Okada Rider

 Written by Blessed Adjekpagbon

There are three different categories of motorbike riders in Nigeria. They are "Okada" riders, Dispatch riders and Power bike riders. The brand and quality of the bike determines the type of service it is usually used for according to government regulations. 

Among the three categories, an Okada rider is the most popular because a lot of folks in the city patronize him as a commercial motorcyclist. He can navigate to rugged nooks and crannies where commercial cabs and buses cannot access. Therefore, Okada is a local word used among Nigerians to identify a commercial motorcyclist.

Different factors distinguish an Okada rider from both the dispatch or power bike riders. Firstly, it is an individual commercial motorcycling business for transporting folks and goods to different places within a suburb or from one suburb to another.

Unlike an okada rider, a dispatch rider works for a particular courier company. He delivers small parcels to clients on behalf of the company he works for. In most cases, a delivery box is usually mounted on the position of the bike's back seat. However, a power bike rider is a private individual that uses his highly superior machine for his personal movement at a fast pace to wherever he likes.

Both the dispatch and power bikes' riders are usually well kitted with safety helmets to protect their skulls from cracking in case they get involved in an accident. But most or nearly all okada riders in Nigeria don’t wear safety helmets despite government rules and regulations that ordered them to do so.

The second difference is that an average okada rider belongs to a special union of "Okada Riders Welfare Association of the National Union of Road Transport Workers" in the country. He operates in any branch of the association he chooses to ply especially in Lagos. He pays tax daily to the association, unlike a dispatch or power bike rider. This makes him always eager to make as much money as he could to cover his daily expenditures on tax, fuel and maintenance of his bike. The back seat of the bike that is meant for carrying one passenger at a time is sometimes used to carry two or more passengers to make extra money. He is fond of meandering sometimes dangerously between many cars or vehicles whenever he runs into traffic jam. He does so like a snake running between trees in an orchard, to get to his destination as fast as possible. This is one of the reasons a lot of folks patronize him.

Despite their appreciable contributions towards making some Nigerians overcome the delays caused by traffic jams, many okada riders are not professionally trained. Although there are a lot of graduates practicing okada riding in various places in the country, the majorities of the riders are illiterates and disobey traffic laws. This has caused a lot of avoidable accidents on the roads.

Prior to the advent of commercial motorcycling business in Nigeria's major cities such as Lagos, Kano, Warri and Port Harcourt to mention a few, the informal act of using motorbike as a means of transporting people from place to place was commonplace mostly in underdeveloped or rural environments of the country. 

As time went by, as the population of the country began to increase astronomically, it caused serious rural - urban drift. For instance, as people keep trooping from rural areas into the city of Lagos to look for greener pastures in the face of continuous yearly increase in the production of graduates by Nigeria's higher institutions on one hand, and lack of employment opportunities to accommodate them on the other, many took to "Okada riding" as a source of making a living.

Nonetheless, to be a successful okada rider in a vast commercial city like Lagos, one should have a great knowledge of the roads networks. Whether an okada rider is operating within the streets in a suburb or plying the major expressways, he has to be able to appropriately calculate how much fuel he will burn to cover a distance to and fro. This will enables him to charge the right amount of money from any passenger that solicits his service. If he is not good at calculating the cost of fuel required for transporting passengers or goods to and fro any given destination, he may run into a loss.

In conclusion, the business of a commercial motorcyclist is very dangerous as an average ckada rider in Nigeria is always in a haste to make money, and disobeys traffic laws most times. Several accidents have been recorded between some reckless drivers and okada riders in Lagos. Some vehicles’ drivers see an average commercial motorcyclist as a rival contesting speed with them on the expressways. Therefore, an okada rider operating on any expressway is usually exposed to getting knocked down either due to the recklessness of some vehicles drivers or due to negligence of traffic rules and regulations by commercial motorcyclists.

