The saying that “What a man can do, a woman can do better” finds some expression on the streets of Ibadan where a number of women have taken to riding tricycles for commercial purposes. PAUL OMOROGBE tells their story.

In the beginning, they looked like an oddity in the ancient city of Ibadan known for its conservativeness. However, today they are fast gaining recognition within the transport system in Ibadan.

In a bid to make ends meet amidst economic hardship, these industrious women have taken the bull by the horn operating as tricycle riders on the busiest routes of the city.

Sighting them on the streets is rare, because they remain in the minority. But you will be sure to see them after a while.
Mrs Fikayo Esther Ogunmokun, a mother of five, was in dire straits a while ago before she began riding commercial tricycle over a year ago. She was one of the affected traders whose shop at Orita-Challenge area of Ibadan was demolished to make way for the road expansion in the area.

“I was deep in debt at the time when it happened. So I had to take up the job of a domestic help. I was being paid N1,500 whenever I could find clothes to wash or cleaning to do in someone’s house. I was often left with N500 to take home after servicing my debt on a daily basis. This was nowhere near enough to take care of my family’s needs.
“I started thinking of what to do. I was inspired by one elderly woman we call ‘grandma’ that I once saw riding a tricycle. I was at Orita one day and I boarded one ‘maruwa’ heading to Gate. I didn’t have anything doing there. I just wanted to talk to the driver about how he could teach me to ride the tricycle. He laughed at me when I said it. But I insisted that I was serious. He eventually agreed, and he took me to a place in town where he taught me for one day. I paid him N3000 that day for the training. The second day, we went out again and I had to pay him again.

Mrs Ogunmokun thereafter asked people around her for who she could get a tricycle from to ride. She eventually found someone who agreed to give her one to ride and that’s how she started.

“When I began early 2015, there were just three of us women in this business,” she added.

“I go out at 7am and close at about 8.30pm daily. My husband was skeptical about my going into this kind of thing, but he eventually agreed.”

Mrs Ogunmokun said that with a daily income being sure for her, she has been able to settle her debts and support the family which already has one undergraduate in a polytechnic in Ogun State.

“I used to make between N4000 and N5000 daily before the fuel hike. But with the increase, after buying fuel and making delivery to the owner of the tricycle, I make an average of N2,500.”

How have the male counterparts reacted to these women who have encroached on their turf? According to Mrs Ogunmokun it’s a mix of good and bad.

“There was a day I had a flat tire. One male ‘keke’ driver going in opposite direction stopped to come and help me raise the tricycle to change the tire. Some of the NURTW boys who sell tickets are civil, and the police don’t disturb us. But there are some male drivers who react angrily when they see us; maybe they feel we are delving into their world, or taking their jobs.”

The reaction of passengers is also two-way traffic: “There are some passengers who say that just for the fact that I am a woman they will enter. They admire a woman taking this step to make ends meet. Some will pay and ask me to keep the change, and there are others who refuse to enter because they are not confident women can ride it safely.”

Mrs Ajoke Oluwaseun, a female tricycle rider said she began with riding an ‘okada’.

“I had a dream one night that I was riding the tricycle little children play with. I used to work as a waste collector attached to one of the dump trucks of Oyo State Waste Management Authority. I gathered some money and bought an ‘okada’ which I would ride by myself to work, while carrying a few passengers on my way home.

After a while she thought to herself that she could also ride a tricycle. She found a person who gives out tricycles on hire purchase and took one.

“Nobody taught me how to ride a tricycle. I decided to do it because it was a far more profitable way to survive.”

Mrs Oluwaseun said that what she found to be a challenge was dealing with the union ticket sellers; otherwise she enjoyed riding the tricycle.

She has hopes that one day, she would be able to pay up the N720,000 payment target and the tricycle would become hers.

What makes the women-in-commercial-tricycle-riding phenomenon even more interesting is the fact that both the young and old are in it.

Aanu Bakare is a single woman in her early twenties plying the Molete-Gate route. She only began the business this year.

“I trained as a fashion designer. I am doing this because I need to raise money for my ‘freedom.’”

Though Aanu rides the tricycle with dexterity and said she has no issues with the males she meets while on duty, she adds that her love for fashion designing will take her off the streets once her target is met.

“I won’t do this for long because I want to go back to my previous trade. I have a partner who also rides this tricycle for business; she is a HND student.”

It has however not all been smooth sailing for this unique set of transport operators in Ibadan. Mrs Ogunmokun recounts an experience that put her out of business for over three months.

