Given the transportation crisis we have in many of our urban centres, especially Lagos, I wonder why Nigerians have not revived the motorcycle side car

Ayo Akinfe

[1] They say necessity is the mother of invention, which leads me to ask why Nigeria is not the fountain of all sorts of innovative ideas at the moment

[2] Given the amount of socio-economic problems we face in numerous areas of our daily lives, initiatives, innovations and new products should be springing up on an endless basis. When I look at how World War Two accelerated industrial output across Europe and the US, I ask why the same is not happening across Africa today

[3] In cities like Lagos where transportation remains the number one social problem, I ask why the motorcycle sidecar industry has not taken off big time

[4] Do you know that one of Britain's oldest sidecar manufacturers, Watsonian, was founded in 1912. It is still trading today as Watsonian Squire. Automobile producer Jaguar Cars was founded in 1922 as a sidecar manufacturer, the Swallow Sidecar Company

[5] In 1913, American inventor Hugo Young, of Loudonville, Ohio, designed a new sidecar which was not rigidly fixed to the motorcycle. Instead, his invention employed a flexible connection, which allowed the sidecar to turn, raise, and lower without affecting the balance of the motorcycle. This is the kind of innovation we should be seeing in Nigeria today

[6] Until the 1950s, sidecars were quite popular, providing a cheap alternative to passenger cars. They have also been widely used by armed forces, police and the UK's AA and RAC motoring organisations. In 2025, Nigeria desperately needs them and it is time to acquire some of these old patents

[7] For instance, during World War One, the British Army sought to increase the mobility of its Vickers machine guns. A solution to this problem was to fit the guns to sidecar motorcycles. This would allow the guns to be moved rapidly between different sectors, and allow them to quickly pursue retreating enemy troops. I ask why we Nigerians are incapable of this kind of lateral thinking

[8] During World War Two, the military side car really came of age. German troops used many BMW and Zündapp sidecar motorcycles, which commanding officers frequently using it as a means of getting to the front

[9] What made the sidecar so popular during World War Two was that it enabled movement into areas that could not be accessed by motor cars. As a result, BMW was commissioned to mass-produce them for the Wehrmacht

[10] I am scratching my head here asking why one Nigerian governor cannot offer a 99-year land lease to a company like Jaguar or BMW, inviting them to come and open a side car manufacturing plant in his domain. Maybe the state government could take out a 25% stake in the venture and the local automobile industry through a company like Innoson could take out another 25% stake. Make Nigeria the side car manufacturing capital of the world.

ayoakinfe@gmail.com