The Amalgamated Union of App-based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON) has called for Presidential intervention in ensuring it’s members’ inclusion as beneficiary in the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas (Pi-CNG) conversion kits distribution to commercial transportation operators in the country.
AUATON said it is unimaginable that such a profound energy transition policy change could exclude a major sub-sector which is technology driven and is contributing to the mobility of over 1.5 million rider trips across major urban centres in all the six geo-political zones in the country.
AUATON’s National President, Damola Adeniran, in a statement issued yesterday, said it would be wrong for the Michael Oluwagbemi led Pi-CNG, to leave out app-based operators who have become a major part of the nation’s transportation ecosystem out of a national programme such as the conversion kits distribution.
He said members of the AUATON would love to see its members benefit from the presidential pledge to make one million CNG conversion kits available to commercial transporters in order to ease high cost of transportation in Nigeria.
“The union therefore called on the Pi-CNG Committee Chairman, Mr Zacch Adedeji, and the Director of programme to immediate include AUATON in the programme to enable our members benefit. We have also noticed the choice of app companies like Uber and Bolt, who does not in anyway represent the interest of the members as a representative choosen by this agency or committee in place of the union which is directly responsible for the protection of members interest.”
He said App-based transport workers have been systematically marginalized in the government initiative aimed at supporting transport workers with CNG conversion kits free.
“We are deeply worried about the actions of the P-CNGI Programme Director, Engr. Oluwagbemi, who has demonstrated a clear bias against AUATON as an important stakeholder in the industry after repeated attempts and engagement with the P-CNGI in writing and calls to address this injustice but all effort has met with stonewalling.
“The union has been in the forefront of advocating for CNG as an alternative to petrol since May 2023, after fuel subsidy removal and the resulted hardship on our members as a result of this we have so far installed over a hundred cars since October 2023 as a test pilot to understand the positive and negative impact of using CNG as app-based transporters. We took a step further and secured facility with a commercial bank for CNG installation for our members but the announcement of the free CNG installation by President Bola Tinubu will be a great relief on our members,” the statement added.
As a result of this, we are also calling on President Tinubu to save our members from marginalization and exploitation, we also call on the executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, (NASENI) Mr Khalil Halilu, who disclosed recently that the agency would offer a 50% per cent discount to drivers who want to convert their vehicles using the newly launched MY-CNG App, to accord the union his recognition and work in collaboration with the union based on free installation announced by the Federal Government for all commercial drivers, adding that its members can not be excluded or forced to pay 50% when our counterpart like NURTW and RTEAN are given free.
It urged the agency to stop further collaboration between it and any app companies on behalf of app-based transporters whom the union represent as this will be counter-productive and amount to conflict of interest.
He therefore called on the P-CNGI and NASENI to immediately include AUATON in the free P-CNG conversion kits and distribution as it remains the only way to achieving a fair and equitable distribution of CNG conversion kits to all transport workers.
The government must understand that future of digital transportation in Nigeria depends on AUATON members, and the government’s must be willing to collaborate, encourage, and address the key concerns of these workers who are largely graduates, who take recourse to cab driving for survival.