Friday, January 9, 2009

New helmet law in Nigeria

So I'm not sure if it is really a new law or the enforcement of an already existing law but as of Jan 1 all Okada (small motorcycle) drivers and passengers are required to wear helmets.



The penalty for not wearing a helmet is the seizure or your motorbike. Therefore most of the riders have some kind of head protection. I've notice a lot of people with construction hard hats, some with bicycle helmets, and some are wearing actual motorcycle helmets. Some however like this guy in the picture, either can't afford to procure a correct helmet or have decided to make a statement that they think this particular law is not in their best interest. Most of the people here think (not incorrectly) that every new law is simply a way for the police to extort money off the local population.

Some of the riders simply refuse to wear helmets testing if the police will actually seize the bike. I heard somewhere that in Lagos there were in excess of 1000 bikes taken on Jan 1. I'm not certain if that was truly correct but it makes sense because every time I go out I see at least 2 or 3 being confiscated along my trip, and I don't go very far.

A lot of the passengers don't like to wear them (for good reason) because so many other passengers have worn them and it is quite unsanitary. Some refuse to wear them because they think that the driver has put some kind of spell on the helmet and it is going to cause them bad luck if they wear it. Some just don't like it.

I think if they continue to enforce this law then most people will eventually get on board with it. The riders will buy their own personal helmets and they will become safer but if they don't continue to enforce it then it simply turns into another law on the books that they police can use to get money off of the local people, but I guess only time will tell.

No comments: