The Nation Newspaper

Tag: tyre

  • SON to tyre users: Beware!

    SON to tyre users: Beware!

    Mrs. Ebere Okoye bought four brand new 15 rim tyres from a man simply identified as Emma from his shop at No. 38 Fatai Atere Way, Mushin, Lagos, as she prepared to travel home for the Christmas.

    On the fateful day, her driver gripping the steering wheel of the Honda Accord car with confidence calculated that at a steady speed of 100 kilometres per hour, he would be able to enter Onitsha under six hours barring any incidence especially as the car has been fitted with brand new tyres.

    He had gone to a professional to fit the tyres and, immediately after, took the car for wheel balancing and alignment just to make sure that everything was perfect as he was embarking on the long journey with a family of four.

    Leaving home as early as 5a.m in order to beat traffic hold ups, he was happy that after about three hours, he was almost at Ore, Ondo State. But all of a sudden, he heard a big burst and everyone in the car screamed ‘Jesus’ out of fear.

    Alarmed and gripping the steering hard, without applying brakes, he managed successfully to steer the car off the highway. Relieved that no further damage was done, they successfully got a vulcaniser after about 45minutes. After changing the burst tyre with the spare, they continued the journey though very apprehensive and mindful that they had no spare tyre now.

    At Ore town, they had to buy another spare tyre at a very exorbitant price. The question on the mind of every occupant of the car was: how could a brand new tyre bought just a week ago burst just like that?

    As he continued the journey, just after Benin Bye Pass, he heard a big blast, intimating him that one of the rear tyres has gone burst. Pulling over, to his surprise and chagrin, he realised it was one of the new ones that was recently bought and not even the spare tyre.

    The third tyre went burst on Niger Bridge. Out of annoyance, Okoye searched through her bag and pulled out the receipt she was issued when she bought the tyres. In annoyance, she called Emma threatening to get him arrested anytime she gets back to Lagos. Feigning surprise, the seller explained that other people that bought the tyres did not complain and that even if the tyres were substandard that he did not manufacture them.

    Just last week, Engineer Kester Ajayi left his house in Surulere in his Mercedes car to his office at Alausa, Ikeja. Not up to five minutes of driving along Ikorodu Road, one of his front tyres which he attested to be brand new went burst, causing the car to somersault several times before finally resting on its side. The only occupant, Ajayi, sustained injuries.

    Most of us are quite familiar with the story of Chief James Ocholi, the former Minister of State for Labour who died with his wife and son as a result of an accident occasioned by a burst tyre.

    Explaining how the minister, his wife and his 20-year-old son died, Kaduna State Sector Commander of FRSC, Francis Udoma, said the rear tyre of the SUV they were travelling in went burst, while the vehicle skidded off the road and somersaulted several times into the bush. The minister and his son died on the spot while the wife died later in hospital.

    Okoye, her family and Ajayi were lucky, but the minister, his family and many others were not lucky. The stories are endless.

    The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has been on their toes trying to curb and stop the importation and smuggling into the country of substandard tyres

    Last weekend, many were speechless and taken aback when SON conducted journalists to a massive warehouse beside Navy Barracks, Ojo, Statellite town, Lagos, that was filled with over two million substandard tyres imported into the country by the duo  of Taolung Shen and Xu Jing Yau, Chinese nationals.

    Abuses were hurled at the callous importers as they were paraded before journalists. People wondered at the cruelty and lack of regard for human life they exhibited by bringing into the country tyres which from the look and texture of most of them were already weak and not likely to withstand any road pressure.

    Tempers ran even higher as people examining the tyres noticed that they were also post dated. Some of the tyres had manufactured dates as March, January, February 2017, while the day of this inspection was February 25th 2017.

    The first comment from the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of SON, Osita Aboloma, as he walked into the premises, horrified at the sight of the huge number of substandard tyres, was, “this is a terrible shame.”  A terrible shame that importers could sear their conscience and endanger human lives like that. A terrible shame that with all the warnings and everything that the agency has put in place to deter such unscrupulous importers from such wickedness they still engage in it.

    The tyres described by the agency as the largest seizure of substandard tyres in one swoop in the history of Nigeria is over two million and worth over N5 billion.

