By Yinka Aderibigbe
The Director, Niger State Motor Vehicle Administration Agency (NSMVAA), Dr. Bako Danladi Mohammed, has called for major reforms in the vehicle inspection, testing and licensing, if the dream of achieving a reliable vehicle database will not be a mirage.
In a paper presented at the sensitisation webinar, with the theme: “standardisation and harmonisation of vehicle inspection, testing and Licensing: issues and way forward,” Bako said best global practice is that vehicle testing and licensing are better handled by one entity to ensure data protection, smoother vehicle administration capacity, reduction in leakages and boost in internal revenues of the government.
According to him, issues of proliferation of fake number plates, and vehicle documents, revenue leakages and insecurity across the states of the federation would be a thing of the past if these related responsibilities are brought under the same roof.
He said rather than have these responsibilities domiciled in one department, the Nigerian situation has seen the establishment of motor vehicle Administration agencies different from the vehicle inspection with both working in silos and not synegising their activities thereby negating the intentions of safe roads and safer operators and road equipments.
He therefore called for a new statutory instrument that would make for the collapse of these two entities into one for the standardisation and harmonisation of testing and licensing of all forms and modes of vehicles in the country.
He observed that the absence of a national framework has led many of the states’ traffic inspection service to work at Cross purposes, which had made achieving a national vehicle databank difficult as many states’ VIS are practically inactive and inefficient.
Bako who disclosed that Niger has led in this regard said in 2021, the state promulgated a law that seeks to fuse the activities of these two agencies and the state is presently seamlessly implementing the law by bringing the inspection and licensing of vehicles in the state under one roof.
He said the forum of directors of vehicle inspection officers must serve as peer review platform to ensure that all states in the country develop the right framework to regulate their operation.
Earlier the National Chairman Conference of Directors/Chief Road Traffic Officers of the Federation, Dr Paul Bepeh, said the webinar is part of the measures aimed at sensitizing and wetting the appetite of critical stakeholders to the October conference of the traffic Officers. He added that the contributions at the webinar would form part of the input into the forthcoming conference.
Chairman Forum of Commissioners of Transportation of Nigeria, Gbenga Dairo, pledged the commitment of the respective supervisory authorities to support the DVIOs in achieving the task of making the roads across the country safer.
Dairo who was represented by the Secretary of the forum, Barr. Omale Omale, who is also the Benue State Commissioner for Power, Renewable Energy and Transportation, said achieving a unified testing and licensing of all vehicles cannot be over emphasised as the country is burdened by the hydra-headed challenge of insecurity and other criminal activities.
Goodwill messages were received from Drivers & Vehicle Testing Services (DVTS), U-group , Plate Detect & AutoVIN, all of who separately lauded the senior traffic Officers for coming up with the conference which they said would shape the testing and licensing administration in the country.
The General Manager of GOPOD Events Consult, Cletus Asikpo in his vote of thanks used the opportunity to invite all stakeholders in the land transportation sub-sector to the main conference taking place in October 28th–30th in Minna, Niger State.