If we punish motorists who can’t afford imported tyres, what happens to those who killed our local tyre makers?
It was while flipping through the papers on Friday in search of what to write on that I stumbled on a story in one of the national dailies titled “Churches, new tenants of old industrial estates”. There was a particular quote in the story that attracted my attention: “Churches would have taken over the entire complex by now. There is no month pastors do not come to ask whether there are vacant spaces. Even when you tell them that we do not allow churches to open here, they will continue to come”. The dominant pictures on the story, well positioned in the centre-spread were those of an abandoned plant of Dunlop Nig. Plc and a section of the premises now occupied by a church.
This is the story of the ‘new Nigeria’, where churches have almost completely taken over most warehouses left by major industrial giants of old. Ordinarily, it would have been a plus, but it has turned out a minus because the proliferation of churches (and mosques) has not reflected positively on the attitudes of many Nigerians. In fact, one would not be wrong to say the more churches (and mosques) we have, the more sins our people commit. What we would have gained by way of spiritual rejuvenation due to the death of those industrial giants of the past we also lost because the churches and mosques are not as much concerned about salvation as they are about prosperity. Even in mosques where this does not sound so pronounced, it is evident in the way the leaders eulogise those who can honour Allah with their substance.
Anyway, this is not my focus today.
My focus, rather, is on the experiences of many Nigerians in the hands of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) personnel in their campaign against expired tyres. I heard of some of these experiences on radio and had also read some in the newspapers. Interestingly, in the process of researching into the issue, just as I was about putting this piece together on Friday, I stumbled on a report credited to the FRSC Head of Media and Strategy, Bisi Kazeem, to the effect that the commission had not started to ticket people for using expired tyres and that all it is doing is sensitising motorists to the dangers of using expired tyres. This was a big relief; not in the sense of encouraging Nigerians to use expired tyres but at least to the extent that the commission is still at the enlightenment stage on the matter. “We do not issue tickets for expired tyres. Our focus for now is to improve advocacy. That is why we have organised series of awareness campaigns across the country. We are still engaging the motoring public in this direction. The FRSC operational guidelines have not changed. We do not ask motorists for waste basket; that allegation is also wrong,” Kazeem said.
Without doubt, the FRSC means well by asking us to go for tyres that have not expired. Many of us know the importance of tyres to vehicles and to safety, particularly as they are the only contact the vehicles have with the roads. Many who did not know before are beginning to know, thanks to the enlightenment campaigns of the FRSC and some media stations on this. So, no one in his or her right senses would go for expired tyres if there is the means to get the ones that have not expired. It costs about N50,000 (minimum) to buy five new tyres for a car at a go, including the spare tyre. How many people can spend such amount on tyres in our shrinking economy? If it is this expensive to get new tyres for a car, then how much would it cost to have for commercial buses, trucks, tankers, trailers, etc?
Unless we want to deceive ourselves, this is huge, considering our wage structure and the state of the country’s economy. That is why all I do whenever this point is raised on radio about expired tyres is chuckle when the presenters tried to let the callers know the cost in terms of accidents. Sometimes, I see the presenters making such point too trying to say it because they could not have said otherwise, lest they be seen as promoting the ‘wrong’ values. There is no conviction even from some of the presenters because they know what things look like out there. How many of them with cars can boast that some or all of their tyres have not expired?
The sad aspect of it all is that we used to have two functional tyre manufacturing companies in this country – Michelin and Dunlop. That is how the introductory part of this piece comes in. Today, they are no more. Although some might say Dunlop still exists, those who knew Dunlop in its heyday would know that what we have on Dunlop premises today in Ikeja, Lagos, is only a caricature of the Dunlop Nig. Plc proper. What is particularly distressing is the fact that some people led the country to the situation where many companies had to leave here for more conducive environments. Most of these people who brought the country to this sorry pass are still walking our streets free; many of them are carrying the country’s merit awards and national honours. Many of them do not have to go through what the ordinary man is going through on the streets in the hands of overzealous or corrupt FRSC officials who are taking advantage of what is perhaps a not-too-clear directive from the commission’s authorities as to what to do to motorists with expired tyres. Even if the FRSC officials are able to stop the ordinary Nigerian to inspect the state of his tyres, these people who led the country into the situation where we now import tyres would not be victims because of their statuses in the society, irrespective of whether their tyres have expired. Moreover, many of them must have stolen public funds to last a lifetime that would not make buying of expired tyres their portion. So, where do we go from here? It is the ordinary man on the streets who contributed nothing to the problem that will pay the price and get punished for the crimes of some irresponsible leaders. If we had functional tyre manufacturers in the country, and even if the price is high, we would at least know that it is our economy we are growing when we buy locally-made tyres.
The case of Dunlop is particularly distressing because a few years before it went comatose, it had obtained billions of Naira syndicated loan to upgrade its facilities. I remember the fanfare that attended the commissioning of its new All Steel Radial Truck Tyre Expansion Project on which it spent a good portion of the loan. Successive ministers of trade and investments assured the company all would be well; yet did nothing to bring that to fruition.
But it is not only expired tyres that cause road crashes; there are also bad roads to contend with; another result of bad leadership. If the government is saying that it does not have the means to fix all roads at once, should the same government now hold it against people, who also for lack of means, can only afford expired tyres? Worse still, we have seen situations where brand new tyres had burst due to bad portions of roads in many instances. Can the citizens sue the government for this because it is the duty of government to ensure that roads are motorable? It is the same logic.
But nothing here suggests my support for expired tyres. However, what I would urge the FRSC to do is to continue its enlightenment campaign on the dangers of using expired tyres and how to know them because of the antics of some tyre sellers who change the dates on the tyres before selling to unsuspecting customers. Moreover, the commission would do well to let Nigerians know that the fact that a tyre is new or looks new does not mean it could not have expired or that its expiry date is still far away. I have seen people, knowledgeable people for that matter, who bought brand new tyres and the tyres burst within days of purchase.
Again, the commission should not rush to the defence of its officers and men when members of the public accuse them of some untoward behaviour. This is common among our uniformed agencies. The truth is; some of the officers and men are either themselves ignorant of their briefs or are overzealous or even deliberately get mischievous in order to extort members of the public. What the commission should do, as in the case of expired tyres, is to carry out ‘sting operations’, especially in areas where motorists’ complaints about abuses are frequent. They will be surprised at the result. The same thing happens at licensing offices or when people want to collect driver’s licence. Extortions go on daily in many of these centres. Yet, when the senior officials of the concerned agencies are confronted with these abuses in the media, they deny and make those who made the allegations look like liars. It is not always so.
