Moped-taxi drivers in the mainly Muslim northern Nigerian city of Kano carried leafy branches on their bikes on Tuesday in a symbol of protest at an imminent ban on carrying female passengers.
Kano’s governor postponed a ceremony at which he was to impose the ban, in line with his administration’s interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, because of a shortage of equipment, but officials said the law will soon go into effect.
”The ban will only further worsen our poor income, which is already nothing to talk about,” complained Halliru Sabo, who drives an achaba or motorcycle taxi in the city, as police sealed off the event venue.
”We earn a pittance and the bulk comes from women, who pay more than men because they are more sympathetic and do not haggle,” he said.
Islamist leader Ibrahim Shekarau was elected governor of Kano on an opposition ticket in 2003 after he promised to promote and enforce a stricter version of Sharia than his ruling-party predecessor, who had reintroduced the law.
His government has bought 100 buses and 500 motorised tricycles to carry women and prevent them from coming into contact with achaba drivers.
”The law is meant to regulate and sanitise the traffic in Kano in accordance with the Sharia; to ease movement of women as well as alleviate transportation problems,” the governor told reporters on Monday.
In many Muslim societies it is seen as wrong for a woman to associate with or — as is the case on an achaba — touch a man who is not her husband.
Under an amendment to Kano’s traffic law, any commercial motorcyclist seen carrying a woman who is not his wife or close relation will be fined 5 000 naira (R258) or lose his operating permit for six months.
The law was to have come into effect with great fanfare on Tuesday, but the ceremony was abandoned amid rumours that opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari had refused to speak at the event.
”The ceremony has been postponed because the reflective jackets we ordered for distribution to achaba operators have not been supplied,” state spokesperson Sule Ya’u Sule said.
Even the promise of the reflective jackets has done nothing to cheer up achaba operators, who fear losing much of their income.
Abdullahi Lamis, a junior official who drives an achaba to supplement his wages, said the jacket will ”prevent a lot of civil servants like myself from engaging in achaba work undercover”.
And 21-year-old Danladi Bala branded the law ”tyranny in the name of religion”, adding: ”If the government doesn’t want us to be achaba [drivers], then it should give us jobs, otherwise we will resist this legislation.”
But achaba passenger Hajara Adamu, a 37-year-old office worker and mother of three, said she might prefer to take one of the new buses rather than bounce along Kano’s dusty, potholed roads on the back of a hired moped.
”It’s a big worry for women who are forced to take achaba because of bad transport. Achaba are often involved in accidents, and the victims tend to be women. If government provides an alternative, it’s a good idea,” she said. — Sapa-AFP