OKADA – An Enemy Of The Law?

The commercial use of motorcycles popularly called “okada,” is gradually gaining grounds in Ghana to the chagrin of the Ghana Police and allied agencies in the fight against road accident and safety of motorists. The practice hitherto alien to Ghana but very pervasive in neighbouring countries especially Nigeria and Togo, is creeping into the country especially in the border areas of the Volta Region. The term “Okada” in itself, a very popular Nigerian terminology amongst others like, “Igwe,” “Oga,” “Chineke” and “Tofiakwa,”* used frequently in the many Nigerian films, that have become a regular feature on the our TV screens. Like bush fire in the harmattan season, the practice has gained grounds and continues to do so especially in areas within the capital city. The use of motorcycles serves as seen in Nigerian films and others from francophone Africa serves a myriad of purposes. From the well known transportation function vis-à-vis surviving the extreme traffic situations as has become characteristic of growing cities as ours and the transportation of goods and services in the case of courier and door-to-door delivery services. Aside the important uses to which okadas can be put to, comes the demerits of their operations as is portrayed in movies and in real life, as they have proven to be catalysts of crime, as phone and item snatchers have over time, put it to maximum nefarious effect. The commercial twist is what has all this while been the source of worry as law enforcement agencies are quick to state that it is only the commercial use of okadas that are an offence. Their private use is permissible and well within the remits of the law. The Northern regions are by far the areas where private use of motorcycles is most pervasive, where residents use these bikes for transportation of humans; school children, pregnant women, farm produce, animals and services from one point to the other. The commercial twist to the okada tale as I know it, started from Aflao and other eastern border towns of the Volta Region, apparently having filtered in from neighbouring Togo. It’s spread further as far as to the central business district. Between the Central Business District (Central Post Office area), Palledium and satellite areas like Mamprobi, Dansoman, Korle-Bu as well as on the Mallam – Kasoa highway, the use of Okadas have become rampant by each passing day. The contention of the law enforcement agencies, especially the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service is simply that, the activities of using motorcycles for commercial purposes is counter productive. According to the MTTU, even though Okadas may be serving purposes as helping passengers ease through the traffic burden within the capital and making movement between two points easier and at minimal cost, the city is better-off without motorcycles. On the human safety angle, Okadas have been identified as primary to most motor accidents as supported by records at the accident centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), where motor victims are brought in dead or with varying levels of amputation. This is largely the case because, riders of okaka aside picking passengers at unauthorized spots, also resort to riding on the shoulder of roads and on pedestrian walk ways, by so doing endangering the lives of road users. Aside that, most riders are not the real owners as the bikes, usually unregistered are given out to riders to use for the totally illegal and commercial venture that so very much endangers the general public. Another beef of the Police stemming from the fact that, most riders and patrons hardly have any safety gear on to protect themselves in the eventuality of an accident. The flagrant flouting of such basic rules has made okadas very unpopular at least to Police. Officials of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), have at the least opportunity, time without number on different platforms reemphasized the urgent need for even private users of motorcycles to use necessary accoutrements as and when. Patrons have mostly done so on the back of escaping the unbearable traffic situation and shuttling between two points with speed. On the point about patrons being as guilty as the motor riders, patrons irrespective of age, gender and social status, are willing to risk it than remain stranded in some part of the capital city for only God knows how long. OKADA AND THE LAW The law is explicit on commercial use of motorcycles outlawing it in no uncertain terms. Through legislative instrument (LI) 956 of 1974 coupled with regulation 64 of the Motor Traffic Act, the practice is banned irrespective of whatever purposes it serves. Another piece of legislation, LI 704 goes beyond the ban to recommend what punitive measures to be meted out to perpetrators found guilty of operating Okadas, amongst others it advocates fines, prison terms, seizure and auction of motorcycles. The Police have over time secured conviction for okada riders and almost always seized their motorcycles, crying out yet again about how these motors have been released to riders because they know some big man somewhere. The Police may have employed subterfuge as a means of apprehending recalcitrant riders and patrons of the act but the big question one is left to ask is; for how long can a resource constrained entity as theirs continue? SOLUTION The law may have had reasons to outlaw the use of okadas in a society as ours but beyond that, for a phenomenon that has if you like surreptitiously crept into the social fabric of our society, fighting it I am afraid might not be the way to go. True though as it may be, that these okadas serve one purpose or the other but also is the breeding ground to some social vice that we all loathe. The solution could also be embedded in a deep and dispassionate look at the phenomenon by relevant stakeholders and if need be, regularize it. Regularizing it will mean, these riders will have to be certified by the relevant state authority, and by that an oversight of sorts can be cast on operation of okadas. But until such a time, my brotherly advice to riders is that they watch their backs because the passenger seated behind might just be a Police constable on a mission to arrest them for an act the law frowns upon.