According to the group, to understand the perception and
actual experience of safety or exposure to accidents on the roads, their survey
instrument probed a variety of themes including perception of safety,
experience of accidents and perception of road safety officials in
Nigeria.
“The findings discussed in this presentation reveal an
array of perceptions and experiences with road travel in Nigeria and provide a
rich dataset against which our prior understanding of road travel and its
challenges could be interrogated and refined. The data also allows us to
measure the effectiveness of current policies and investments for road travel
efficiency and safety in Nigeria”.
Explaining further, he stated that the discussion of road
safety in Nigeria at this time of the season was important for two key reasons:
“First of all it is suggested that 80% of human and good
traffic in the country is moving by road. Secondly, the road network in Nigeria
though grossly inadequate and poorly maintained, it is by far the most
comprehensive and extensive means of travel in Nigeria. This means that surveys
and recommendations on road travel and road safety in Nigeria is indeed at the
heart of communication and travels in Nigeria and affect majority of Nigerians”.
“Permit me to emphasise at the start of this
discussion what this presentation is not: it is neither an indictment nor a
vindication of any particular agency of government. Secondly, it is not factual
evidence as such. The National Crime and Safety Survey is an annual perception
survey that is conducted in Nigeria by the CLEEN Foundation with support from
the MacArthur Foundation”. Nengak Daniel said.
According to him, since they began conducting the
surveys in 2005 in Lagos, they have over the years continuously refined their
sampling technique and survey methodology. “Even as we continuously increased
our sample size to the current 11,518 respondents. These improvements were made
in order to arrive at conclusions that were representative of the generality of
Nigerians and therefore useful in directing public policy”, he explained. “For
example, recognising the centrality of road safety to citizens’ perception of
safety, the survey introduced road safety questions in 2010 and we have since
then observed crucial trends – some of which are captured in this presentation”
.
.
Public perception surveys such as National Crime and
Safety Survey are recognized globally as credible methodology for gaining
insight into public policy matters. “Specifically, victimization surveys
measure the likelihood of respondents to become victims of crime or be affected
by an incident such as road accidents. Such surveys are very useful in
understanding not only the nature of crime in a society, but also the
conception of safety”.
Nengak
Daniel also said crime victimization surveys could serve as
control measures on official records and statistics. “The cross analysis of
victimization surveys and the official statistics could yield valuable insight
on the direction of road accidents and the impact of road safety policies and
investments in the society”. According to him, by the very nature, public
perception surveys are severely limited in that they were based not on real
experience of an incident, but rather on the perception of members of the
public on safety and security.
He said studies have shown that while the actual
experience of an incident such as a road accident in a community was often the
biggest driver of individual perception on road safety, it was also possible
that other factors such as the mass media as well as the conduct of security,
traffic and road safety officials could have decisive impact on the perceptions
of corruption and road safety in the community.
“In the National Crime and Safety Survey 2013 for
example, we found that whereas as many as 78% of residents of Adamawa state
felt that the roads in their state were prone to accidents, only 15% of them
were victims of actual accidents. The gap between the actual experience of 15%
and the perception of 78% is fed and driven by a diverse multitude of factors
which could not be answered by the data of our survey alone”.
The group claimed that their study
employed survey research methodology and was designed to ensure that their
findings adequately reflect the perceptions of Nigerians. For the Foundation to
reach at its report, “The population sample consisted of 11,518 Nigerians
equally distributed among male and female adults aged 18 years and above from
all the 36 States in the country and the Federal Capital Territory. The data collection method employed was the
household survey involving face-to-face personal interviews”, the Foundation
explained. “Respondents were selected through a stratified multi-stage random
sampling procedure in order to achieve a representative sample. Respondents
must have lived in the selected household for a period of not less than six
months.
The fieldwork for the survey was conducted by Practical
Sampling International (PSI), a reputed research company with a wide experience
in quantitative research in the country from June - July 2013[1]”.
“CLEEN Foundation employed monitors to observe the conduct
of the field work as an initial quality control measure. The data processing was done in collaboration
with DC Pro-Data Consult Limited with supervision by the CLEEN Foundation
research team. Data entry, cleaning and
analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)”.
Speaking further, Nengak Daniel Gondyi stated that
the presentation explores the total dataset and isolates questions which relate
to road travel, road safety and the activities of the Federal Road Safety
Commission (FRSC), being the chief road safety agency in Nigeria. “The
presentation then reflects on the general direction of respondents’ perceptions
and the likely implications of the findings for improving safety in road
travels in Nigeria”.
“In
this section, I discuss key trends on road safety emergent from our analysis of
our crime victimization data. These findings are Safety on the Roads; Factors
Responsible for Unsafe; Patterns of Road Accidents; Managing Road Accidents and
Safety; Driving Patterns and Culture; and Managing the Okada Challenge”.
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