90% Of Tankers In Nigeria Are Too Old To Operate-FRSC Corps Marshal

The CEO and Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, says sanitising Nigerian roads against reckless tanker and trailer drivers is his new focus. In this interview monitored in Lagos by our correspondent, Mr. Oyeyemi says careless tanker drivers may soon begin to face jail terms

The activities of tanker drivers are becoming a problem for Nigerians. We want to know the outcome of the recent meeting you had with the tanker drivers. Did you all agree to the 60 kilometres per hour speed limit for them?

The limit is 75, but the union pegged it to 60. I must commend them. you could see the trend since the beginning of the year when we started engaging them. if we don’t engage them, we wont get to this level. Let’s quickly look at how we got to this level. We have so much pressure on the road. The intermodal system of our transport is not working presently. Ninety percent of our business requirement is on the road. So there is so much pressure, coupled with the conditions of the roads. For example, the goods that should be conveyed by 200 tankers of trailers could easily be conveyed by rail or making the pipelines to work which the government is addressing now. So because of the failure of these two and the waterways too, there is so much pressure on the roads. From the discussion with the associations (which have things to do with tankers and trailers), all the critical stakeholders and major marketers and the depot owners, the fact remains that there is so much pressure and something must be done. Then the tankers and trailers are over 30 years of age. Only the multinationals, and they are very few, can procure new ones. And a new one costs about N30 million and most of them confessed that even if they have N30 million, they would not go and buy new vehicle. There is need for diversification and re-distribution of traffic system. Let the rails be more functional, which the government is doing something commendable on, and once vandalised pipelines are fixed, the pressure would reduce.

And again, in Lagos, we have about 54 tank farms, all clustered around Apapa. It is even a big risk. We have all agreed on some things and no more going to compromise on safety standards. We are talking about two critical issues and we must separate them-tanker drivers, trailer drivers and trucks. For tanker drivers, I think we have made a major progress and you can see it yourself. We hade a summit on the 15^th of June and came up with resolutions signed by all. We are going to retrain all the tanker/trailer drivers and they are going to bear the cost. But the minimum safety standards have fully bee endorsed now. Let me go to tanker drivers first, by September, they have all agreed to fully comply with the speedometer device, retro-reflectors and the minimum safety standards. The question is: during tanker crashes, why does the fuel spill? The problem is that the safety verve is missing. If you look at the multi-nationals, Total, Texaco, Mobil, even in the developed countries, trailers do crash, but they don’t spill the product. But because here, the safety verve is missing…that is why we’ve engaged the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and they have released the required standards. These are not new regulations, but the failure of those who are constructing the trailers and tanks and who do not comply with the minimum safety standards. The tanks constructed in Nigeria, they don’t fix the safety verve and it is not so expensive. The standards are complied with by the major markers. We have reached compromise with the depot owners. Before December, you would see a major improvement on this.

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You talked about training…

They personally requested that all their drivers should be retrained. We are going to conduct…and their licenses, they requested for four centres as their major locations-Kaunda, Suleja, Warri and Lagos. We are meeting with all the governors concerned and we are going to have major drivers workstation there and they are going to be a one-stop shop with the VIOs and the Board of Internal Revenue so that the proper things would be done. Commercial licensing requires them to go for medical test and I have added psychiatric tests. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency is going to partner with us for drug test too. We that, we are going to have a full database of how many commercial drivers we have who are tanker, trailer and truck drivers.

Talking about alcohol, who is responsible for the motorparks?

The Local Government is responsible for motorparks. And it is only in Lagos that the state government was able to enact a law with stiff penalties that if you sell alcohol at the motorparks, they would withdraw the franchise from the union (in charge of the motorpark) and run it themselves. It is working gradually but we still need to do a lot. We have 774 local government aread in Nigeria. We are approaching the ALGON (Association of Local Government of Nigeria) now to see if it can really enforce this; what we see at the parks is really barbaric.

