FROM OKADA TO DONKEY When commercial motorcycles were banned in Minna, our friend SAUNA JACK was disturbed by the suffering and inconvenience faced by commuters. An idea occurred to him. He travelled to the village and brought down his father’s donkey. He rode the donkey to the city centre- Mobil and started chanting “Mobil to Kpakungu ten-ten naira!” Nobody was interested in riding on the donkey. SAUNA got cracking and formed an idea. He rushed to a carpenter for a wooden cart to be drawn by the donkey. Now happy with his ingenuity he rushed back to Mobil. “Mobil to Kpakungu ten-ten naira!” he hollered non-stop. No show still. SAUNA JACK was not discouraged rather he cracked his brain the more. He went for a large tarpaulin with which he covered the donkey. With the donkey well concealed he rode back to Mobil. Desperate commuters would still not risk a ride. SAUNA JACK was not a quitter so he thought of a way to get suffering commuters to embrace his service. He figured that transit equipment should be noisy. He quickly fixed a microphone and a speaker to his vehicle and rushed back to Mobil. Now his slogan was “Keke Talba…Keke Talba…Keke Talba…Keke Talba…Keke Talba…Mobil to Kpakungu thirty naira…Mobil to Kpakungu thirty naira!” Fantastic, unbelievable! Behold the dozens of stranded passengers falling over themselves to jump unto SAUNA donkey cart! Guess how much SAUNA JACK pocketed home at the end of the day’s business? Thousands of naira of course! The lessons from this story are numerous and very consequential. People are facing serious mobility challenges as a result of the ban on commercial motorcycles. Scarcity has been created and commuters will have to trek long distances. Thousands of erstwhile commercial motorcyclists have been rendered jobless. Clusters of businesses have also been shut down along with the commercial motorcyclists. Examples of such businesses that have been innocently and unceremoniously machine-gunned to death include food sellers, mechanics, vulcanizers, spare parts sellers, roadside fuel hawkers etc. Even new motorcycle dealers will experience sharp decline to their trade. Investors, civil servants and petty money bags who have found the business of buying and letting or hiring out commercial motorcycles much profitable are today grudgingly licking their wounds and counting their loses. But against the background of mass disengagement, disinvestment, disenchantment and disillusionment occasioned by the disappearance of the “Okada” gold mine, beyond the powerful wind of change and deprivation is a stream of opportunities. SAUNA JACK, our imaginary investor cum inventor has taken a cursory look at the horror and sorrow occasioned by the ban and discovers a veritable income stream. The opportunity of course is not on a platter of gold and is by no means a get-rich-quick scheme. It involves a lot of brainwork, some trial and error and unavoidably thinking aggressively out of the box. While cash flow is the life blood of virtually all productive enterprise, transportation is the platform of conveyance of all such activities. The government may be right in banning Okada as a mode of public transportation on security and road safety grounds. It may also be justified in introducing motorized tricycles popularly called Keke Napep as an alternative to Okada. But what to our thinking the government has not gotten right is the technical logistics in phasing out commercial motorcyclists. Before the ban adequate number of tricycles ought to have been procured and given to about-to-be-sacked commercial motorcyclists on hire purchase basis under very favourable conditions of payment. As it is, the number of tricycles in circulation is grossly inadequate and this brings us back to the unfolding virgin stream of opportunities. Moneybags are already buying tricycles in scores. Even microfinance banks are seen to have financed a good number of tricycles. The truth about the new revolution is that intra city mass transit has never been so lucrative, so juicy. Our word to loaded fence sitters, plunge in and grab a share of the goody before the arena becomes overcrowded. For the super rich with strong inclination to investment in automotive hi-tech, this is an irresistible goldmine. Establishing manufacturing plants for tricycles will be a big plus for would be investors and a greater boost to the economy. The new National Automotive Policy seeks to encourage the production of made-in-Nigeria cars and to discourage the importation of used and new cars over the long run. This should ordinarily be cheering news. However, experts have criticized the new policy on the following grounds. The our social infrastructure is in total decay, electricity supply is epileptic, the steel rolling mills are comatose, foundries and other local feeder and support industries like tire and battery manufacturing companies are dead. Completely knocked down parts as well as fully automated assembly lines down to human technical support would all be imported. This would make local manufactured autos much beyond the reach of the common man and nonsense of the entire policy. The proper thing would have been for the policy to have focused on the local manufacture of tricycles or even bicycles considering the technological non-complexity of the production circle for this class of autos. All hope is not lost as one or two locally fabricated tricycles in the making have been sighted. Trust the ingenuity of our local roadside fabricators. This will prove a voluptuous goldmine if properly tapped. All hope is also not lost for motorcycle mechanics. They seem to have been technically edged out of their trade. A handful of them have switched over to the repairs of tricycles…bravo! Rather than quitting or staying marooned in deprivation and joblessness the path of honour is the upgrade of their expertise. Wouldn’t be as bad as starting from the scratch, they are already equipped with the fundamentals, the nitty-gritty. All it would take is a little self denial and a little reorientation. Same goes for motorcycle spare parts sellers. The little assurance against hunger is a little diversification…stock up with essential tricycle parts. Motorcycle dealers will also drum up more sales by adding a few tricycles to their brands. Some have already gone digging and it’s my bet as well as yours that they are already smiling all the way to the bank. Pals, LIKE and SHARE our post and please be our FRIEND if you are not yet one. We desire so much to make a change to our society. Let’s have your criticism, contribution and comments and together we shall kick out poverty and unemployment out of our nation!
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 11:34:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015