By Amidu Arije
For Charles Olulade, the journey to tricycle riding did not just start at will after graduation from the Banking and Finance Department of the Lagos State Polytechnic with second class upper two years ago. He would have loved to work in one of the big banks in the country, but that never came to fruition.
Olulade briefly worked with Berger Paints for one year as a marketer after which he and his colleagues were relieved of their appointment. He remained unemployed for months before meeting his friend, Samuel Ogundare, who had been planning to go into a corporate form of tricycle riding in the Surulere community, this idea went down well with him and he quickly accepted the offer. Even though he didn’t know how it was going to work out for him and his friends, he decided to do it instead of being jobless.
“I studied Banking and Finance both at my National Diploma and Higher National Diploma. I graduated with upper credit. The jobs I got after graduation were just marketing jobs, which I was not satisfied with. After my graduation I worked at Berger Paints for one year, after that year they disengaged us. For almost three months, I didn’t have something doing, I approached my friend, Samuel, to tell him my situation. He told me that he was trying to organise some guys for keke riding and that if I wanted to join, I should let him know. So, this Corporate Keke Guys was started by one of my church members, Samuel Ogundare. He said we would be dressing corporate while doing the job. I now told him I would love to join to see if it would work out. He told me no problem, that I could join and I did. And today the rest is story; it is been a success story. This is my fifth month into the business, I started in January,” he stated.
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Inside Olulade’s tricycle, one would see speakers, with a Samsung galaxy phone hung in the front view for all to see. There are also two small cups, containing sweets for the passengers. It was really well decorated to the admiration of everyone, as he put it.
“People have been appreciating us for what we do, how we do it and the gadgets like the fan, Samsung tablet phone we place in the front for our customers view and the sweet cases behind the riders seat for our passengers enjoyment, in fact, some of them want us to go to Ikeja and Victoria Island so that it will not just be in this Surulere area alone. We have been working towards it, very soon we will be in Victoria Island too,” he stated.
Though the job is not without its ups and downs, one of such he faces in the course of his duty is disturbances from the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), accusing them of extortion. Also, members of the National Union Road Workers are another pain, as they daily extort them and bill them heavily on each trip they make.
“Our challenge is that the LASTMA disturbs us and the ‘agberos’ give us more problem; they bill us more,” he said.
Olulade’s joy, however, is that he daily goes home with, at least, N10,000 after deductions for servicing the LASTMA and the agberos, and fuelling the tricycle.
“After deductions of expenses, I make up to N10, 000 daily from this keke riding, you can even make more than that; it all depends on how hard working one is. Apart from this, I also have some charters that I do and they pay me every month end,” he said.
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Knowing the benefits he has been reaping from doing the job, Olulade urged young graduates, who are out there, waiting for government jobs or the white collar job to have a rethink and start something with their lives to make living easier for them.
“I will advise graduates to join something like this instead of them waiting at home for white collar job, which may never come. You have to create job for yourself, if you are waiting for one uncle, government or politicians to get job, you are wasting time because with this, you can feed your family and doing so many other things. This job is daily income; it is not job you have to wait for end of the month before you make your money,” he said.
Olulade appealed to the government and politicians at all levels of government to see empowering the youths as a matter of priority.
“The government should encourage the youths, especially graduates, after going to school and you graduated and wasting much time on education yet without job in the end. The government can empower the youths; all those honourable members and senators can do this by giving the graduates keke, as a form of empowerment. They should not be left without a job,” he advised.