Effective transportation is Magic Wand in national development
By Vincent Ukpong Kalu
Thursday, March 6, 2008

Dr. Udoghoreyon Edema is the Lagos State Chairman of Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN). An international speaker on public transportation, Dr. Edema is also the Chairman/Chief Executive of Jeba Concept Air Travel and Tours Nigeria Limited.

Daily Sun caught up with him recently at the 2nd International African Success Summit to point way forward for Africa’s greatness and award ceremony held in Lagos. The outcome of the encounter is this report where he spoke on the importance of Effective Transportation in National Development.

Background
I am a graduate of Lagos State University, Ojo. I also attended Institute of Maritime and Air Transport Management Lagos and National Institute of Transport Technology, NITT Zaria, (Lagos Annex). I had my post graduate Diploma in Transport management, master’s degree also in Transport management and Ph.D in Theology. I was Africa’s Vice President of Association of Public Transport with headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Deputy president Logistics and Planning of Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) Abuja and currently the Chairman Lagos State branch. I have traveled across the world for seminars on public transportation and delivered papers in countries like Egypt, Finland, Belgium and Ivory Coast.

Transportation system in perspective
The global scene today is rising seriously to the challenges of improving transportation systems. Transportation in a simple sense is the movement of people and goods from one place to another. The need for transport is fundamentally the desire of man to bridge the gap between the areas of resource surplus and areas of resource deficit. God has never distributed resources equally on earth, hence we have cocoa, rubber, palm produce in the West, coal in the East, cotton in the North, and crude oil in Niger Delta region.

Even human resources are not evenly divided by the creator of the universe. To bridge the gap there is need for transportation. I could conveniently say, transport is not demanded for its own sake. It is demanded to meet certain economic, social and personal needs in the society.

The basic requirements of a sound transport system
The operation of transport is based on four major requirements: the route; this of course embraces all modes of transportation. All modes of transportation require some form of routes, ways or tracks on which to operate. The followings constitute routes in transportation: Road, Rail, Air, Water (Sea and Navigable River) and Pipeline.

Today Nigerian roads are death traps despite the fact that over 90 percent of the populace uses the road for their social and economic welfare. Some may begin to doubt the 90 percent figure. Any mode of transport one uses will ultimately conclude with road. As long as the government is adamant about the welfare of the road, our economy would be running down the drain everyday. The rail that has once been the bridge between the North and South is today quite a different story. Rail System that has hitherto been the pride of the North has become their shame. Regrettably, the North apart from Rail system has no river, ocean to use for transportation, yet their politicians and businessmen allow the rail system to die. What their fore fathers bequeathed to them, they have misused it. I ask myself has the economic of Indians so improved that they are asked to come and revive Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC)?

Our air transportation system has always been borrowed gown we put on hence no directive in that area has yielded excellent results. Air travel in Nigeria is meant for the elite in the society. In my assumption, the users of air travel system in Nigeria are less than 20 percent of the country’s population. The traffic may be heavy but that is the truth. Water is an area of great neglect by federal and state governments of Nigeria. Water hyacinth has taken over all Nigerian waters yet billions of Naira are voted to clean the weeds all to no avail. Nigeria’s economy would continue to go down the drain because government is quite unyielding about the force drove of the economy, which is transportation. Most people who have been clamoring about radical change from crude oil drive to other sectors of the economy hardly mention transportation. Some are saying; “let us go back to the old days of farming”. But one thing they fail to realize is that if the transportation is not improved, the economy cannot improve.

Roles of transportation in development of national economy
Transportation is the pivot of any nation’s economy, even though some say, it’s energy and water. The question is: how could energy and water personnel be effective without good transportation system in the country? Others say give your child good education and the economy would improve. How can that child with these death trap roads, coffin aircrafts, moribund rail system, water hyacinth rivers, get to the school to get good education to improve the economy of the country? Every system of the economy would be grounded if the transport sector is grounded.

A telecom company for instance always advertises with the pay off “CONNECTING PEOPLE” I strongly believe that pay off was borrowed from the transport sector because before the advent of the telecomm outfit and their failing connectivity, transportation has been connecting and will always connect to improve economy.

The concept of economic development is made possible through effective transportation. Transportation could not be effective when the rooutes, the vehicles and of course the terminals are not functioning properly. If Nigerian enterprises and government parastatals should check the lost man hours as a result of poor transportation system of this country, we shall be sorry for the country’s economy. Because we don’t have good accountability as a principle that grudes us in what we’re doing, that is why Nigeria has not known that in terms transport infrastructure, we are the provest in maintenance and the most spending nation in the world in maintenance.

Assessment of governments’ efforts in road maintenance
In the last Federal Government administration over nine billion Naira was spent in road maintenance. Yet, Lagos Badagry Expressway that was constructed 1972 – 1973 did not receive any face lift. On Lagos Ibadan Expressway only red laterite was poured and the photograph of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was conspicuously displayed as an achiever. There is no point discussing, Shagamu – Ore – Benin Expressway, because it is in a sorry state.

Akure – Abuja expressway that is supposed to be dualized is being politicized. It shows how we gamble with our lives and economy. I am only trying to put forth a picture, which clearly shows why Nigerian economy is dwindling. Any country you see that has a stable economy has a stable transportation system. In the western world they understand that transportation is the magic wand on which the economy rotates hence they plan years ahead for their transportation system. Today, the economy of the world is stable because transportation was the first thing their government tackled. They never allowed their infrastructure to be vandalized or destroyed before they think of maintaining them – because of their huge success in transportation, they are focusing on areas of constructions, energy and standardized communication.

The place of logistics in effective transportation
Economy of any nation would continue to be dwindling if transport logistics and chain management are not greatly considered. Regrettably, Nigeria is such a nation where transport logistics are not considered. In effective logistics we find the maxims of time bound, cost bound, destination bound, purpose bound and movement bound operating which means effective transportation and if there is no effective transportation we should not expect transportation. We should not expect effective national development.

Ways forward for the benefits of Nigeria’s economy
The country has suffered much in terms of lack of improvements in transportation system. Until radical steps are taken such as: reviving the marine sector to meet international standard, there will be no progress in this direction.

Air and marine sectors of Nigeria’s economy are carriers meant to be hosting Nigerian flag in order that all tariff paid in the carrier should come to the country concerned. Therefore all looted money recovered by president Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s administration if any should be used to revive our National carriers and some to be used to repaired our roads. Until these urgent steps are taken, which should include introduction of road taxation, Nigeria’s economy would continue to dwindle with no effective improvement.