. I made an escape from the press in the days before I bought a cycle helmet. I came out of my house the other week and saw that it was a perfect day for cycling to work. The clouds were high and fleecy, the sky was blue, the road was dry.

I hitched my rucksack, tucked my right trouser leg into my sock, and was about to clamber aboard the King of the Road when I realised there was something terribly wrong with my appearance. I clapped my head. My helmet! I’d forgotten to wear the symbol of my new deference to correct thinking.

It was only a month or so since I had decided to capitulate to the pleas of the health and safety lobby of the Federal Road safety Commission. Edo State Comrade Governor, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole had always harped on it and demonstrated by subsidizing it for Okada riders. And every day I would meet someone at a traffic light who would say, “Tut-tut, poor show, where’s your helmet?” You should be setting an example, they would say. You’re a public figure now, they would say.

In other words, they appealed to my sense of self-importance, and of course, I started to think they might be right. How could I live with myself if people started to copy my helmetless insouciance and thereby put themselves in danger?

I imagined the bereaved mothers of impressionable children. I foresaw motions of censure. I winced, and got myself down to the bike shop. For N3,500, I was able to coddle my head with the latest superlite carbon fibre bonce-protector, raked like the skull of the creature in Alien.

As I cycled around, I felt a surge of bonneted righteousness. I was socialised; I was showing a proper sense of community, and that is why I turned around on my doorstep, and within another three seconds I would have gone back to get my helmet, and I would have fastened the chinstrap of social obedience Ö except that for some reason I didn’t. After weeks of helmeted conformity, I had a spasm of rebellion - and it is hard to say exactly why.
Of course I accept the case for cycle helmets, although the only time I have had a serious prang in almost a decade of cycling in the village; Igarra, a helmet would have made no difference whatever.

I was negotiating the New Market Road Roundabout on my way to School; St. Paulís Anglican Grammar School with extreme caution when a French tourist walked across the road without looking (you could tell he was French by the noise, he made on impact) and, though I sprained my wrist, I felt the real lesson was about teaching tourists to look the right way. If I’d had a foghorn, it might have come in handy, or possibly a cow-catcher fitted to the front of my bike. But a helmet?

I have also brooded on the results of some study which showed that making helmets compulsory deterred so many people from cycling that there was a rise in obesity - and more people ended up dying of heart attacks than were saved by the head-gear.

But what clinched it for me that morning, as I hovered on the doorstep, was the sheer loveliness of early June. The sun was warm, and whatever the advantages of a helmet, it would make the head hot and scratchy.

Oh, never mind, I said to myself. No one will notice, I said, and just as I was mounting the gearstick, a local photographer leapt from his place of ambush and click, my irresponsibility - my shame - was captured for all to see. “Where’s your helmet?” he cried, and I confess that I emitted a small internal groan.

Here, then, is the political angle. Then, I was not a politician or a journalist or else, it would have been a campaign issue. Now that I am in public service, as soon as I was pictured not wearing a helmet, I would be attacked for “sending out the wrong signal” and generally poisoning the minds of others with my own ëreckless behaviourí.

Such is the importance of crash helmet. Get one and get ahead or maybe not. This prompted Edo state Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomholeís provision of helmet for Okada riders in the state. For these itinerant riders, this is the best way to appreciate the support he had enjoyed during his campaign to Osadebey Avenue. Their support was not just during the campaigns, but after Oshiomhole, his party and supporters were cheated out in the elections. They were also there during the court proceedings until Oshiomhole was declared the winner. They were part of the distance race.

Therefore, to say they are the first line shareholders of the Comrade Governorsí administration is to state the obvious. During the struggle for instance, there were some Okada Riders who offered to drop passengers in Adams Oshiomhole campaign Organisation on Gemide Street without a toll.

Surprisingly, Comrade Oshiomhole does not know these categories of persons. They contributed their own to support the struggle and only God knows how many litres of fuel they consumed. They were there for the Comrade during the Tribunal proceedings to give executive escort to the chagrin of those in government then. So was their support during the appeal court sitting.

For every one miserable motorcycle Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor had, Oshiomhole had more one hundred volunteer motorcycle riders. In an account by Oshiomhole, ìthere was a day I wanted to sneak out of the court without anybody seeing me so that I can go to visit one or two persons, but the Okada Riders planted their security men around to monitor me. Once I sneaked out before I turn this way, they were there. I turn that way they were there. And, you know it is so easy for us to forget those difficult days and, I always like you to know that I will never forget, and I will not forgetî, the Governor explained.

They were brutalised, humiliated, and mortified by a former MOPOL Commander who swoop on the office of the Action Congress after a solidarity match from the tribunal. The officer had led a troop to the AC office to dispel supporters including Okada Riders with tear gas. Even when they contained the tear gas, he asked them to jump into the gutter. He personally supervised the destruction of their motorbikes.

These Okada Riders never demanded compensation; they asked Oshiomhole not to worry that they were not discouraged, and that they will sustain the struggle. Therefore, to say Okada Riders are first shareholders of Oshiomhole led government is to state the understandable.
Subsequently, when the issue of crash helmet came up, the Governor appealed to the Road Safety to grant Edo state Okada Riders extension of time before they start enforcing the law of wearing the crash helmet. Secondly, the Governor promised to assist them in getting some crash helmet to encourage them because government believe it is in the interest of their own Safety that they wear crash helmet to get ahead.

Since government deemed it fit to save lives, she bought some sample of helmets and reflective jackets. Government purchased about 1, 000 helmets and 5, 000 jackets knowing fully well that neither the helmets nor the jackets will be enough, she also thought that it can assist to get more because Edo state has no less than 45, 000 Okada Riders.

Government also commenced the process of providing identity cards with numbers for Okada Riders to check crime and properly identify genuine Okada Riders from armed robbers and other criminals who merely use motorcycles the same way that they use other motor vehicles to commit crime.

The occasion provided opportunity for the Road Safety Sector Commander to express gratitude to the Governor just as the beneficiaries were on hand to receive this government support. He gave thanks to God for making the day a great possibility and expressed his profound gratitude to the peoplesí Governor for extending invitation to the Commission to be part of the laudable feat.

The Federal Road Safety Commission as a front line implementing agency on the use of safety helmet by all motorcyclists and their passengers had embarked on an elaborate public reinforcement campaign and education on the use of safety helmet throughout the country in year of our Lord 2008 in a systematic march towards the January 1, 2009 date for the commencement.

The commencement of full enforcement started on January 1, 2009 with mixed reactions and ill feelings from stakeholders. While some accepted it wholeheartedly, the merit of its use, others decided to deride it. There were traces of mass protests, even mob actions on operatives of the commission. Other challenges include the astronomical price hike of the helmet that further infuriated the bike operators.

Most seriously, the need for safety of lives of motorcycle operators and their passengers cannot be over emphasized. The safety helmet protects the head which houses the brain; it controls every part of the body. The National Road Travel Regulations, 2004 also made it abundantly clear in section 41, subsection 1, which says both the rider and the passenger shall wear safety helmet while in motion. Sub section 1B and 1G on section 1 also prescribes the need for commercial motorcycle operators to have a local identification mark and a coded reflective jacket which shall be allocated by the appropriate authority to distinguish them from the none commercial operators.

Courtesy of Oshiomhole, the bike riders got the reflective jacket free and the helmet for a paltry sum of N500 only. Itís a new dawn! Get a helmet and get ahead or may be not.

Mayaki is Senior Special Assistant to Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on Media