- institute sets agenda for incoming Fed Govt
By Yinka Aderibigbe
The minister of transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, and the minister of state in the ministry, Ademola Adegoroye, the Corps Marshal of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Mr Dauda Adamu Biu, along with the Commissioners of Transportation for Lagos and Abia States, Dr Frederic Oladeinde and Nwanoruo God’swill Uche, were among 40 distinguished Nigerians cut across different walks of life, conferred with Fellows of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria (CIOTA) on Wednesday.
The event, which was held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, also saw the induction of 84 full members, 57 Associate members and seven graduate members, and one in which the Transportants used to set an agenda for the incoming government which will be sworn in on May 29, 2023.
The speakers, among them, Prof. Calistus Ibe, and former General Manager Roads and Rail of the Federal Capital territory Authority (FCTA) Dr Kayode Opeifa among others demanded the mainstreaming of the Ministry of Transportation and the abolition of the Federal Ministry of Works, which roles and responsibilities had been the construction of roads and other bridges across all trunk A roads in the country.
Opeifa, the Executive Director Centre for Sustainable Mobility and Access Development (CensMAD), said moving forward, the Ministry of Works, should at best be a department as applicable in other jurisdictions, which according to him is aimed at ensuring that transportation professionals are empowered to design, and implement infrastructure developments especially roads and bridges and other components that would make for smooth growth and development of the sector.
“Time has come for the country to address the issue of the relationship between the Ministry of Transportation and that of the Ministry of Works. The man who designs and builds roads and bridges ought to be a professional who is certified to build just that and not one who builds roads, bridges, and is also saddled with the responsibility to build houses, schools, hospitals, and do several other things, then he is no longer a professional.
“We insist that for any road or bridge project that would be embarked upon by the Ministry of Works ought to be guided by the Ministry of Transportation, that is if the Works is not dismantled entirely. In South Africa, Ghana, and even in the United Kingdom, Germany or elsewhere, they no longer had the Ministry of Works. Let the Ministry of Transportation handle its designs, build and operate the roads and infrastructure,”Opeifa who was a former Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation said.
He also challenged the Federal Government to come up with a transportation cadre in the federal Civil Service in order to raise a new crop of professionals who would run the government’s transportation initiatives. He argued that the Lagos State government has since accomplished this in its commitment to professionalise the transport sector and it is run by trained and certified professionals.
He equally charged the Federal Ministry of Transportation to take up the gauntlet and compile all resolutions of the National Council on Transportation (NCT), this he added would enable all members of the council to know which had been implemented and those still lagging behind in order to ensure that all states do all they had to ensure the growth and development of transportation in their respective states.
The Minister of State for Transportation, Mr Ademola Adegoroye, said the Ministry would continue to be receptive to ideas that would transform the sector and reverse the trend and reposition the sector.
Adegoroye who was represented by his Senior Special Assistant, Mr Fola Ayegbusi, added that the ministry is proud of the strides of the Lagos State Government and urged all state governments to emulate Lagos by coming to learn how the state has handled public sector transportation.
The Chairman Training and Education, CIOTA, Prof Calistus Ibe said the time has come for the Institute to take its rightful place to regulate the transportation sector and lead from the front in ensuring the sector is sanitized.
Ibe who thereafter delivered a lecture on the theme: Professional Development in Transport an investment for future success said time has come for professionals in the transportation sector to take their place and be rescued from the hands of charlatans out to kill its potentials.
Ibe while congratulating the newly inducted members said they are coming at a time when the the President just recently signed into law an amendment which made railway a concurrent rather than an exclusive matter, adding and when a state like Lagos has started test running train system adding that they are the professionals who are expected to run these systems as professionals and chartered transportans.
Ibe, a Fellow of the Institute who teaches at the University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), urged all new inductees to always avail themselves of every opportunity to learn, and relearn adding that it is through doing this that they can add value to themselves as professionals with an eye on making a success of their chosen profession.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation Dr Frederic Oladeinde said Lagos, with a population size of over 22 million people has been deliberate in planning its transportation in a way as to reduce the pain encountered on the roads in the state.
He listed the initiatives already in place to include the introduction of the Bus Reforms which has seen the introduction of BRT buses and recently the introduction of First Mile and Last Mile (FMLM) buses, the channelization of new water channels, the installation of waterway control centre to improve waterway security and the introduction of two colour-coded rail systems one of which is already being test driven and the other heading for delivery by May end, as well as a single payment system via the Cowry Card to ensure seamless fare payments across all the modes of transportation in the state.
Oladeinde said the state would continue to embrace and deploy technology to enhance the potentials in the value chain of public sector transportation in the state.
Earlier, the CIOTA President Prince Segun Ochuko Obayendo assured that the Institute is primed to embark on a massive membership drive in its bid to ensure that the foremost chartered institute becomes the lead institute in the country.
One of the inductees, Dr Oladeinde said he sees immense opportunities ahead of CIOTA and hoped that the new leadership would sustain the growth and aggressively pursue bringing all modes of transportation under one roof for efficient supervision.