It was the current Chairman of the Nigeria Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Brigadier General Buba Marwa (rtd) that first introduced the commercial tricycle popularly called Keke Marwa, in Lagos, when he was military administrator of Lagos State from 1996 to 1999.
His intention was to proffer solution to the transport challenge in the ever-growing city. This was how his name came to be attached to the vehicle.
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It became more popular when erstwhile president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, introduced the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP). The programme imported a large quantity of tricycles for the unemployed youth for poverty alleviation and to ease transport challenge in areas where commercial motorcycle popularly called okada was banned due to high incidences of accident that were landing riders and passengers in orthopaedic wards.
But when the duo of Marwa and Obasanjo brought the tricycle to the road transport system, neither did they, nor commuters who embraced it with joy, know that it would turn out to be a menace or nuisance to the public.
There is no doubt that it has so many advantages – the fare is affordable, it can navigate bad roads and meander between other vehicles during gridlock scenarios, but yet it poses myriads of challenges that make the public describe it as a curse rather than blessing.
Reasons? The riders are often reckless, flout road and traffic rules, harass other road users with impunity, some times aid robbery and cause road accidents.
Most riders do not get adequate training before putting a tricycle on the road. Riders also over speed.
Worryingly, too, riders do not consider the tricycles as bikes because they have three tyres.
So, they make bold to dare cars and heavy duty vehicles such as trailers, tankers and trucks.
In their thousands, they have taken over the highways and struggle for space, without recourse to danger.
Although the menace is obvious in different parts of the country where Keke NAPEP is popular, the rate is becoming so worrisome in some particular areas in Nasarawa State that are very close to FCT. The areas include Nyanya, Mararaba, Ado, Masaka, Kuchikau, Uke, Tudunwada, Auta and several others. All these areas are along the Abuja-Keffi Expressway. The highway is ever busy with different kinds of trucks, as well as cars which ply it on top speed to Keffi, Lafia, Makurdi, and Jos.
Daily Trust Saturday reports that Keke NAPEP are rampant on the highway without fear of the inherent danger. It appears that the three-wheel feather weight vehicle which can easily be blown off the road by bigger vehicles, causing accident and grief to commuters, is the major source of transport in these areas.
But the owners and riders smile to the banks, while commuters groan.
Scores of commuters in the areas are at their mercy due to scarcity of taxis.
Several people who spoke to Daily Trust Saturday, told tales of bitter experiences boarding Keke NAPEP.
One of them, Abibat Hussein, who lives very close to the expressway in Kuchikau area said: “Recently, Kuchikau, a mother, her baby and a male passenger died while commuting in a Keke NAPEP to Mararaba. The rider was in the middle of the road on top speed. He was trying to overtake another vehicle when the Keke summersaulted.”
Another eye witness who does not want her name in print said: “Early this year, a breadwinner who had his brain ripped following a Keke accident, landed in a hospital after the rider ran into a big gutter. He needs about N1 million for brain surgery in India. His family is now destabilised.”
A retired soldier and pastor living in Kuchikau also sustained heavy injuries recently while commuting in a Keke NAPEP.
“I was going to Mararaba in a Keke NAPEP. Suddenly, I discovered that the rider was weaving between other vehicles. Before I could caution him, he lost control and the Keke crashed. I and the only lady in the tricycle sustained serious injuries. But nothing happened to the rider. The bruises suffered by the lady have defaced her,” he said.
Another victim, Martina Okoh said: “One day, I was commuting in a keke NAPEP from Kuchikau to Maraba market. We were three in the tricycle, including the driver. Suddenly, a petrol tanker sped past us and blew the keke off the road. We landed in a gutter. All of us sustained serious injuries and were taken to a nearby hospital immediately. I spent one week in the hospital.”
Another accident eye witness, Mariam Baba, said: “There was one that happened at Gwandara recently. Some vehicles and tricycles were struggling for space. Suddenly, one of the vehicles on top speed ran into one of the kekes. Immediately, the keke somersaulted three times and scattered. Thank God that he was not carrying any passenger.
A woman who lives in One Man Village, along the Abuja Keffi Expressway but has a shop at Masaka said: “I am scared of keke NAPEP. But that is the main source of transportation in our area here. Okada and taxis are few because keke has taken over the road. I escaped accident two times, while riding in it. I wait to take okada no matter how long it takes me to get any. As for me, okada is better than Keke NAPEP because it is very light.”
