The Nation Newspaper

Tag: unrealistic’

  • ‘Executive Order unrealistic without infrastructure’

    Chief Remi Ogungbemi, Chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) in this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf argues matter-of-factly that the Executive Order is far from a reality as basic infrastructure aimed at turning things around at the ports are still missing. Excerpts:

    What can you say about the advent of the Executive Orders in the maritime sector, especially at the ports?

    I must say that I have not seen any spectacular change since the Executive Orders was issued. The only thing I can say however is that we have been having series of meetings with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Shippers Council, in terms of sensitisation and trying to ensure that all hands are on deck.

    Take the access roads to Tincan Island Port and Apapa for instance, they have totally collapsed. One would expect that by now these roads would have been fixed.  Good road is one of the major factors that you must look at if you desire to ease the traffic gridlock. But what we have now is a total breakdown of the road networks in and around the ports. If you move around you see vehicles on long queues with drivers exposed to the elements for several weeks to no avail.  I may not be an engineer but I can say for certain that the continuous parking of these trucks on the roads and bridges actually reduces the lifespan of these roads. Of course, it is no fault of the drivers that the roads are not accessible neither would anybody in his right senses choose to be a nuisance by parking his vehicles on the bridges for months when he should go in pursuit of business. The issue of poor infrastructure is what should be given priority attention by the concerned authorities.

    How has this impacted on businesses?

    The impact in business is huge. When the Vice President visited the ports with a helicopter I was thinking that he would mobilise to site to rehabilitate the bad portion as a palliative measure but nothing has happened. This is particularly nauseating because the ports are supposed to the gateway to the nation’s economy and yet the access road is nothing to write home about.

    Way out

    There must a deliberate measure to build truck terminals because a situation where all the trucks are just coming and going in a riotous fashion, it does nobody no good. I want to use this avenue to appeal to the concerned authorities to see what they can do because things are in terribly bad shape right now.

  • Varsity teachers’ demands unrealistic, says Ezekwesili

    Varsity teachers’ demands unrealistic, says Ezekwesili

    A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has said the demands by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were unrealistic in light of Nigeria’s economic situation.

    Ezekwesili spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan while reacting to the ongoing strike embarked upon by the union.

    The former minster said lasting solution to the crisis bedevilling the education sector could only be found from strong analysis of the issues raised by ASUU and evidenced based policies.

    “Money is not limitless and yet everyone must acknowledge that investment in education is crucial and it is key.

    “There are, however, some fundamental reforms that the sector needs in order to ensure that it is not about the size of the funding but about the productivity of the funding.

    “You cannot simply express a desire, it must be founded on reality and that means you must know what can be achieved within a given period,” she said.

    According to her, a structural and policy change which allows public and private investments should be integrated into the university system.

    “If you remember, the ASUU negotiation started in 2007 when I was the Minister of Education and we constituted a government negotiation team, led by the late Gamaliel Onosode,

    “Even though that period was short, one of the major issues for me was for us to make sure that we were being evidenced based in the way we were solving the problem.

    “We considered issues like the existing model in countries similar to us in emerging economies,’’ she said.

    The former minister said the team also considered what could be done by the public and private sectors about university funding among others.

    “Those are the kinds of evidence that we had and on the basis of which we hinged our negotiation at that time.”

    Ezekwesili urged both the Federal Government and ASUU to return to the negotiating table and work on the basis of analysis and evidence to find lasting solution to the dispute.

  • ‘Why LPG target remains unrealistic’

    ‘Why LPG target remains unrealistic’

    Nigeria’s inability to meet its yearly target of two million metric tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is caused by inadequate infrastructure, delays in discharging the product at the terminals approved by the Federal Government, market inability to absorb the product, among others, the Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Liquefied and Natural Gas (NLNG), Mr Babs Omotowa has said.

    He said the industry is supplying less than 400,000 metric tonnes of LPG yearly, arguing that the figure is far below the targeted three million metric tonnes.

    Fielding questions from reporters in Lagos, during the presentation of NLNG’s  Facts and Figures, Omotowa said the capacity of the LPG market is very low, adding that it could not absorb huge percentage.

