Is Nigeria ready for bicycles?
Cycling in Nigeria. Source: Stears Business

Can you ride a bicycle? 

I first learnt how to ride a bicycle a couple of years ago. Arriving in Oxford (one of the UK's major cycling cities), already in my late twenties, and in postpartum recovery, I knew it would be challenging. So I was ready to join cycle training sessions that could cost up to £45 per hour.

Luckily, Philipp, who is now my Austrian friend, but acquaintance/school colleague at the time, agreed to teach me for free for about 40 minutes. A day after the lesson, I straddled the fully-lowered seat of my borrowed bicycle and practised for hours. Barely one week later, I started wobbling through paths, lanes and highways on a two-wheeled bicycle for the first time in my life.

I won’t lie, it was scary. Sometimes, I ended up walking with my bicycle for more than half of the entire 5km journey from school

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Adesola Afolabi

Adesola Afolabi

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