“After my first tricycle, I got a new one from one microfinance bank. Unfortunately, I had an accident. I was injured on my leg. It took me three months to recover. ;The bank took away the tricycle, and some sympathizers including my mother said that they told me that tricycle riding was not for women.” Undaunted by the incident, she got back on the streets saying, “There is no business without risks. For me this is far better than owning a shop with goods worth N1million, because sales are not sure every day, but with this I am sure that I will have something to take jome at the end of the day, no matter the number of passengers I convey to their destinations.”

The authorities of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife has shut down the campus indefinitely following protests by workers over the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor for the university by its Governing Council, The Gazelle reports.

The newly admitted students of the university presently going through orientation on campus have been ordered to vacate the school premises with immediate effect while resumption of the returning students has been postponed indefinitely.

The Registrar of the university, Dotun Awoyemo confirmed this to our correspondent on the telephone on Wednesday.

According to him, the management has decided to shut down the university for the safety of students and staff.

He said, “We have shut down the university indefinitely pending the time that we will resolve issues with our workers – Non-academic Staff of University (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (SSANU).

“We have asked our newly admitted students to go home and postponed the resumption of old students indefinitely.”
It was gathered that old students of the OAU were expected to resume next week after a two-month break.

Workers of the university under the aegis of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff of Universities (NASU) of OAU had begun their protests and strike action since June 6, after taking the university authorities to court over the appointment of the Deputy. VC of the school, Prof. Ayobami Salami as the new VC.

The protesting workers had on Tuesday appeared in red and black dresses accusing the university Governing Council of imposing the new vice-chancellor while they vowed to prevent Salami from resuming office on Friday.

The university management had threatened not to pay the salaries of the protesting workers should they continue with the protests and strike but the workers shunned the order as they resumed protests on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the tension on the campus heightened as the workers barricaded all roads leading to the Senate Building of the school preventing vehicular movement.

The workers said until the appointment of the new VC was reversed, they would continue to protest.
They vowed to prevent the new VC, who is expected to resume office on Friday.

OAU NASU chairman, Comrade Wole Odewunmi had accused the University Governing Council of illegality in the appointment of the new VC.

Also speaking, SSANU Chairman, Comrade Ademola Oketunde said the unions were set for showdown with the out-going VC, prof. Bamitale Omole as he completes his tenure on Thursday.

But authorities of OAU had argued that the appointment of the new VC followed due process saying the protests by the workers were uncalled for.

Aisha Buhari, the Wife of the President, has, on Wednesday, demanded a full retraction of a widely-circulated material distributed by Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, in which he claimed to have uncovered how Mrs. Buhari was allegedly mentioned as having transferred funds to a convicted former U.S. lawmaker, Williams Jefferson.

In a warning letter dispatched through her legal representatives, Mrs. Buhari said Mr. Fayose’s action was directly responsible for the publication of the “very wild and unfounded” allegations in the media.

Through the letter, titled: “Demand for unqualified retraction of the false statement published by you in various media on the 20th of June, 2016, and subsequent dates regarding our client, Her Excellency, Mrs. Aisha Buhari the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR,” the president’s wife gave Mr. Fayose five working days to retract the statement or face legal action.

“Our client has referred to us statement made by you and published on the 20th of June, 2016 (and other subsequent days) concerning and pertaining to her person for necessary action.

“The said statement which was caused by you and your agents to be widely circulated and published in various media platforms: print, electronic and online such as PREMIUM TIMES www.premiumtimesng.com on 20th of June, 2016, contains very wild, unfounded and false allegations and imputations against the person of our client.

“Specifically, in the said statement credited to you and signed by your Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, you, inter alia, false stated as follows:

“Even the president cannot claim to be an angel. The estate he built in Abuja is known to us. His wife was indicted over the Halliburton Scandal (sic). When that American, Jeferson, was being sentenced, the President’s wife was mentioned as having wired $170,000 to Jefferson. Her name was on page 25 of the sentencing of Jefferson. We can serialise the judgement for people to see and read,” Ismaila Alasa and Mary Ekpene, who signed the letter on behalf of the law firm, said.

“Take notice that unless you and your agents meet our humble demands within 5 (five) working days of the receipt of this letter, we shall take all necessary steps within the contemplation of the law to seek redress for our client.”

Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, could not immediately confirm or deny if Mary Ekpere & Co. is indeed the solicitors to Mr. Buhari.

Mr. Fayose had on Monday evening distributed a statement which contained excerpts of court documents sourced from the United States Department of Justice Website.

In the statement, Mr. Fayose said Mrs. Buhari was an accomplice in the bribery scandal that landed Mr. Jefferson in jail, saying he added the link as a proof.