    The DG and CEO of SON, who took journalists round the warehouse, described the tyres as dead on arrival, adding that allowing them to enter the market amounted to surreptitiously taking away the lives of millions of Nigerians.

    Apart from being substandard tyres, the two arrested Chinese importers were also cloning different sizes of tyres in the warehouse under brand names of Powertrace, Aptany, Harmony, Daraturn, Bearway, City Tour, Winda, Glory, Chachland, City Grand, Grandsonte [Tyre Type] and Sunny [for tricycle], among others.

    Many of the tyres arrived the country with about five tyres stuffed into one resulting in the tyres bending and most of them ruptured and looking weak and slack.

    The Chinese then adorned them with new tyre labels and shining linings to create the impression of being new and strong.

    According to the SON DG, “We have over 60 containers of tyres, actually stuffed tyre to be precise. Again, even if these are to be standard tyres, the fact that up to five of them were tucked into one, with operators using rods to separate from one another when they reached Nigeria, the tyres will naturally become substandard.

  • Facts about tyre blowout

    It is interesting and encouraging that the death of the former Minister of State for Labour and Employment and a top military officer in a car crash along Kaduna – Abuja and Maiduguri roads respectively has brought to fore, some fundamental issues which have hitherto been played down at various levels. In the same week, two pathetic accidents also occurred on Bauchi and Owo – Akure roads which led to the loss of over 20 lives.

    In this article, I will focus on just one of those safety issues, TYRE PROBLEMS. The two sad accidents were caused by tyre blowouts.

    It is expedient for every driver to deeply understand the physical forces (Kinetic energy or Momentum, Centrifugal force, Traction or Friction, road banking etc), how they affect the control of the vehicle (acceleration, steering and braking) and how to prevent the loss of control.

    I would like to classify this piece into 2, The Quality of Tyres and the Handling of Tyres as they affect driving.

    QUALITY OF TYRES – The quality of tyres depend to a very large extent on the chemical compound of the rubber used in manufacturing the tyres, the tyre construction (bias, bias-belted or radial-ply), the tyre thread design (all – weather, snow or conventional passenger tyres). The more the rubber is in contact with the road, the more the degree of traction but the rate of traction reduces when the road is wet. The various types of tyres also vary in terms of their effectiveness in stopping, and cornering.

    There is also a need for the drivers to be able to decode the tyre sidewall information (passenger code, load code, weight – speed code, traction grade, temperature grade, tyre size, construction information, etc).

    In a nut shell, the following handling factors can cause a tyre blowout or allied problems – Quality of the tyres (production error, worn out tyres, tyres without adequate thread depth, expired tyres even if new, twisted tyres, improper tyre rotation, improper or careless mounting of tyres, etc).

    Defects (caused by frequent climbing of road kerb or other objects, frequent scrubbing of the tyre  sideways against road median or road kerbs, wrong patching of punctured tyres), under – inflation or over – inflation of tyres, damage by sharp objects on the road, wheel spinning (especially when the tyre gets stuck in a mud), Speed (the faster your speed, the faster also your vehicle tyres will wear out), the temperature and temperature changes.

    Handling – Every driver and vehicle owner must know the limit of adhesion which is determined by the grip of the tyres to the road. This depends largely on the tyre design as earlier mentioned, the vertical force placed on the tyre (the load or weight), the tyre and condition of the road surface, and the vehicle speed.

    A combination of acceleration, steering and or braking has a lot to do with weight transfer which in turn determines the stability or loss of control of the vehicle.

    In addition to tyre blowout, other factors which can make a vehicle to roll-over or summersault include: cornering at a high speed, over-braking while cornering at a high speed, over-steering while over speeding, faulty suspension system, wide vehicle-  ground clearance and overloading.

    For safety on the road, always obey the speed limit or adjust your speed (according to your skill, vehicle condition and the environmental factors, especially the road surface); avoid speedy take-off, speedy steering and speedy stopping; avoid potholes, stones and sharp objects on the road, avoid climbing road kerbs or scrubbing your tyre walls against road median or kerbs, avoid overloading or load/passenger imbalance in the vehicle, do regular wheel balancing and alignment, and don’t despise expert advice on the right tyres to buy for your vehicles. Prevention is better and cheaper than cure.