How effective has your organisation being in monitoring these trucks and trailer drivers?

We’ve been but not to this level. We have now been engaging them in discussions and others. If you experience what is happening, the pressure on the road, the pressure to load, the deficit…currently, we have just like 35,000 tankers from the information available to us from the union. Ninety percent of them are old; 30 years and older and so there is the pressure on the demand and supply. Drivers do get their commission from the number of trips they make. So, there is an increase in pressure. What caused this current case (the accidents)? There was strike for about five weeks and the tanker drivers were idle and not been paid. So, the new government brokered the whole thing and they resumed loading. Ideally, what they load to Sokoto, the pipelines should have conveyed to Abuja, Suleja, to Ore, to Kaduna, to Jos, etc. But there is vandalisation. Some of these crashes were caused by the motor boys. The one that occurred at Idimu was caused by the area boys struggling with the driver. It was not the fault of the driver or the police as earlier reported that the driver was being exploited. There are a lot of issues associated with this. It has never happened that in one week (like it happened in June) that we recorded about 16 crashes involving tanker and trailers with 56 loss of lives. I have been on the road for about two weeks now and I personally supervise the enforcements now. And I can tell you that the problem is not caused by the tanker drivers alone, other private car drivers contribute to it. Modern trailers and tankers have increased speed and you see car drivers attempting to overtake. It is a multi-sectoral thing. It is a decay and we must wake up to face reality. We are doing our best. Don’t forget we are looking at 204,000 kilomtres of road network in Nigeria. The federal road alone is 35, 000.

Is there pressure on the Road Safety personnel as well?

We have these personnel just trained now. I think we’ve just injected some new personnel. So, on personnel, we don’t have problems. On logistic, we got support from the World Bank.

There is the allegation that Road Safety officials allow truck drivers to drive as they like while instead only stop car owners and check things that are considered irrelevant.

Well, we have corrected that now. When the patrol teams are on the road, there is what is called the power of discretion. They know what to do. I cannot be telling them what to do. But again, there is this violation of not complying with instructions given. Everybody musts now wake up to his responsibility. These vehicles are aged and need maintenance. We are going to partner with the Vehicle Inspection Officers. It is not the duty of FRSC to carry out vehicle inspection. We are appealing to the state governments to increase their capacities and logistics. These VIOs are not properly equipped. We need to support them so that their primary responsibilities are carried out. Most of these tankers also overload. When you carry a load more than the requirement, you start experiencing a problem.

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What happens to these who breach the agreement between you and the tanker drivers?

I have mobile courts now. Lagos State government is going to provide me with more magistrates. This is not the issue of fines. I have told His Excellency, governor or Lagos State and he agreed with me. It is the courts. I will jail those who violate these rules. This is a battle that we must win this time around. We need to be firm this time around. We are talking about road safety management and loss of live. Lives cannot be replaced. The governor is supporting us because we are talking about life. Starting from next week, if your container is not latched, I won’t allow you pass through Ojota. If a container falls, it can be replaced; insurance would cover it. The life of a person cannot be replaced. Look at the lives of those 11 students (who died recently after a container fell on the bus they were travelling in), they are gone. We have concluded the preliminary report and we are going to prosecute the owners. It was a rude violation of traffic laws. That was madness. The bus (which the students were travelling in) parked, from the records, and the vehicle conveying the container went to meet them. it was as if he was cursed. And the container fell on them and 11 people died. It is very unfortunate.

Do we have to have accidents before the law is enforced?

The Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode-Ore-Benin road is a dual carriageway. It is not an expressway. Lagos-Ibadan used to be called an expressway, but for now, it does not meet the minimum standard to be called an expressway. On an expressway, you don’t have turnings, no intersections. It is crass impunity for that driver to face the opposite lane. And that portion of the road is good.

Meanwhile, Nigeria and two other countries have been recognised as the best performing countries by the Economic Commission for Africa in accomplishing activities of the African Road Safety Action Plan.

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