Nigeria Transportation System Comatose- Pat Utomi

Abiola Seun

Economic expert, prof. Pat Utomi has bemoaned Nigeria’s chaotic transportation system, stating that property values and vibrant towns have withered away due to ineffective transportation system.

Speaking on Tuesday during the investiture ceremony of the new leadership of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration (CIoTA), Utomi charged the newly elected President of the institute, Bashir Yusuf Jamoh to proffer solutions to government concerning Apapa traffic gridlock.

According to Prof. Utomi, transportation is key to the development of the nation’s economy.

“I am pleased to make some remarks as regards professional participation in Nigeria’s transportation sector.

“Since the country moved from a primitive setting to a more modern economy, transportation has been key to her development.

“As a young man growing up, the first thing that I learnt was the development of the rail lines by the colonial masters, which ran from one end of the country to the other, connecting Lagos, Port Harcourt and other places together. The objective then was to evacuate agricultural produce to the metropolis.

“With the advent of crude oil, Lagos took a dramatic transformation from being that coastal town to clearly the largest city in this part of the world.

“But how efficiently have we managed this? The challenge of engaging this lies with professionals who practise in this area. It is their responsibility to speak truth to power and influence government policies. This is why I am excited to speak to these professionals of the CIoTA.

“In spite of Lagos being the fifth largest economy, anybody who is conversant with our economy will know that we have underperformed; and part of that underperformance is how we have not being effective to manage our transport sector. We have not been able to replicate the intermodal transportation which will enable us to do what the British began to do over a hundred years ago.

“Many of those important places that grew up along the rail lines have fallen from grace because of the way transport infrastructure deteriorated in the country.

“Petroleum product, which is part of the problems of this country, is one of the major reasons entering Apapa has become a herculean task. The tank farms are all in Apapa because of its proximity to the sea.

“I grew up in Gusau, and my father worked for British Petroleum (BP). In the late 50’s and early 60’s, BP had a tank farm in Gusau. Petroleum products were carried from Port Harcourt to Gusau via rail in those days, and were evacuated to places around Gusau.

“What do we have today? Tankers running from Lagos to every corner of our country, destroying our roads in the process, and making transportation ineffective.

“Transportation is important. How do we know this? When the roads were built through Biu, and went through the Northern corridor, towns rose up along those roads and became very vibrant and were thriving; but when the roads became unmotorable, many of those towns, hitherto vibrant, have died.

“We don’t need more evidence to show that central to any development of any economy is efficient transportation.

“How do we therefore ensure that competitiveness exist in this sector? How do we ensure that competitiveness in the transport sector leads to growth and development of the economy? How do we ensure that something that has a fair amount of public resource going into it can be used to create a competitive terrain where people can give out more efficient services? The answer to all these will depend very much on the roles professionals in that sector play.

“These challenges lie in front of the CIoTA. I was going to challenge CIoTA with the Apapa issue because nothing represents transport in Nigeria more than Apapa.

“Apapa in the 80’s was a liveable area. Many years ago, goods exited Apapa via rail. When it gets congested, we used to have helicopters that went deep into the Atlantic to pick containers, and carry them straight to the Volkswagen factory in Badagry highway.

“But today, property values have collapsed in Apapa. Apapa is now a nightmare to come into. If the CIoTA cannot prescribe a solution to government concerning Apapa, then it has not succeeded in its brief.”

Speaking earlier, the chairman Board of Trustees, CIoTA, Oba Rafiu Balogun said the nation’s transport industry holds the drive to push the economic development of the institute to the next level.

He also stated that it will boost the transport sector of the economy and facilitate the urgently needed drive to push the nation’s economy to the next level.

According to him, transportation is at the epicentre of economic prosperity of any nation and Nigeria cannot be an exception.

He said, “The opportunity to contribute to the growth and development of the institute beckons once again and we must all seize the gauntlet in turning the institute very much around.”

He continued, “This to me will be a commitment that will boost the transport sector of the economy and facilitate the urgently needed drive to push the economy to the next level. You all know that transportation is at the epicentre of economic prosperity of any nation therefor, CIoTA’s support through various spot-on presentations at several National Council of Transport fora and the wealth of experience delivered to the sector through many of our professional members, to several government and private sector organisations will only be amplified by the quality of leadership we court.”