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Freedom From Spiritual, Physical, Emotional Darkness Of Disobedience

Title: Grow Where You Are Planted

Author: Saviour Ekere

Year: 2022

Reviewer: Blessed Mudiaga Adjekpagbon

Saviour Ekere's newest work titled "Grow Where You Are Planted," is an inspirational book which the author says the Holy Spirit inspired him to write for the benefit of mankind in this period of global crisis.

Its foreword is written by Pastor Daniel llori who says: "To connect with purpose, you need to connect with the purpose driven God who is interested in opening you to what matters most in your life. This book opens the mind to the need to get connected and grow purposefully. It gives insight to why you need to be planted where God's purpose for your life can be fulfilled. Once you are connected and stay connected, you will be directed (Psalm 37:23, 32:8)."

Divided into six chapters, the topics in the book are: "Grow Where You Are Planted," "The Garden ls Your Place," "Adversity ln The Garden," "You Are A Fruit Tree," "Everyone Created by God ls Great," and "Just Trust And Obey."

Mr. Saviour Ekere

The cover title, "Grow Where You Are Planted" is very insightful as it tends to advise folks to obey the voice of God by following the direction He asks them to follow to their promised land, instead of just following or copying others blindly in a world where many people prefer to listen to the voice of men instead of God's. Hence, the cover story xrays why some folks fail to prosper in life. lt however, provides remedies to how one can overcome the spirit of disobedience to God's voice, so that one can grow where he/she is ordained to prosper.

"The garden is your place," is a reminder about where God originally created humans to live and enjoy. Aside the beauty of the garden, this topic says the garden nourishes and enriches the body with various herbs and fruits in it. It dwells on how some folks fall out of their garden of enjoyment into the abyss of suffering into a "forest of life" that involves pain and sorrow. What to do to avoid falling from the garden of enjoyment are also pinpointed in the chapter.

"Adversity in the garden," portrays a saying that "Life is full of ups and downs." Here, the author shares his experience about the adversity of life. He refers to a poem about the adversity of life, which is one of his creative works, to boost folks moral in the face of adversity. The poem is titled "Press On." It is a  stylistically woven  sonnet, crafted with heroic or even couplet rhymes of aa, bb, cc, dd, ee and so on and so forth. This shows the creative gift of the author by using poetry in a simplified manner to pass across a message of encouragement to inspire readers to be hopeful by the grace of the Holy Spirit. He delves the reader's mind into different situations that have been overcome by those that positively press on.

"You are a fruit tree," is a periscope of what Psalm 1: 3, says, "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither, and whatever he does shall proper." Using this as a bedrock, Ekere talks about the folly of being ignorant and pretentious. He posits that "If you are operating below the benchmark of God's expectation, there is a problem. You need to go back to God who will recreate, rebrand and remake  you." One could sense his play with alliteration in his quoted advice to those that want God's immediate intervention in their life. It is one of the author's hallmarks of writing as a creative scholar with inspirational light.

Moreover, "Everyone created by God is great," is an expository of the author's experience as a teacher in a secondary school. He shares his observation in his interactions with students, teachers and parents on one hand, and the underrating of latent  skills in students by parents / teachers who give too much attention to grades, on the other. ln this regard, he avers that "My concern is this, most of these students we label 'poor' have potentials of creating something apart from being confined to school subjects and grades." What the author is simply saying in this chapter is that "Education should develop the minds and not to confine children to conventional life style." 

He makes reference to Albert EInstein, Robert Kiyosaki, Thomas Edison, Lao Tzu and Psalm 4:7 to buttress the need to also develop skills of students instead of focusing only on the grades they make in subjects.

In "Just trust and obey," the last but not the least chapter, the author presents a microscopic and macroscopic analysis of a popular song known as "Trust and obey." It examines the power of obedience in conjunction with Romans 4: 18 -12 and various biblical verses to encourage folks about how to become successful by growing where they are planted, instead of trying to dictate to God what He should do.