  • Group seeks auto tyre safety

    “The fact that you did not find your tyre flat where you last parked your vehicle does not mean that any of the tyres are not leaking or at the expected level gauge they should be,” said President of Automobile and Road Safety Initiative, Mr Samuel Oloyede Oriowo

    This statement, made during the Auto Tyre Safety Day held week penultimate, captures the insignificant of tyres as some motorists assumed them to be, and had led to fatal vehicle crashes in which lives of prominent and promising Nigerians have been terminated.

    The recent estimate suggests that out of 3,680 accidents recorded in this clime for the last three years; about 2,500 of them are caused by tyre bursts.

    In his welcome address, Oloyede said “the history of automobiles that can be traced to the early 1770s when many people tried to make cars that would run on steam. But beginning in the 1880s, investors tried very hard to make cars that would run well enough to use every day”.

    According to him, “the efforts of the first tyre makers such as Charles Goodyear, John Dunlop, Andre’ Michelin and Phillip Strauss among others complimented that of the vehicle manufacturers who improved on their inventions to make vehicles larger and more powerful to transport goods and passengers.

    “It was observed that in any gathering where auto tyres are discussed, the inventory effort of Charles Goodyear who invented vulcanized rubber in 1844 which was later used for the first tyres should be duly commended.”

    Oloyede spoke extensively on the aims of the Initiative: “We at Automobiles and Road Safety Initiative have resolved to arrest the menace of sub-standard, Second-hand (Tokunbo) tyres in Nigeria. But we can’t do it alone which is one of the reasons we have called you up here today to join us in adding your voice to the crusade to reduce vehicle crashes that happen due to conditions of the vehicle, a reasonable percentage which has to do with the state and conditions of the vehicle’s tyre,” Oloyede said.

    He further assured to enlarge the scope of this event for the betterment of the sector and the motoring Nigerians from the beginning of the year 2014.

    The president also noted that in subsequent editions of the annual event, the Automobiles And Road Safety Initiative will start conferring Award Of Excellence on tyre manufacturers; their representatives and dealers that meet expected High Quality standard for usage in Nigeria.

    “Kudos to the outgoing Lagos Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, newly promoted Assistance Corps Marshall Nseobong Charles Akpabio for successfully manning the state with the highest volume of traffic in the country.

    “The effort of the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Joseph Odumodu and his performing team including other distinguished guess was commended for the wonderful jobs they have been doing to rid the country of used, fake tyres.”

    In conclusion of the speech, the president urged the general citizens of Nigeria to play their part dutifully to see the end to the production and, or importation and usage of used, sub-standard, Tokunbo tyres.

  • Teenager flies to Lagos in Arik Air tyre

    Teenager flies to Lagos in Arik Air tyre

    •Arik, FAAN trade blames over breach of security

    How did a young boy outsmart security operatives at the Benin Airport yesterday to stow away on a commercial flight to Lagos undetected?

    This is one of the questions experts in the aviation industry and security agencies will have to find an answer to after the boy was found on the arrival of the plane at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja yesterday.

    The development has already sparked accusations and counter accusations between Arik Air whose security was breached and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the agency responsible for security in all the nation’s airports.

    The boy, whose name was given as Daniel Ihekina, hid in the tyre compartment of Arik Aircraft 5N-MJG, Flight 44 while preparing for take- off to Lagos at 9am.

    The management of the airline attributed the development to security lapses at the Benin Airport.

    But FAAN countered, saying the airline acted with impunity on the matter.

    On board the plane were several top officials of the Edo State government.

    Passengers aboard the airline were shocked when security agents found the teenager at the MMA soon after the aircraft landed.

    Though none of the officials at the Benin Airport agreed to comment on the issue, there were fears that the boy may have accessed the tarmac through Akenzua Road axis owing to lack of perimeter fencing at the airport. A passenger aboard the plane said: “we were suspicious in Benin when the plane was about taking off when we heard a noise as if the tyre crushed somebody on the ground. Some people even started shouting ‘Jesus, Jesus, which suggested that the boy was already inside the tyre compartment before we left.

    “So, we left for Lagos but when we landed at the Ikeja Airport, the boy came out from the tyre compartment and everybody started shouting.

    “Seriously speaking, this shows that we have serious problems with regard to securing our airports. This is a serious security breach. If that boy was carrying bomb it means he would have succeeded in blowing up the plane. How can somebody be in an aircraft without being detected? We are in trouble in this country.”