A civil servant who lives in Masaka and rides in his car to his office in Wuse in the FCT said: “Everyday is a nightmare to me when I drive through Mararaba/Nyanya along the Abuja/Keffi Expressway to my office in Wuse because of Keke NAPEP. The riders are many on the very busy road. Apart from the fact that they cause traffic jam, they are reckless because they don’t care about other road users. They struggle for road with cars. One evening, I was driving in a very heavy traffic and one of them scratched my car. When I blocked him and asked him to pay for it, many of them milled around me and wanted to mob me. I had to drive away from the scene. It’s not only me; they usually cause many road users grief and get away with it.”
Riders speak
A keke operator who plies Mararaba, Nyanya, Masaka and Auta terminal, while explaining their mode of operations, said: “We have three unions. They include black union, white union and national union. All of them are recognised by Karu Local Government. If anybody buys a new keke, he can decide to register with any union of his choice at N5,000 and collect his ID card as well as the Karu Local Government NURTW sticker before he can qualify to put the keke on the road.
“The registration is renewed every year with N500. We pay N300 as ticket fee everyday, and when we complain of multiple tickets, they tell us that it is government that made it like that. I am a secondary school certificate holder. I couldn’t get a job after school; that is why I am riding Keke to take care of my family because I am married and have children. I have been in the keke business for one year and five months. But, if I am able to raise money, I will start my own business.”
Another rider who explained reasons why the operators are always unruly and flouting traffic rules said: “Why we rush is that we try to escape arrest by the task force and police especially if the keke is not registered.”
An operator also said: “Some of us don’t have our own Keke. Three or four of us ride only one keke in a day by handing over to one another. We hire and ride, and then return to the only person recognised by the owner. If it gets to somebody’s turn, he will be rushing to make money fast before it is time to hand over to another person. If somebody starts in the morning, he may hand over to another person by 12pm.
“Then the person will hand over to another person by 6pm, while another person will ride till late in the night.
“But the owner of the keke recognises only one person who will deliver the agreed amount for the day. That is how we help themselves to survive. If I hire and make N3,000, I can submit N2,000 and N1,000 becomes my own.
“We deliver at least N2,000 or N3,000 to the owner everyday. We also pay N300 everyday as ticket fee. That is why we are always rushing to meet up.”
Another rider said: “Most of the accidents are caused by the non-Nigerians riders. They can even cross your way and match break, and if you touch them, they will fight you. If you are not their brother or relative, they can gather together and beat you up. They are mostly from Niger Republic but speak Hausa. And they are the people who fail to register with the association.
“Some accidents that happen are not keke riders’ fault. They are mostly caused by other vehicles. For instance, the one that happened at One Man Village recently was caused by a pilot vehicle. The keke rider was on his lane and not on top speed, but when the pilot vehicle driver blew siren to clear the road, a coaster bus driver turned his hand and pushed the keke off the road and it crashed and scattered. Thank God the rider was not carrying any passenger but he was heavily injured.
Nasarawa Govt to organize training for riders
Poised to curb the menace, the Nasarawa State Government is putting machinery in place to organise a one-day sensitization workshop for keke riders.
The training, which is anchored by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, is aimed at exposing them to requisite knowledge about traffic rules and regulations as well as road signs across the state.
The Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Dogo Shamah, who disclosed this to Daily Trust Saturday, said there was no plan by the state government to repatriate the Keke NAPEP riders to their respective states of origin.
He, however, lamented infiltration of Keke NAPEP riders in the state.
The Director of Road Traffic Vehicles Inspector Officer in the state, Engineer Victor Iya, said the agency was planning to have an interface with the tricycle operators’ union to reconsolidate the road traffic training organised for riders last year.
It added that the training on rules and regulations that govern the federal high way, if completed, would reduce the rate of Keke NAPEP-related accidents.
He, however, warned that anybody that violated the traffic rules would be arrested and prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others.
The Chairman of National Commercial Tricycle Owners/Riders Association in Karu Local Government Yusuf Mohammed said plying highway with Keke NAPEP was abnormal because it is meant for streets and neighbourhood roads.
He added that it was the high rate of unemployment and hardship in the country that had compelled transport authorities to tolerate them.
He, however, assured of government’s plans to evacuate the riders from the highways as soon as the harsh economic conditions improved.
Yusuf noted that to curb the riders’ recklessness, he usually called on the taskforce to arrest culprits and bring them to his office for caution and punitive measures to serve as deterrent.
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