In January 2020, the Nigerian word for its commercial motorcycles “okada” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary, along with other Nigerian words. For many people, the word okada simply refers to those motorcycles that are able to navigate the most jammed roads with ease. There is however a bigger history behind the name okada.
The word Okada is the name of a town and the headquarters of a local government area in Edo State. In the 1960s, Chief Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion, a Nigerian businessman and the Esama of the Benin Kingdom began expanding his business reach across the country. In the long line of businesses he holds are a private bank, a private university (the Igbinedion university), a chain of hotels, a number of private hospitals across Nigeria and a private TV and radio station. Asides these, he is also credited as the previous owner of the very first private airline in 1983 which he named Okada Airlines after his hometown in Benin. This airline boasted more than 40 planes and helicopters and catapulted the Chief into prominence and greater wealth.
In the 1980s, motorcycles became widespread as an alternative means of transportation in many major cities in Nigeria. These motorcycles were able to meander through the most daunting traffic and deliver commuters to their destinations speedily and soon were nicknamed Okadas after the airplanes which zipped across Nigeria. The name stuck and today, these imported commercial motorcycles are simply called “okada.”
By the mid-1990s, Okada Airlines began to decline in standard. Having recorded three major crashes between 1988 and 1992, the airline was not able to bounce back as it finally wound down operations in 1997. The motorcycles outlived the airlines after which they were named.