    However, Arik Air, in a swift reaction to the development, blamed it all on security lapses at the Benin Airport.

    It expressed shock at how anyone could beat aviation security checks at the Benin Airport to stowaway into the main wheel of its aircraft.

    Spokesman for the company, Mr Banji Ola, said :”The pilot of Arik Air flight W3 544, departing Benin Airport for Lagos at 9.00am today (yesterday) 24thAugust, 2013 reported to the control tower the presence of a strange boy in the bush about 200 – 300 metres at the end of runway 23.

    “The control tower told the captain that they were sending security men to the place to arrest the boy. As the captain was making his final turn, preparatory for take-off, a cabin crew called his attention to the information by some of the passengers that they saw a boy running towards the airplane. The First Officer confirmed that they had observed it earlier and alerted the control tower which responded that they have sent the patrol team to arrest the boy. The captain again reported to the control tower and was informed that the situation was under control and that he had been cleared for take-off.

    “On arrival at the domestic wing of MMA, Lagos, a teenage boy, who apparently had sneaked into the aircraft main wheel well jumped out and was arrested by Arik personnel and handed over to FAAN security.”

    Managing Director of the airline, Mr. Chris Ndulue, asked the authorities of FAAN to “immediately address the problem.”

    But speaking for FAAN, Mr Yakubu Dati said Arik Air was responsible for the breach by not conducting a check on the plane after the attention of the crew and ground personnel was drawn to an abnormally on the tarmac.

    The procedure for such infraction, he said, is for the crew to abort the flight and return to the apron for check-up.

    “It is revealing that Arik Air accepted that their attention was drawn to the presence of foreign bodies on the tarmac. Why they ignored this vital safety precaution reveals their disdain for following safety procedures,” he said and warned that FAAN will not tolerate such infraction from any operator.

     

    He said: “This is arrant display of impunity. The aircraft should not have taxied further, but return to the apron until a proper check is carried out on all parts of the aircraft.

    “FAAN will not tolerate such impunity henceforth from Arik or any airline. Any violation would be met with applicable sanctions.”

    The suspect is already giving useful information to security agents on his motive.

     

  • ‘How we lost tyre market to fake products’

    ‘How we lost tyre market to fake products’

    Since coming to office, Dr Joseph Ikemefuna Odumodu, Director-General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), has been waging war against substandard products. His trips to China, where most of these products come from, he says, have been eye-openers to him because of what some Nigerians do to their compatriots in the name of business. Odumodu told Group Business Editor AYODELE AMINU in Beijing, China, about SON’s efforts to tackle fake products through the introduction of e-products registration.

     

     

     

    We are here in China to attract investments into Nigeria. What is SON doing to ensure that goods imported from China are regulated to meet standard?

    This is a very loaded question. I can answer it in two hours, but I will be as brief as possible. When I started on this job, the first thing I did was to benchmark, actually to understand the environment. The findings through a survey were very worrying because we found out that over 80 per cent of products then were substandard and that most of them were from here (China). Hence, the first thing I did was to come here (China) and meet with the equivalent of SON, called AQSIQ. We have had several meetings since then. We may not have made much progress in the past, but I must say that on this trip, we have made substantial progress.

    Maybe the strategy I adopted was aggressive by laying blames on their doorsteps. This time around, I noticed that their response was that “your people come here and ask us to make a particular quality, and that is what we make for them and we are businessmen.” They said our people are at fault because they made bad products for Nigerians. But we have closed ranks and there will be an agreement before the end of this year regarding certain requirement. One is that any Chinese product imported into Nigeria should have a certificate of free sale. It is a condition that comes with products manufactured and used in country of origin. There are countries that have export only market.

    At SON, we are not at the ports. But we have started with e-products registration. What we are doing is that every product that is offered for sale must be registered in Nigeria. The first deadline has expired. We are going to start enforcement any time from now. The registration will show who the importer and manufacture is. We are capturing the kind of agreement the Nigerian importer has with the manufacturer. And after that, we will start an enforcement regime.

