Exclusive Interview: My Road Travel Experience To African Countries

Ogbonnaya Kanu, a renowned biker, shared his road travel experience with Aderonke Bello of Naij.com. In this interview, he talked about his passion for biking and his near death experience during his adventurous quest to travel round Africa and Europe by road.

Ogbonnaya Kanu. Credit: Naij.com media

How long have you been riding Motorbikes and when was your first time.

Kanu: This year, 2015, marked the 10th year of my riding. It was sometime in early January of 2005 that I started, and my first ride was from the riding school to action, to my house. Very scary experience but confidence and courage came with my continued riding. My first trip was around Nigeria and it was in 2008, November.

Ogbonnaya Kanu in Austria. Credit: Naij.com Media

Why did you travel by road from South Africa to Lagos?

Kanu: It was just another thing to do. Having been in the northern direction during my trip to Europe, the southern direction trip now beckoned. And I heeded the call.

What challenges did you encountered?

Kanu:Before the trip there was the challenge of getting all the visas for the countries I was going to visit. I live in Lagos and all the countries except South Africa have their embassies in Abuja. That meant flying to and fro every other week. In the case of Angola, it was a bit more tedious and I need to make the trip 4 times to get the visa. Another challenge was Ebola. The border between Cameroon and Nigeria was closed as a result of the disease…another hurdle to cross…I had to change my whole travel itinerary and at a point my trip was close to being jettisoned. Once I started moving all was well except that as a Nigerian during the Ebola crisis, the disease’s identity loomed over me…so quite a few places, I was treated differently for the fear that I might be infected.

Ogbonnaya Kanu in Gabon. Naij.com Media

How did you manage to travel on water?

Kanu: Actually most of my trip was over land. The only big body of water that required a crossing was the Congo River. A passenger ferry service was all that was available and I had to take my motorcycle on the passenger ferry. This boat could take on 20 people at a time and I had to pay for five as the weight of the bike meant some passengers had to be dropped. It was a 10 minute boat ride and we crossed the river at a point where I was told it was 17km wide.

 

Which other countries have you ridden your motorcycle to?

Kanu: Well the list just got longer but I will say it goes like this

Benin, Togo, Ghana, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Portugal, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Wales, England, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Canada,USA.

Ogbonnaya Kanu in Namibia. Credit: Naij.com Media

What project are you doing to encourage and ensure safe bikings in Nigeria?

Kanu: A friend and I started the Ride Easy Motorcycle Training school where we have trained over 250 men and women on how to become riders. We regularly hold Advanced Rider Training sessions. This has seen a decrease in accidents as riders are better trained to handle the difficulties our environment poses. We are working on something even bigger, another first for Nigeria that will take motorcycle training to the next level and all I can say about it now is that it is very big.