Commercial motorcycles called Okada have become a major passenger mode in Nigerian cities. Road crashes involving motorcycles are substantial and rising. This paper therefore examines whether these operators were actually licensed to ride. The survey shows that about 58 per cent are illegal riders that are without driver's licence. While the majority with licences were found to be carrying fake licences. Ignorance was found not to be the reason for violating the driver licence law. The major reason for non acquisition of licence was found to be the high fee for the driver's licence, which makes the operators prefer to pay N20 bribe to the traffic law enforcement officers to licence acquisition. For the Okada operators to be properly tutored in highway usage through proper licensing, the government should reduce the fee in order to encourage the operators to have proper tutoring in road safety, a requirement for genuine issuance of driver licence. Also road traffic law enforcement should be invigorated, while the institutions involved in enforcement should be equipped for the challenges of driver licence issuance and enforcement. (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see E216632.
Samenvatting