Experts decry absence of standards in transport industry

Transportation experts across the country have called for an overhaul of the transportation system to ensure improvement and efficiency in the practice of transport management and administration in the country.

The experts, who spoke on the theme: ‘The Role of Transport and Logistics in Sustainable Development’, at the South West Zonal Conference organised by the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria (CIOTA) in Lagos, yesterday, decried how the absence of stringent standards in the system was jeopardising the efficiency of transport and logistics system across board.

In his remarks, the President/Chairman-in-Council, CIOTA, Segun Obayendo, while describing the sector as an indispensable area that would make society and living conducive, noted that the essence of organising the conference was to seek the interventions of the stakeholders in the sector on how to address the challenges of unprofessionalism and lack of adequate regulations.

He said: “If we are duly regulated, monitored and enforced, our lives will have changed as far as the transportation sector is concerned.
More importantly, if we know what the European countries use to assess who we are, they just check out our transportation system and they conclude that this country must be disorganised.

“The challenges stemmed from the way we overtake, parking and among other issues which give a picture of who we are.”

In his keynote address, the Director, Centre for Multimodal Transportation Studies, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof Iyiola Oni, emphasised the need to prioritise sustainable transportation systems across all the transportation modes to meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Equally, the Chairman, CIOTA, Lagos State chapter, Taiwo Salaam, described the sector as a critical component that served as the backbone of any economy.

In his remarks, Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, who was represented by the Director, Transport Policy and Coordination, Engr. Aderounmu Agbomeji, called for collaborative efforts in transportation and logistics systems to minimise the challenges facing the sector in the country.

Speaking on the challenges facing the aviation sector, Group Captain, Oladipo Ojikutu, alleged that the corruption that pervaded the aviation sector was affecting the operations of most Nigerian airlines.

Speaking on the topic: ‘The Nigerian Civil Aviation Development and the Challenges,’ Ojikutu 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.

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 its 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.