Although an Aisha Buhari was mentioned in the case files, those who investigated the matter have, however, said that Aisha Buhari is an impostor and not the wife of Mr. Buhari.

Two former chairman of Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, have come out within the past two days say Mrs. Buhari had no connection with the Jefferson bribery scandal.

Abubakar Abdulrahaman, the killer of Ganiyu Akanbi Bello, a Kano business tycoon, philanthropist, and Yoruba leader, has been sentenced to death by hanging on Wednesday, by Justice Kabiru Auta of a Kano High Court.

According to Sahara Reporters, the accused, Abubakar Abdulrahaman, 28, was found guilty of culpable homicide punishable with death.

He was discharged and acquitted in another charge of armed robbery.

Mr. Abdulrahaman was accused of murdering Mr. Bello on the night of June 5, 2014 in his residence at the Nassarawa Government Reserved Area (GRA) opposite Kano Race Course when he stabbed the victim in the heart with a kitchen knife.

The prosecution led by M.M. Sulaiman of the State Ministry of Justice and assisted by the nominal complainant counsel, J.I. Macaulay of Kehinde Olaitan Chamber, called seven witnesses and tendered several exhibits.

The exhibits included the knife used by him to stab Mr. Bello and the Blackberry handset of the deceased inside which he inserted his own SIM card, which made the court indict him as part of circumstantial evidence.

Making his last plea for the accused, his counsel from the Legal Aid Council, Mr. Adama, urged the court to temper justice with mercy because of his aged mother, wife and children.

The trial judge in his final verdict said that the accused deserved no mercy having committed a capital offense by murdering a breadwinner like Mr. Bello. Justice Auta remarked that the accused showed no remorse throughout the trial. He returned a verdict of hanging by the neck for the accused until pronounced dead.

Mr. Abdulrahaman broke down in tears after the verdict, which made his mother collapse in the open court. The accused was a one-time staff of the deceased’s hotel.

Justice Auta added that the accused has the right to appeal the court’s decision within 30 days.

Tragedy struck at Alhaji Ede Avenue in Igando area of Lagos, after a 19-year-old lady allegedly committed suicide following a quarrel with her lover. The deceased, Uche Obiora, was said to have visited her lover’s home over the weekend. There were, however, different accounts as to how the tragedy struck.

A version of the account said a quarrel ensued between them, over suspicion by Obiora that her boyfriend, Ernest Ihaza, was having an affair with another lady.

Another version stated that during the visit, Ihaza announced his intention to discontinue with the relationship. During the verbal confrontation between them, Ernest was said to have stormed out of his apartment.

However on arrival, he reportedly met Uche writhing in pains on the floor holding on to her stomach. Ernest, who later reported the case at the Igando Police Division, disclosed that Uche drank poison, Vanguard reports.

Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmus, said: “Ernest Ihaza reported at the Igando Police Station that his girlfriend, Uche Obiora, committed suicide by drinking snipers insecticide. We are investigating the matter.”

The family of Late Stephen Keshi, the former national team’s coach and his wife’s are at loggerheads as to the final resting place of the former Nigerian coach and player. Reports have it that the Onyeogu Family Union of Ukpologwu Illah, Delta State has demanded that the remains of their son be buried on his ancestral ground in Illah.

However, the family of his late wife, Aburime have also requested that the body be buried on their ground as he was more of a son than an in-law to them. In a letter made available to news agency, Sports Vanguard, the union said:

“The issue that has caused us much anxiety is the proposal by the Aburime Family that they wish their in-law, our son, to be buried in Benin. As it is in Delta State, Edo State including the Ewu Kingdom and indeed Nigeria, most men are buried in their hometown on their demise. We wish to reiterate our demand as earlier stated at the meeting of 17th June, that our son Steven Okechukwu Keshi be buried at his house in his hometown Ogbe Onyeogu Ukpologwu Illah in line with his last wish before his demise.

“And this we must state is in conformity with Illah tradition, the Ewu tradition and the Chieftaincy institution which he willingly subscribed to during his lifetime,” the Ogbe Onyeogu family stated.

We believe that an issue of this nature needs no further elaboration as it is customary in Nigeria that most persons, particularly high profile personalities are buried in their hometown, to do the otherwise may portend some consequences in future going by the Illah culture and tradition.

“The recent internment of his colleague and friend, Shuaibu Amodu in Okpella, Edo State is a leading example.”

Oluwabunmi Ehuwa, a student of University of Lagos has been declared missing by her family members. All efforts to reach her on phone or through friends or colleagues have failed.

The circumstances behind her missing status are currently unknown. Her picture is currently trending on social media.

The general public have been urged to come forward with any meaningful lead that could unravel the mystery behind her disappearance.