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| Image by Owen Buggy |
English billionaire businessman
and investor, Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, best known as the founder
of Virgin Group recently advised everyone to get on their bikes, yes bikes. You
heard it from the ‘big guy’ himself. This advice couldn’t have come at a better
time than now that Nigerians are groaning under the weight of intense fuel
scarcity.
According to him, ‘Cycling is one
of my favourite sports and a great way to keep fit, relax and clear your mind. The
business mogul was just given a wonderful gift of a battery-powered bike from
his wife, Joan.
Although, he wasn’t specifically
addressing Nigerians per se, it is an advice well-discerning Nigerians would
jump at considering the current malaise the country is passing through.
When in 2001, then Minister of
Transport, Ojo Maduekwe came up with the idea of cycling as an alternative
means of transportation in Nigeria, people condemned the initiative. As far as
many were concerned he was just a lone voice crying in the wilderness.
He even showed the way then by
riding his bicycle to cabinet meetings with his staff through the streets of
Abuja, dressed up in formal clothes and all what not. They must have been a
sight. It was reported that he was hit by a bus and into a ditch while cycling
to work. Nigerians were not in support so the campaign died a natural death.
According to Okey Ikechukwu, his
Special Assistant at the time, in a paper titled, “Alternative to Federal Urban
Mass Transit Agency”, Maduekwe said that ‘the return of bicycles to Nigerian
roads would bring a lasting solution to the fuel scarcity and traffic jam in
major cities in the country’. How apt - words of an elder.
Today, a global voice resonates
with the same message; get on your bike and beat fuel scarcity. You’d agree with
me that this is a virgin business idea for our importers; bicycles to the
rescue!
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