• Women must work to free men from poverty, she says
This, certainly, is a lesson in thriving in chaos. For men and women lost in thought about how to rise above the deep rot of poverty, it is a motivational story that liberates the will to survive.
Listening to the survival story of Stella Iroaja, who has broken down gender barriers to earn a decent living operating a tricycle taxi (Keke Maruwa), other women, as well as men, are invited to borrow a leaf from this typical Lagosian who subdued lack operating a tricycle taxi.
In 2012, Madam Keke, as she is popularly known, learnt riding a tricycle in 30 minutes. Since then she has been slugging it out with male counterparts on Allen Avenue in the chaotic city of Ikeja, Lagos.
Riding with the widow on her tricycle leaves the commuter with a lasting impression of a woman on top of a trade dominated by men. On the steering wheel in traffic jam, she manoeuvres her way throwing banter and jibes at male operators.
Where the men are sluggish, she is quick to take a lead; where they are marooned in traffic, she smartly takes an escape route. She is a Lagos commuter’s delight.
“If I don’t drive convincingly, passengers will avoid boarding my keke. And since I have decided to operate in a man’s world, I have to be like them. I don’t have to be the woman in a man’s world,” Iroaja told TheNiche.
From office cleaner to recharge cards vendor
Iroaja was born in Aboh Mbaise, and her late husband hailed from Ikeduru, both in Imo State. She is no stranger to hard work, having started life’s struggles early even before she got married.
While her husband was alive, she worked as an office cleaner to augment the family income. She saved up and started selling mobile telephone recharge cards at a bus stop, but quit because of harassment from the officials of Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI).
She changed to dealing in bread, buying in bulk from bakers and supplying retailers. Shortly afterwards, she bought a motorcycle to deliver supplies to the remote suburbs of Ikeja. For three years, she rode the motorcycle to distribute loaves of bread, travelling where vehicles could not reach.
Bread distributor turns tricycle operator
When motorcycle taxis (okada) were banned in Lagos in 2012, Iroaja went for a tricycle.
Her reason: “Operating a tricycle taxi is a better business because it is cash and carry. No customer ties your money down as in bread business and you don’t get to owe anybody either.”
Iroaja said there is good profit in selling bread but it gets tied down, sometimes for several weeks after sales. According to her, the N5,000 profit at hand operating a tricycle taxi is worth more than N10,000 profit in credit selling bread.
Ideal day
Brought up to appreciate hard work, her ideal day begins at 5 am when she wakes up to wash the tricycle, refuel it and gauge the oil.
After doing house chores, she prepares for the day’s business, hits the road by 8am, and does not stop until 6pm when she goes for evening church service.
Her husband died about two years ago, leaving her with three children; one boy and two girls. The boy is 21, the first girl 20, and the second 14. All are in school and she caters for them.
“I have to train my children, and provide them with the care of both father and mother. I have to make sure they are well taken care of. I don’t want them to feel the absence of their late father,” Iroaja said.
Guiding philosophy
She believes that hard work should not be limited to men, advocating that a wife has to work to help liberate her husband from poverty, as it takes the two to improve the family fortunes.
God admonishes in the Bible that there should be no food for a lazy man, she pointed out, stressing that both husband and wife should work to make life better for the family.
In her view, men are shying away from marriage these days because women have the wrong notion that their problems end in marriage where the husband must provide all their needs.
Iroaja advised women to get busy working, adding that if the government fails to provide jobs, individuals should create jobs for themselves.