By and large, the messages in the book are very insightful about how we can overcome different challenges in life with reliance on scriptural and positive attitude of obeying the Holy Spirit towards doing things that may not appear significant to our egos, yet ordained by God to take us to great heights of accomplishing our individual destinies in life. A versatile reader will certainly observe that the author carried out commendable sociological, scriptural and scholarly researches that gave birth to the highly inspiring book. With the situation of happenings in the world today, the book could help to save many folks from loosing hope or going astray, and also help those that have already gone astray to retrace their steps, to embrace salvation and success.

Saviour Ekere has written various inspirational books over the years. One of them is titled "Think Outside The Box."  "Grow Where You Are Planted" is available on amazon platform via this link: https://www.amazon.com/GROW-WHERE-YOU-ARE-PLANTED-ebook/dp/B09Y98TYXQ/

Ekere teaches English Language at a private secondary school in Lagos. He is married and living fine with his family.

 

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Magazine Review: ln retrospect: Nigeria's private schools' proprietors activities in 2021

 Written by Blessed Adjekpagbon

The first edition of The Nigerian Education Times magazine of 2022 is replete with a lot of interesting and insightful stories concerning some notable news and events that happened in 2021 after schools fully resumed from Covid - 19 induced lockdown.

The cover story titled NAPPS Establishes Conference Centre / Estate In Agbowa, Lagos, talks about the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) and its proposed establishment of a conference centre / estate in Agbowa, Ikorodu area of Lagos State, Nigeria.

According to NAPPS President, Chief Olawale Amusa, "
NAPPS Conference Center / Estate will start soonest with the acquisition of already out 120 plots of land, fenced in an easily accessible area at Agbowa, Lagos State." 

Other interesting articles in the magazine's contents includes In search for quality education in Nigeria; Enough of distraction to education of the Nigerian child; Name Lagos State University (LASU) after Jakande, Curbing act of bullying in schools, Challenges in managing the secondary education sector, Press Release: Step up school safety measures, Lagos urges school administrators; There is the need to address the challenges faced by women and children in Nigeria.

ln addition, some notable topics that also feature in the magazine are: "Reforming Education in Nigeria; No nation makes meaningful progress in its development, without embracing science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship; WAEC announces release of results of the West African Senior School Certificate examination for school candidates; and My husband is not the true biological father of our son.

However, the press release by the Lagos State Ministry of Education is worth highlighting as it urges administrators in both public and private schools operating in the state, to step up school safety measures to curb negative happenings in their environment.

Part of the press statement by the state Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folashade Adefisayo says "School administrators should devise appropriate strategies to advance teacher/student interaction in order to gain an insight and expose negative tendencies before they metamorphosed into unfortunate situations." This is very imperative at this time because of recent happenings among some private schools’ students in the state, in terms of the death of a student of one popular private school in Lekki suburb, and a pornographic video of a junior female student of another private school that went viral on the internet.

Another noteworthy article in the magazine is the one titled "No nation makes meaningful progress in its development, without embracing science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship." This assertion is credited to Nigeria's current Minister of Science, Technology and lnnovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu. In the article written by Ebenezer Oloyede, the minister says the "political will" to provide quality education is important for innovation, sustainable growth and socio - economic development across nations.

Nonetheless, the concluding part of the magazine is a human interest story titled "My husband is not the true biological father of our son."  In the article, a woman confesses that she got married 35 years ago and the marriage is blessed with three children- a male and two females. The trio are university graduates. lt is an interesting read and highly recommended for those who might want to know the details in order to learn some lessons from it. 

Some commendable qualities of the magazine are its glossy and colorful pages from its beginning to the end, bright/clear pictures of various notable personalities, divers schools' advertisements; coupled with very simple diction. These make reading it worthwhile.

Chief Tunde Ogunsola is the magazine's Editor - in - Chief and CEO. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria.

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