A transport planner and logistics industry investor, Dr Segun Musa has charged the Federal Government to develop a robust transport system to drive economic growth.
Musa who is deputy president of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), while making a holistic appraisal of the transport sector insisted transportation is the heart of every nation and determines how well every nation can function.
The MD/CEO, Widescope International Logistics Limited spoke at the International Maritime Press Centre, headquarters of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Apapa during a meeting with journalists on Tuesday.
He said: “It is a big problem when a country has a transportation problem and that is why we are having the current economic hardship in our country today.
“We have not injected the spirit of transportation in the nation. The Federal Government must now equip the transport sector with working policies to make the economy free from frictions.
“All the governments we have had have been doing litmus test in the transport sector. You don’t run a system such as transportation with a litmus test. We need to develop a robust system.”
Noting that the road transport is the most unorganized industry in the sector, he said the system lacked standardization and proper economic regulation.
Also speaking on the Aviation industry, he said: “Aviation is the most regulated industry in the transport sector and it is over regulated. Unfortunately, we have been having the wrong people in regulation. They have been cutting corners; the Federal Government is not interested in driving the aviation industry but they have multiple taxes on private operators. How will the sector grow.?”
The transport expert decried the situation of the railway in the country saying that the rail industry again failing, despite the billions of dollars borrowed to develop the service.
“The problem of the railway is not lack of passengers or lack of cargoes, but poor management. The fund invested in the rail sector is a waste because we did not prioritize movement of cargoes. It is only cargoes that can return the investment and give us profits. As we speak today, rail is failing. The current rail management has nothing to offer and they keep avoiding opportunities to share challenges because the management is empty. The railway management needs to be revamped. The MD has overstayed his usefulness. He has wasted the loan taken by the federal government to develop the railway,” he said.
Musa also called for the revival of the petroleum pipelines.
“Tankers are falling on the road everywhere. Tankers are not to move liquid cargo from Lagos to Abuja. It is only on destribution corridors that tankers should operate,” he noted.
He also urged the government to develop the Courier industry sayinv is another area of the transport sector that is not receiving enough attention.
“We have so many courier companies but no regulation and now very few big players. NIPOST is not working. The Federal Government can sell it to the private sector. Foreign participants dominate the sector, when we are saying there are no jobs, but this sector can employ millions of citizens,” Musa said.
