By Cyriacus Nnaji
Chartered Institute of Transport Administration has said that Road transport can be a big revenue earner if properly harnessed.
The group arrived at this conclusion at the Inaugural Webinar which they held on Thursday, December 2, 2021.
The group agreed that Road transportation is the most accessible means of transportation to people, adding that the opportunities within the road transport shows that it provides employment to people and also companies that employee people on the field; it increases the Economy of the country by Increase in GDP; it allows Government to generate Revenue through Car Registration, Insurance, Road worthiness, Driver license and other documents that are related to road transport.
They further stated that road transport provides door-to-door services helping other mood to complete their journey; It’s easily accessible and convenient for movement within and outside the state as it requires little or no document to use. The group also said that under the Physical distribution & logistics management, road transportation completes the journey and added that the opportunities are countless; but unfortunately it has more disadvantages than its advantages.
The group also said part of the challenges bedeviling the sector include lack of adequate appurtenances like traffic lights, street lights, lane marketing, traffic signs etc; bad roads and lack of road maintenance; overloading of heavy duty trucks that spoil the road and reduces the life span; unroadworthy vehicles plying the road which cause breakdowns and result to road congestion, accidents, pollutions. They added that increase in vehicular traffic on the road has led to congesting all the nook and cranny. “It is pathetic that Lagos state has no off peak again including weekends as over 3m vehicles ply Lagos road on daily basis out of 7m vehicles plying Nigeria road. This year alone, total numbers of 298,797 vehicles were registered from January to November 2021 at an average of 27,000 monthly but in November 1st to 31st, 2021, 28,372 vehicles were registered.”
The group further stated that scarcity of fuel leads to arbitrary fare increase in an unregulated transport operation especially by the unions. Also environmental pollution which includes noise pollution, vibration/virtual intrusion cause by road transport is enormous. It said on October 15 2016, Lagos State Government celebrated Noise free day by appealing to motorist not to make use of their horns and there was calmness on the road. It said vehicles especially trucks release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which when mixed with 2 molecules of oxygen leads to carbon monoxide that if inhale affects hemoglobin and leads to lifespan reduction, among other challenges.
In a Paper presented by Professor Samuel Gbadebo Odewunmi at the Inaugural Webinar he took inventory of roads in Nigeria saying that there are about 194,200km of roads in Nigeria, made up of 34,179.20km of Federal roads representing 17% of the total road network, 30,489.40km of State roads representing 16%; 129,531.40km of Local Government roads representing 67%. He said the Local government is the weakest neck carrying the biggest burden, adding that Road as a mode is an orphan, an abandoned first born, a neglected cornerstone in Nigeria.
He disclosed that Road transport is responsible for over 90% of movements of goods and people yet nobody is in charge. According to him, Air transport has Aviation and Airport Authority; Railway has Railway Authority; Port has Port Authority; Maritime has its NIMASA and that Even Inland Water has NIWA as small as it is, but no Shepherd for road transportation.
He therefore recommended that Government should pronounce the Transportation Policy, Constitute a Road Authority, but warned that it should not become another financially draining bureaucracy. He said just as the NPA is a stupendous revenue generating authority, Road authority can match, if not surpass, the NPA if properly organized. He added that by taking a look at the amount of money being collected by NRTW, RTEAN, Okada etc, there should be a stronger synergy between Ministry of Works and Transport, “Indeed we consider it appropriate that Works and Transport should be merged while Housing and Environment could stay together.”
Odewunmi stated that if Transportation is regarded as the artery through which the life-stream of socio-economic activities flow, then the Road as the carrier of more than 90% deserves not to be an orphan or rejected cornerstone that it is in Nigeria, rather than be a drain, a road authority could become one of the biggest revenue earner in the country if properly coordinated.
