THE EFFECT OF MOTORCYCLE AND TRICYCLE ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN ABRAKA, DELTA STATE-NIGERIA.
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.1 Introduction
Transport is an important element in development and it affords the social, economic and political interaction that most people take for granted (Button and Hensher, 2001). The provision of transport infrastructure has grown extensively across the globe through a range of networks of modes which have undergone technological improvements cutting across the motive power, the tracks and the means that serve as compartment for passengers and goods. Personal mobility is one of democracy’s most valued freedoms and it is, therefore, not surprising that a high proportion of man’s income is devoted to the movement of the goods and transactions (Dawson, 2009). The importance to the socio economic, political and cultural development of any nation is underscored by Munby’s (2008) statement that “there is no escape from transport”.
In the past decade, there has seen significant growth in the use of motorcycle and ownership in Nigeria which has significant impacts on the socio-economic facets on the people’s lives (Oni, 2003). Recently, the introduction of the tricycle mode of transportation has not only improved the socio-economic life of the people but has also created employment for the timing unemployed youths especially in the present situation where unemployment has been the other of the day (Jack, 2016).
According to Dawson (2009), motorbikes are a means of transport used to move from one place to another. With the policy of liberalisation of public transport by the government of Nigeria in the early 1960s, commercial motorbikes were introduced in Nigerian cities and progressively into rural areas. The introduction and proliferation of these commercial motorbikes in the urban and rural Nigeria has come to influence the mode of life of its population which generally had the habit to move from one village to another by trekking and today uses motorbikes to move from one village to another (Gbujie, 2003). More so, this population that lives on agriculture in the cultivation of cash and food crops in the likes of cocoa, coffee, cocoyam, cassava and plantains; with the production of these products constituting references of wealth and prestige has also drifted in the riding and ownership of commercial motorbikes becoming a ready source of income and a new sign of wealth and prestige amongst the people of Abraka (Akinbode and Ugbomeh, 2006). More so, the activity has introduced new jobs as motorbike spare part retailers and Motorbike mechanics. These changes in perception and activity have come to change the socio-cultural organization of the Abraka society (Akinbode and Ugbomeh, 2006).
