We need critical regulatory obligations for sustainable, economically viable transport sector-Jamoh
By Peter Usman://
In order to attain a sustainable and economically viable transport sector in Nigeria, critical regulatory obligations, such as transportation safety, quality control, documentation and licensing, information sharing and data mining, professional education and public enlightenment; enforcement of the rules and standardization of procedures for seamless collaboration amongst statutory institutions with mandates are imperatives, President, Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria, CIoTA, Dr. Bashir Yusuf Jamoh has said.
Dr. Jamoh made this assertion on Monday in Abuja at the 3rd National Transportation Summit with a theme, “Regulating the Transport Sector in Nigeria: The State of the Art and the Years Ahead.”
The President and Chairman Governing Council of CIoTA, who is also the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, said this year’s theme is a call to a renewed scrutiny, supervision and stocktaking within the transportation sector.
He stated that the economic livelihood, social life, military and indeed national security of Nigeria depend on transportation, adding that the backbone of our oil and gas mainstay also rests on transportation
Dr. Jamoh said the summit is another opportunity for professionals in the transportation field to deliberate upon current challenges the nation is facing in the sector, with a view to proffer practicable solutions for policy and decision makers in a collective quest to make the nation’s transportation system more robust and competitive.
“I have always maintained, and permit me to say it yet again: That Transportation is Life and Life is Transportation. Our economic livelihood depends on transportation and our social life depends on transportation. I dare say that our summit as a chartered professional body is the most important annual gathering of all because it is the livewire and the lifeblood that conveys every other gathering.
“Transportation is everywhere and it is everything. Transportation is on the ground, whether by road or by rail; it is under the ground whether by pipelines, cables or tubes; it is on the water, whether by boats or large vessels; it is under the water whether by submarines; it is in the air, whether by planes. Even our bodies have been designed for transportation or how else can one explain the movement of blood and nutrients from the heart’s pumping hub to the entire parts of the human body? One word: Transportation” CLoTA President said.
The Director General of NIMASA, who said it is also time to take stock nationally of all the transportation assets of Nigeria, pledges that CIOTA was ready to play a supportive role in this regard.
“We are officially assuring the Government at the Federal and State levels that the institute’s professional base is ready and at your disposal. We believe that proper inventory of our national transportation assets will address the following important concerns: What is our exact national requirement in terms of transportation assets in order to avoid duplication, underproduction or under-investment? We must first ascertain what we need to enable us fill in the gaps” he said.