Did you know the motorcycle rider that slips past you in a traffic jam carries the name of a town in Edo State and of a defunct airline?

Many people assume “okada” is a Yoruba word because commercial motorcycle riders are so common in Lagos and the South-West. It isn’t. Okada is the name of a town in Edo State, the headquarters of Ovia North-East Local Government Area. The airline was named after Okada town near Benin City, the hometown of its owner, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion. The town is Edo land, home to the Edo people, and it is where Igbinedion University now stands. Igbinedion himself was born in 1934 in Okada Village, in the present Ovia North East Local Government Area.

Igbinedion went on to become the Esama of Benin Kingdom, and in 1983 he launched Okada Air from Benin City. The airline was based in Benin City, and it began operating in September 1983. It grew fast. At its peak, the fleet passed 40 aircraft, including planes and helicopters, and a Boeing 747 jumbo jet was added to it. Okada Air also flew domestic routes such as Abuja, Enugu, Jos and Kaduna, and pictures from the time show its aircraft as far away as Manchester and Luxembourg.

It was not a luxury airline, though. One account describes it as the most popular local airline of its time, but not one known for comfort. Passengers knew it for the many places it could take them.

Then came the motorcycles. Commercial bikes began carrying passengers around the same period, weaving through gaps that cars could never fit, dodging the hold-ups and arriving while everyone else was still stuck. The name began as a joke, a playful way of calling the bikes a form of air transport because nothing seemed to hold them up. The irony of an airline’s name on commercial motorcyclists, plus how well people knew Okada Air, helped the nickname outlive the airline.

The airline’s end was not so lucky. In 1997 the company was folded up. Years later, pictures taken at Benin Airport showed its abandoned fleet, with a Boeing 727 and 17 BAC 1-11 aircraft still visible in 2006. The planes sat on the ground while the name kept moving.

And it kept spreading. In 2020, “okada” was among the West African words that made it into the English dictionary. A word that began as the name of an Edo town, travelled on the side of an aeroplane, and then ended up on the back of a motorbike is now an official English word.

So the next time you shout “Okada!” at the roadside, remember that you are not speaking Yoruba. You are using the name of an Edo town, borrowed from an airline, now in the dictionary.