It was in April this yr that the Minister of Transport held a stakeholder session in Accra and laid bare particulars a few model new legislative instrument with tighter operational measures concerning the operations of financial bike operations, generally called okada.

The Minister referred to the legislative instrument, LI 2180, saying the federal authorities was going to introduce a model new licensing regime to spice up the monitoring of financial bikes and tricycles and assure operators met the necessary competency necessities required. Call it resetting the agenda, and likewise you may not be faraway from it.

Subsequent to that, a few months up to now, some official of the National Roads Safety Commission (NRSC) moreover educated us that in line with the President’s beautiful reset agenda for the parents of Ghana, enterprise bike operation was being re-organised to bind operators and get them to perform contained in the authorized pointers and guidelines of the commerce. 

Some of us who’ve been direct or indirect victims of the lawlessness of Okada riders clapped with pleasure, for the time definitely was now for some decency to be delivered to bear on Okada riders who had totally descended into the realms of indiscipline on our roads.

Reset agenda

But the place are we now with the reset agenda, as a result of it seems the impunities of Okada riders have gotten out of hand. When the Minister of Transport held his stakeholder engagement, he made it understand that “the federal authorities’s utmost priority is the safety and welfare of the riders and passengers”. The picture on our roads as we converse seems reverse to that assertion.  Indeed, better than ever, the safety of all totally different avenue clients is a worry as long as these operators keep freely on our roads.

Okada numbers have multiplied as if heaven has broken unfastened.  Their recklessness is at its highest.  Has their reset taken a U-turn, with a re-energised and emboldened agenda like on no account sooner than? 

Have the doorways of the enterprise bike group been broadly opened to the extent that it has now develop to be a group line for every body? Roads in cities like Accra are already choked with vehicular actions, so together with the menace of Okada with no regard for avenue safety guidelines makes it a nightmare to be driving on these related roads.

Now in a website guests standstill, one sees so numerous them whisk earlier using the little or no areas which is likely to be left between autos, not in a single line nonetheless in two strains – one throughout the lane beneath a driver’s left driving mirror and one different close to the perfect driving mirror. 

Ambush

One sometimes feels ambushed. Scratches on our autos and even sometimes, knocked-down driving mirrors occur as they hurry on to flee a driver’s fury. Meanwhile, their rush by means of the location guests locations their very personal lives in peril. Just closing week, on the George Bush Highway, an Okada rider driving very shut in between two shifting autos misplaced steadiness and, throughout the course of, he banged his head carefully on the aspect of a slow-moving vehicle to his left.  His luck was that he had a helmet on; in some other case, it might need been a extremely nasty accident. 

Whether it is part of the reset course of, these days they congregate at avenue intersections the place police website guests wardens are, prepared for group. Perhaps making an attempt to imitate what some house taxis do, they, too, are slowly construct up Okada ranks.

Sadly, even throughout the clear view of the police, these explicit particular person riders disregard order and park anyhow, sometimes on pavements, and thus blocking avenue entry by pedestrians. There is not any order.

Not solely are they ceaselessly making driving on our roads a chore, nonetheless their operation principally has made driving in areas the place they perform of their numbers so intimidating and dangerous for any cautious driver.

As for working by means of the pink lights and reverse directions, it has develop to be part of their recreation, police or no police watch.

Until the LI comes into energy and a model new licensing regime to spice up the monitoring of Okada operations is unveiled, would possibly the authorities be reminded that the Okada group is multiplying by the day, and so are the risks they pose to law-abiding drivers on the road. Their reset is prolonged overdue, notably for the model new ones who’ve these days joined the bandwagon. One can inform them by their strikes in website guests. They assume they know, nonetheless they don’t know.

Their rising numbers and unruly behaviours on our roads are disturbing our peace and our think about the roads. Okada is a regression by every customary. They take fairly a bit away from decency on the roads with their behaviour. 

If the reset is to have them fall in line by means of regulation, then the earlier the upper. Hopefully, if strictly enforced, the LI should make life further bearable on the road as every particular person falls of their lane. One fervently prays for that day.

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The writer might be contacted by means of e-mail: vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not primarily signify the views or protection of Multimedia Group Limited.