ENUGU – Players in the transport sector in the South East have called for an agency to regulate road transport as a measure to reduce the carnage on the roads.
Many of the stakeholders in the South-East, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday that they were dismayed by the lack of regulations to check entry and exit in the road transport industry as obtained in the other transport sectors.
A cross section of the stakeholders who responded to the NAN survey in Umuahia, expressed the need for the establishment of such an agency to regulate the activities of commercial transport operators in the country.
Mr Augustine Eziyi, a commercial bus driver, said that such an agency would help to regulate the activities of the various transport unions and ensure sanity in the sector.
Eziyi blamed reckless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, touting on major roads and streets of Umuahia and Aba, among other challenges in the sector, on the absence of control over the operators.
“If there is an agency specifically in charge of land transportation in the country, drivers will be decent and disciplined in their operations,’’ he said.
He also attributed the problem bedeviling the sector to the lack of good education among the drivers, saying that the level of illiteracy was high among the commercial drivers.
Similarly, a senior staff member of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), who spoke to NAN on the condition of anonymity, said that the commission was in a good stead to regulate the operations in the land transport sector.
He, however, expressed regret that the commission was hamstrung by the lack of funds to carry out its statutory functions, saying that it could effectively control the consumption of alcohol by drivers while on the wheel, if the resources were available.
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In Awka, the Chief Executive Officer of GUO Transport Company, Chief Godwin Okeke, urged the Federal Government to convene a stakeholders’ meeting to sanitise the road transport business.
Okeke said that the road transport sector needed a regulatory body like the air and water sectors.
“A situation where all who have money just come in, buy vehicles and employ unqualified drivers has contributed to the increasing number of accidents being recorded on the high ways.
“This situation has created chaos in the sector. What the Federal Government should do is to bring everybody together in the transport industry in a conference or workshop to make suggestions on how best to sanitise the road transport sector,” Okeke said.
The transporter argued that by so doing, good policies on road transport would be formulated to accommodate the different groups and systems of operation in the country.
He suggested that the government could also boost the road transport sector by improving on the security on the roads, providing easy access to loans and ensuring good roads.
He said that if government tackled the three areas, the transport sector would further give a boost to the employment of youths.
Similarly, a driver with the `God is Good Motors’ in Awka, Mr Tony Okafor, said that the establishment of a regulatory body would make the road transport business more attractive and reduce touting.
“Anyone who wants to run a transport system will be guided on the required standard for the country, starting from the calibre of drivers, conductors and attendants to employ,” he said.
On his part, Mr Ike Okonkwo, the Executive Secretary of `Arrive Alive Road Safety Initiative (AARSI)’, an NGO, urged the government to implement all the road safety rules and regulations, to check the carnage.
Okonkwo decried the current rate of road accidents in the country, saying that advanced countries had reduced road accident to the barest minimum.
“I still wonder why we cannot replicate same here in the country with all the agencies we have on the roads.
“There is a need for the enforcement of the rules, to ensure that everybody complies with them.
Also commenting, Mr Ben Osaka, the Coordinator of the FRSC Special Marshals and Partners in Onitsha, underscored the need for more enlightenment of drivers’ unions, to check the intake of drugs and stimulants among their members.
Osaka also observed that some of the vehicles plying the roads were unserviceable and should be kept out of the roads.
“There is a need for enlightenment, especially for drivers of articulated vehicles, which the FRSC had already started.
“There should also be a ban on the sale of stimulants and alcohol, on the roads and in motor parks.
“The issue of speed limiters in vehicles must be implemented while sloppy areas of any road should have speed breakers and danger signs,’’ he said.
In Abakaliki, the stakeholders called for the establishment of an effective land transport policy to correct the numerous anomalies bedeviling the sector.
They remarked that the numerous challenges which included the carnage on the roads, poor conditions of the roads, and traffic congestion, among others could be prevented with an endearing land transport policy.
Chief Ike Ifediba, the former Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Ebonyi branch, noted that such policy would reduce the carnage.
“Road accidents account for many deaths in Nigeria; an effective road transport policy with appropriate punishments for defaulters, will ensure that motorists obey traffic regulations.
“Incidents such as the recent fuel tanker explosions in the country could have been prevented with such policies, as adequate regulations on all forms of road transportation would ensure sanity on the roads,” he said.
A staff member of the FRSC in Ebonyi who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, noted that such a policy would ensure the adoption of road transport regulations as obtained in developed countries.
“In these countries, there are stipulated periods for articulated vehicles and smaller vehicles to ply the roads which ensure sanity on the roads.
“Such policy, if in existence, would have prevented the fuel tanker carnage in Onitsha and other parts of the country which claimed many lives in broad daylight,” he said.
Mrs Patience Okpo, a commuter, noted that such a policy would ensure that the roads were well maintained to reduce the carnage and check traffic congestion.
“The policy will stipulate adequate regulations which will ensure that the government at all levels provide adequate infrastructure for the people while the commuters will stop acts such as littering and soil mining, among others, which destroy the roads,” she said. (NAN)
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