‘’Having A Ministry Of Aviation Is All Political Jargon And I Do Not Subscribe To It”
There is no doubt that the Institute of Transport Administration (IOTA) of Nigeria has fallen from its status as foremost institution for transportants to a struggling body. In the last one year, it has had an acting national president, and now it has appointed a sole administrator, in the person of Mr Don Aki; a consultant. In this chat with Shipping Position Daily Correspondent, Roland Ekama, the new Administrator spoke on how to revamp the institute and also bares his mind on the Nigerian transport sector. Excerpt.
Please Tell Us About Yourself?
I am from Delta state, I am from Ethiope East Local Government, I am an Urhobo. I am a consultant with Africa Development Bank and I have my first degree in Canada, followed by a Masters, I am the chief executive of educational management consult, I am also a telecoms consultant on human resources development; a consulting firm that train personnel from the federal and state ministries, workshop and seminar. I am also a board member of two private companies, I am married with six children, I am a grandfather too.
How Long Have You Been A Member Of IOTA?
The issue of membership of IOTA is that as a consultant and somebody who is on the board of two companies, so it is a special task, because I was brought from outside to sort out the problems of IOTA and that is my primary assignment with a twelve months mandate.
Since You Took Charge As The Sole Administrator of IOTA What Have Been Your Challenges?
IOTA is a sick baby, it is very sick and of course when you take a very sick child to the doctor for treatment, there is need to diagnose that sick child properly before you will begin to prescribe and also whoever that has been treating the sick baby before you have to make references to such person for consultation and advice for you to know how to continue with the treatment and that is exactly what I am doing and I have been asked before about challenges. Challenges can be small or big, but it is still the same but it is the way that we tackle it that matters, you can tackle a small challenge and it can mess you up. The challenge I have is finance, there is no money and some of the members that have withdrawn their services from IOTA and IOTA matters again, I am beginning to revamp that area to make them come back and they have been responding. Another challenge is that we do not have a befitting secretariat, the former acting president is the director of strategy, planning and administration she needs a good office because the place is not conducive for her, the head of marketing also need a befitting office as well, but to me, I count them as minor challenges, but at least a challenge is a challenge.
What Step Have You Taken To Address The Situation?
We are doing something and some of the primary things is that the calendar for 2012 is out for our programmes ,seminars and academic calendar are out as we talk, the flyers to sensitize the public for new membership of students is out and we are meeting some of the study centres and we are talking to quite a number of people ,we are writing to states government for assistance because we need money to keep the place going so members who have not shown up before have started to come and we are telling them to revalidate their membership and pay up their dues which some have been running in trickles. With all indications, there is a solid assurance that in the next three months, the story of IOTA will be a different ball game. I can assure you because by the time it is 12 months, it is going to be a success story at least with people like the former acting president and others, it is possible to achieve.
IOTA Has Had the Problem Of Leadership In The Past, How Can It Be Resolved With You In Charge?
That is why the B.O.T came to dissolve the interim executive which HRH Mulikat Sanni was the head and she was told to assist me because of her wealth of experience. So the board appointed me as the sole administrator and from day one that I started working, I diagnosed the problem of the place and I have noticed that the problem is lack of trust and that of leadership; there is also lack of understanding among members ,been suspicious of one another is another problem but that has turned out to be a thing of the past, because with the new hands I have and coupled with the competent old ones , I can see everybody is ready to work, that they actually want a neutral person to come on board for them to work effectively.
How Has It Been Working With The Former Acting President?
She has been very cordial working with me and we have been deliberating on the way forward. When you bring two different animals to live together ,of course they will strike one another but as human being ,she is a woman with vast experience and I am experienced also because I did a lot of human psychology as a consultant, employer and also as an administrator, therefore I have been able to marry all of these together and we have been cooperating, although, it’s not without some hot spot, but those area, I consider to be grey areas that we think there should be clarity and at the end of the day problems are solved.
Sir, How Can You Describe The Nigeria Transport Sector?
The Nigeria transport sector is quite awful in terms of management, the science aspect and the art of it is very poor and right now. I just wrote a letter that I will be taking to the Kwara state government commissioner for works for him to key in to the national council on transport mandate, that is by making sure that the Kwara state has a ministry of works and transport distinct and at the same time we have those from Kwara express (Transport company) who are on the management cadre that do not know anything about IOTA, however it’s not only in Kwara state, there are other states. Even in Lagos state, the BRT buses are not managed effectively; it is just emergency palliative measures because if you want to talk about proper management of transport, as a bus is leaving the terminal so also another is coming into the terminal to carry passengers. You don’t have to queue for hours like you have in mile 2 and it is not supposed to be so. The terminuses are open and when it rains, it is something else; I mean they are human beings at the terminals and they need to be treated like human beings .The federal government is doing its best because you have the transportation master plan of the federal government and if you look at it, you will agree with me that it is a good document and also you have the national transport policy which the federal government cannot do alone but with the support of the state governments. I want to see a system where if you want to run transport business in Nigeria there must be some things in place from the departure where you will see passengers ,workers ,the vehicles itself ,it’s not right to take a bus that is going to Abuja and you have luggage’s piled up. It is against safety rules on the highways therefore there is still a lot that the federal government has to do with state government and also the local government and this is where we come in and we will keep on hammering it to them the ways it needs to be done. Thank God for the return of railway system in the country, I want to see a situation whereby we transport petroleum products not trailers or tankers, I want to see a rail that will carry goods because the damage that is caused by these tankers on the roads is enormous and when they are carrying goods on transit when it falls, the goods get damaged and transport is also inclusive of insurance.
In What Way Do You Think Government Can Be Able To Address The Issue Of Tankers And Trailers Indiscriminate Parking On Our Roads?
It is part of indiscipline on the operators and indiscipline on the part of the lawmakers that is the regulators like the LASTMA in Lagos. I observed that most of the transport operators don’t even respect the officials and the reason for their not being respected is between them and the transport operators. Then again, if government makes a law and you break the law and you are penalized for it and nobody is coming to influence anybody, of course the rest will be history because all the traffic we are facing is not supposed to be, these are man-made problems, it is not that the roads are too bad to obstruct traffic, however the government have to put our roads in order. The BRT lanes that we have in Lagos are just there because Lagos has been designed for long so the present BRT lanes are just there; just like an ad hoc kind of a thing trying to address traffic situation in Lagos state and some people even obstruct the BRT lanes. If the plan of Lagos state has been done from day one, the problem we are having in Lagos with transport will not be there, take for instance the 10 lanes expressway from Orile to Badagry that is going on, you can envisage that by the time the road will be completed this type of things we are talking will not exist after that where else can you expand to in Lagos? Is it Ikorodu road, of course companies and residential building will suffer ,but irrespective of that there must be an awareness and education of the public transporters on the education of the importance of maintaining the rules of transport regulation and if that is done, we are going to advance further in that regard. Not only that, again on our highways broken down trailers are not removed on time and that makes the traffic very slow and bad.
Do you Support All Mode of Transportation to Come under One Ministry Because in Nigeria the Aviation Sector Is On Its Own?
Aviation is also transportation and if I were to be the president of the country, aviation will be counted under the ministry of transport except you have the directorate of aviation manned by whatever director that is in charge which will responsible to the ministry of transport. Aviation is also transport and should fall under the ministry of transport. Something like ministry of aviation to me is all political jargon and I do not subscribe to it.
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