By News Editor
Transportation specialists have again called on the Federal Government to prioritize national policy on transportation to guide the operations of the nation’s transportation sector.
Insisting that the country continues to hermorhage as a result of a derth of the policy, they held that the lack of a transport policy into which other states could cue was the bane behind the utter chaos that has continued to characterise the transportation sector.
They spoke at the South West zonal conference of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria (CIOTA), held at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos, attended by three commissioners of Transportation from Lagos, Mr Oluwaseun Osiyemi, Ogun State, Engr Gbenga Dairo, who was represented by Commander, Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) Mr Seeni Ogunyemi, Osun State, Mr Sesan Oyedele, and his Imo State counterpart, Dr Abazu, the Dean, School of Transportation, Lagos State University, Prof Charles Asunime, Director Centre for Multimodal Transport Studies, University of Lagos, Prof. Iyiola Oni, among others.
National President and Chairman of Council of CIOTA, Dr Segun Obayendo said the absence of a policy was responsible for the high rate of indiscipline on the road, adding that time has come for the professionalization of the sector and in seeing that only those who are trained are involved in transportation.
He said the Institute established in 1986 and chartered in 2019 is now in a better position to lead the advocacy for the sanitisation of the sector to ensure its professionalization.
Oni, one of the keynote speakers, said besides professionalization of the sector, the states should support the drive for the energy transition programme of the Federal Government by establishing conversion centres across the states to encourage as many as are willing to convert their vehicles from fossil to CNG.
Oni who lauded the Tinubu administration for signing the local government autonomy said just like the states are being taken to task, time is coming when Nigerians would be asking what the local government chairmen are doing with the huge allocation that are entering the coffers of their councils.
He called for a halt to the distribution of food palliatives to vulnerable Nigerians, saying rather than continuing to waste the humongous revenue accruing from the subsidy removal on the distribution of food items such as rice, beans and others, such funds such be directed at sectors such as education, health, housing and transportation to provide better living index for the masses of the country.
Oni who argued that there is nobody in charge of road transportation, insisted that with the autonomy, the councils, who own over 60 percent of roads in the country would be busier with many of the rural roads thereby reducing the triggers for urban migration.
The professor of urban mobility argued that many people who are not fit to live in urban centres find their way there only to end up being consigned to living sub-human life under the bridges and elsewhere.
Addressing the theme of the conference which is the role of trsnsport and logistics in sustainable development, Oni argued that if government addressed itself to sorting out transportation and logistics, a huge percentage of the challenges bedevilling the nation would have been addressed.
Speaking on the topic: The Nigerian Civil Aviation Development and the Challenges, Group Captain Oladipo Ojikutu, retired, observed that in 40 years, Nigeria, which had a national carrier, with over other 40 airlines competing with it, have been reduced to a country with no carrier and where only two airlines can be said to be technically and economically viable.
Ojikutu, observed that Nigerian aviation have been dogged by corruption and this has continued to dog it’s very existence and has remained the bane to its healthy existence.
He urged Nigerian aviation administrators to learn from the past, as history has continued to repeat itself, adding that without knowing attempting to discover why the nation’s aviation is in its bad state, it will be difficult to get it out of its comatose state.
Besides the need to kill corruption that had eaten deep in the sector, Ojikutu advocated that the Nigerian government must get out of all areas that are not the core responsibilities of airport operations.
He equally urged state governments rushing to construct airports to stop wasting the funds of their states as virtually all the state owned airports are a waste.
According to him, statistics from government has proved time and time again that out of the 22 airports owned by the Federal Governments, only three can be said to be healthy and infact two, being the Lagos and Abuja Airports can be said to be viable.
Ojikutu said he would not stop advocating for the right things to be done so that the country can get it’s acts right in the Aviation sector, adding that the major challenge of the country are the quality of leaders we produced to administer the affairs of the nation.
For him, the focus now should be the workability of ensuring inter-modal transportation, rather than dissipating energy on multi-modal transportation that would see everyone in the transportation space working in silos and not in the overall interest of the economy and the country.
Lagos State Transportation Commissioner, Oluwaseun Osiyemi who was represented by the Director Transport Policy and Coordination, Engr Aderounmu Agbomeji, said Lagos State will continue to partner with CIOTA as a critical partner in the transportation space in order to achieve a robust and seamless transportation ecosystem where everything works to unlock the state’s economy.
The highpoint of the conference was the induction of nine new members of the institute by the Lagos State Council of the Institute. The new members were admitted into the Institute by the National President Dr Obayendo.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Lagos Council, Dr Taiwo Salaam noted that the Institute would continue to provide collaborate with all critical stakeholders for the purpose of ensuring the transformation of the transportation sector.Salaam who commended the Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for his continued commitment to transportation said for the nation’s econony to move, seamless inter-modal transportation must be a cardinal goal of not only the Federal Government, but also of the other 36 state governments.