A female tricyclist, Malama Amina Ibrahim, popularly known as Sai Mama, is a 38-year-old making a name for herself and earning additional income for her family in Kano State.
The mother of eight shares her experience with Daily Trust.
Married to a husband who has been a tricyclist for 15 years, Malama Amina Ibrahim has always had an eye for riding the three-wheeler (popularly called Keke or Keke NAPEP) that is used primarily as the means of transportation in Kano State.
Like several other cities that have outlawed the use of motorcycles for commercial purpose yet with little or no provision for a mass transit system, the ubiquitous tricycle is the alternative.
Her husband, she said was among the first set of tricyclists empowered by the Malam Ibrahim Shekarau administration between 2003 and 2010.
“Since then, I became interested in the business and that is why I paid much attention whenever my husband drives me,” she said.
She sometimes asks her husband about some of the technicalities involved in riding the tricycle and when he asks her why she is so eager in knowing these things, she’ll simply say “just like that.”
One day, she decided to put to test all she has been ‘learning’ from her husband and it was not even a planned graduation but that which is best described as circumstantial.
“I did not start tricycle riding until recently. There was a day my husband came back home and I asked him to go and buy me a drug from a chemist. He told me that he was so tired and I asked him to give me the key (for the tricycle),” she recalled with a smile on her face.
He thought she was joking and handed over the key to her. “I went out and drove the tricycle,” she said, adding that it was her children that ran inside to inform their father that she’s driving the tricycle.
“He quickly came out but he was late as I have gone far. When I returned home, I met my husband standing outside.
