Map the Security Gaps Facing Motorcycle Taxi Riders in Kano

Kano has hundreds of thousands of okada riders, many of them young men from low-income households with no other viable work. They face overlapping risks: road crashes with limited insurance, police harassment and extortion, armed robbery, and the absence of any formal labour protection. When something goes wrong, there is almost no recourse. Most safety policy in Nigeria focuses on either eliminating okadas (bans have been tried in Lagos, Abuja, and parts of Kano) or regulating the motorcycles themselves. Very little policy centres the rider as a worker with rights, risks, and agency. There is a gap between what riders experience daily and what appears in any official safety framework. Your task is to produce a policy brief of 1,500 to 2,500 words addressed to the Kano State Ministry of Transport or a relevant civil society body. The brief should be based on secondary research (news reports, academic papers, NGO data) and, if possible, at least three short interviews or informal conversations with riders or people who work with them. It should identify the top three to five security gaps, explain why current approaches are inadequate, and propose specific, costed interventions that are realistic within a Nigerian state government budget. Good work will read like a document a policymaker could actually use. It will avoid vague recommendations. It will show that you understand the political and economic constraints on the Ministry, not just the ideal solution. A one-page executive summary at the front will make it stronger.