    SON will capture data about what that company is doing and data of the Nigerian importer with the manufacturer. After that, we will start enforcement regime. Anytime we see a product that did not comply, all we need to do is to trace it back to who brought, and also find out who made it. We will give the details of who made it to my colleagues, so that they can be blacklisted from exporting to Nigeria. And it does not matter whether I am at the ports, or I am not at the border or they smuggled the goods. Wherever the products come from, there must be a place where they will be sold.

    What we are saying is that there will be a visual code, ABC 123. But there will also be a non-visual code subsequently on that product. And that code is only known to a few people in the company that manufacture it. The idea here is that some people can look at your product and manufacture it, but they will not be able to see the non-visual code.

    The other level is that if you register your product, then you are responsible for your brand. You need to protect your brand. So, once you do your registration you will be able to import products. We will use the rest of this year to sort out registration of products. I understand that some of the importers are resisting the registration of their products because they do not want SON to know too much about such products. For me, they are doing that because they know that they are breaking the law and taking consumers for granted. We will collaborate with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    With the registration, you are talking about collaborating with the CBN. Have you taken into cognisance the Customs because that is where the goods will pass through at the border?

    The SON and Customs are all government agencies. By law, we are supposed to work together. The Customs, the Police, even Immigration. We are working with them. But the system is foolproof. It doesn’t matter whether SON, Customs and any other person have done their work.

    The point is that every product in the market must have visual and non-visual codes. It does not even matter where the products are coming from. The products have codes, if they don’t have codes, we will impound them and destroy them. What I am seeking, is power to destroy the goods without going to court because that takes some time to be achieved. For us, to show how serious we are, we have to act with a lot of precision.

    Which sector has been the major challenge to you?

    What we have done is that we have been able to categorise sectors. If, for example, we see that tyres can lead to death, then we focus on that.  We focus on life-endangering index. We can also focus on iron rods, because buildings can come down. There are lots of other issues involved. Buildings can come down because the contractor did not apply the right concrete mixture. If I walk into a site and see a rod, I will know who made it because there is an identity mark on it. We are also focusing on roofing sheets. What we do is focus on issues that are life-endangering than those ones that do not endanger life.

    When we started, even half of the rods in the market are substandard. Today, I make bold to tell people, go to the market, and tell me which of them is substandard. Every month we do testing and all that. As for cement, we no longer import it. All I do is go to the manufacturers. We are building a new lab to ensure we test cement more regularly. There are challenges, but I don’t want a situation whereby somebody dies an avoidable death.

    There are challenges in areas of cables. These cables enter Alaba and we don’t even know how they came in. I tell people, if you want to buy cable, why not go directly to companies that make cables in Nigeria? Because they are making good cables, better than anyone imported into the country. The challenge is in our ability to build infrastructure for testing. We also have accreditation and funding challenges. In the new e-products registration regime, we will need people to move round major markets in Nigeria and funding is important.

    How can you quantify the success you have achieved so far?

    I have always run away from accessing myself. Nigerians should say that. We have people who bought generators, cars and when they are substandard, we intervene.

    How much is Nigeria losing to substandard goods?

    A lot, it cannot be quantified. I can give you an example. Today, there is no company that makes tyres in Nigeria. So, we used to have the capacity, but we have thrown it away. We import tooth picks, that is where we have degraded. I have made statements about de-industrialisation. The point is that the value of what we have lost is not quantifiable. For example, you will be amazed, HP products, people go and fake them. Many of them, especially printer inks, are most affected. I want to deal with multinationals that want to protect their brands before we go to small players. Some major dealers sell fake products. There are so many wrongs we are doing to consumers in Nigeria.

    What are the challenges facing tyre manufacturing?

    In the last one year, we have impounded over five million tyres and we have to destroy them somehow. We realised that we need to ensure that the right infrastructure is in place. Right now, we have had some discussions with some investors from South Korea and Taiwan, and some Indians who are working on bringing in tyre shredding plants. First, they ask how they can make their money. They are asking for tax holiday and a moratorium.

    The challenge is in our ability to build infrastructure for testing. Another challenge is in accreditation because if you test a product and you say this product is not good, if you are not accredited, the person who made the product outside of Nigeria can challenge you. But if your lab is not accredited, you cannot win that case anywhere in the world. We will pursue a little tax on tyres. Talking about tyres, I want to say that even if a tyre is new and unused, it can expire.