By Cliffsimeon Akalonu
The Lagos state government has promised technicians and artisans the continuous support and improvement of skills.
Sanwo Olu made this known in the MOMTAN Symposium and Exhibition held on Friday at NECA house Ikeja, Lagos, with the theme “Reducing Road Crashes in Nigeria by Guiding Against Substandard Spare Parts and Lubricants in Preparation for the year 2020”.
Governor Sanwo Olu, who was represented by Engnr. Hafis Toriola, the Director Transport Operations, Ministry of Transportation, Lagos State, assured technicians that his regime will continue supporting the acquisition of knowledge by members and enforcement of the use of standard spare parts and other products in the state, which will continue the reduction of carnage we have on the roads.
We on the side of the government will not relent in improving the skills of Technicians and Artisans, he said.
In a keynote address by the Chairman, Motor Mechanics and Technicians Association of Nigeria (MOMTAN), Alhaji Morufu Arowolo, said that the seminar is a special summon to all concerned dignitaries and patriotic minds who have the positive conscience that our great country Nigeria have numerous potentials, some unscrupulous Nigerians not in government hierarchy are using to enrich themselves, by inconveniencing the poor and underprivileged.
In this regard, I am emphasizing that substandard spare parts and its ugly head with the active connivance of some foreign quake manufacturers with selfish interest to drain our economy into their pockets will fail along with their collaborators operating in this country.
Alhaji Arowolo, said, we at MOMTAN further call attention to the backward attitude of these unpatriotic Nigerians for caution and use this medium to appeal to the legislators in the house of Assemblies, the Judiciary, the law enforcement Agencies, the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria (COREN) and others to jointly save Nigeria motorists from the suppliers of substandard spare parts and lubricants.
He said that Nigeria requires the active collaboration of manufacturing, regulatory and enforcement organizations working closely with spare parts sellers, the mass Media and the general public in surmounting the challenges of spare parts counterfeiting which will bring about maintaining standards, improving quality of life and preventing avoidable road crashes.
Contributing, the NADDC Boss Aliyu Jelani, who was ably represented by Engnr. Oyetade Olabode, said that, what we are doing now is that we are trying to partner with equipment manufacturing companies to come down here and establish their companies as we have provided incentives to gear it up.
He said, currently we are establishing what we call Automotive Test and Certification Centers with locations at Enugu, Lagos and Kaduna state.
The main aim of establishing this automotive Test and certification centers is to ensure that when parts are imported into the country, before the individual or company representative starts selling the product, they must bring it to our test center, we check, get you certified and make sure the product par with international standard and we are doing this with Standard Organization of Nigeria.
He stated that one of cardinal role of National Automotive Design and Development Commission (NADDC), is to train technicians and very soon, we will unveil standard automotive garages all over the country.