The Committee established by the Minister of Transportation, Senator Sa’id Alkali through the directive of the National Assembly six months ago to address critical road safety challenges in Nigeria’s haulage sector has appealed for urgent funding and approval to implement a driver retraining and recertification program.
The Committee made the call during a meeting on Thursday in Abuja with the minister citing a significant increase in road accidents involving fuel tankers and articulated vehicles.
While speaking, the Chairman of the committee, Cynthia Ehindoro said the committee was ready for work as soon as adequate funding is provided.
She stated: “We appreciate your zeal for effective land transportation in Nigeria which was further affirmed by the recent approval of the National Transport Policy and your success in getting the Federal Executive Council’s approval of about N142 billion to construct modern bus terminals across the six geo-political zones.
“This is commendable and a remarkable landmark in the history of land transportation in Nigeria. However, as important as effective transport is, it is even more important to ensure the safety of the road users.
“We strongly believe you are interested in both effective road transportation and road safety which are complementary.
“As you have demonstrated your capability in securing funds to construct the Bus Terminals, we strongly believe you can also source funds to implement the driver’s re-training project to significantly reduce and eventually eliminate the crashes which has hitherto led to the loss of many lives and valuable properties.
Ehindero noted that over 80 per cent of the drivers did not know all they needed to know to ensure safe driving in all situations.
Many of them, she opined, do not have valid Driver’s License while some do not even have Driver’s License at all.
She added: “This committee requested to have this meeting with you to reiterate the fact that the increasing rate of road crashes (accidents) involving the drivers of articulated vehicles has made the proposed retraining programme both crucial and urgent, to save irreplaceable lives and properties on Nigeria roads.
“We also believe that the success of the re-training and recertification of the drivers will provide further boost to the performance management scores (PMS) of the minister and the ministry.”
Responding, Alkali hinted that the federal government has pledged to ensure that adequate provisions are made for the training and certification of truck and articulated vehicle drivers in order to curtail the menace of truck drivers accidents.
He also assured that the government would source for funds for the implementation of the drivers training projects, which was suggested by the national assembly earlier in the year.