Okada, the nigerian Zemijan

Okada (also: achaba, inaga^[1]) refers to commercial motorcycles in Nigeria, where motorcycle riders carry passengers for hire. The name Okada is borrowed from the then popular Airline in Nigeria, the Okada Air. A local airline that was not popular for its confort but remained the most used local airline in the country. In an ironic metaphor the first group of motorcycle transporters were then given this name okada. Because of the comic irony of this name being used for a cyclist and for the popularity of the airline, the name okada for the commercial motorcyclist was never to be forgotten and eventually became as popular as it is now. Many people do not even remember that there was any thing like Okada air any more. Okada began to gain popularity in the late 80s when because of economic difficulties in the last years of the first decade of the Nigerian economic crunch, some jobless youths began to use this age-old transport system for commercial purposes, to transport some stranded but willing passengers through the narrow or bad roads to the far inaccessible parts of the cities or villages. It is one of the chief modes of transport in Nigeria and, by far, the most common form of informal transport system in that country. It is easily affordable for the common man and very flexible. Above all okada is readily available: one can hadly wait too long for an okada to come arround, even in the remotest villages they appear in given intervals. There is no road too narrow or a place too remote for Okada. It became for the common man a wellcome alternative to the sometimes short but often long walk to-and-fro home after a long journey or a days job - a short trecking under the sun (for example from a commercial car park where the passengers are picked or dropped collectively) that is more tedious and arduous than it looks. For these reasons okada became quickly beloved and did not take long to convince its critics and soon the fears or recentments of the early inception were dissolved into calculable risks that accompany all transportation. The popularity and widespread acceptance of okada has rapidly risen in recent years. It has become a regular means of transportation for the young and old, man or woman. Unfortunately, the rise of okada has been accompanied by increased levels of high-risk behavior and accidents on Nigerian roads; as a result they have come under heavy flak culminating in legislations restricting or prohibiting their operations in some Nigerian cities….

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