    He said: “The consumption of LPG has grown from 40,000 metric tonnes in 2007 to over 320,000 metric tonnes in 2015.  In spite of this, the industry is yet to meet its target.Various problems are accounted for this development. First is the issue of the capacity of the market, which is very low and as a result, cannot absorb LPG in large quantities. Secondly, the delay in discharging the product at various designated terminals in the country is another problem. Thirdly, trucking or transporting LPG is a problem.  Making the product available to consumers in far places, such as the North is a problem. Trucks that are conveying the product spend days before they get to their destination.

    ‘’If a truck is taking LPG to a place like North, the driver is going to spend days, as well as incurring more cost. This would increase the cost of the product,” he said.

    According to him, NLNG has the capacity to supply more than 400,000 metric tonnes yearly, provided the market is ready to absorb it.

    Omotowa said the scarcity of the product was occasional, arguing that the problem it is not that of NLNG, but of the industry.

    He said NLNG has succeeded in making cooking gas available at a cheaper rate, as well as providing alternative for consumers.

  • ‘Presidential directive on bad roads unrealistic’

    ‘Presidential directive on bad roads unrealistic’

    How realistic is President Goodluck Jonathan’s directive that all bad federal roads must be fixed before Christmas, which is just a month and some days away? Road users and experts believe the president is being unrealistic, reports LEKE SALAUDEEN

     

    If it were realistic, it will bring joy to many. Road users will rejoice. Transporters will be ecstatic. And contractors will smile to the banks. The government too will have its popularity rating soaring high. The country will also have its economic indices improving. The N80 billion lost annually to the deplorable condition of roads across the country will be available for other usage. And the country will no longer incur N35 billion annually as operating costs on its network of roads.

    But as far as all these people who would have been the beneficiaries are concerned, the presidential directive to the Ministry of Works to rehabilitate major highways before the Christmas season is nothing but a joke.

    A report recently shows that “over the next 10 years, N300 billion will be required to bring national roads into a satisfactory usable condition”. So, how will the Federal Government perform the miracle of fixing bad roads in less than two months when no money was budgeted for such expenses.

    The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) said the presidential order was a gimmick intended to draw public attention. The unions said they have heard such directives in the past and nothing came out of them.

    Jonathan, after a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting a fortnight ago, directed the Ministry of Works to carry out the repair of roads washed off by flood before Yuletide to guarantee the safety of the people travelling home for the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

    National Secretary of PTD Dayyub Garga told The Nation that his union would not be carried away by mere directive.

    He said: “Such directive is not new to us. Nothing came out of the previous ones. As a result we are not expecting magic from this. We have made several representations to government on the deplorable state of highways in the past what we got was promises upon promises. We won’t be taken unaware if by December 30, the roads are still what they are today.

    “To start with, is it possible to repair all the major roads between now and Christmas period? How many years have government spent on repairing Shagamu-Benin, Lagos-Ibadan, and Lokoja-Abuja highways? Has government made special budgetary allocation for the repair works? We don’t believe that government is ready to develop our roads.

    “The bad roads have impacted negatively on our business. They contribute to the ageing of our trucks. A truck that is supposed to last for six years pack up within two years. Drivers spend two or three days on Jebba-Mokwa road, on Benin-Shagamu road, drivers are hooked up for days. “

    The NURTW also doubts the Federal Government’s sincerity. Its Lagos State chairman, Alhaji Taju Agbede said: “We are not excited by the presidential order that all federal roads in the country would be repaired before Yuletide.”He spoke to our correspondent through the association’s deputy secretary, Mr. Paul Ogenni at the union’s secretariat in Lagos.

    Agbede added:” Roads all over the country have been in bad shape before the flood disaster, the Federal Government failed to respond to public outcry. If government has been carrying out maintenance exercise on the roads from time to time, we won’t be in a terrible situation in which we are today. The roads, which have collapsed four or five years ago, now you want to repair them in less than two months, it is not possible.

    “If not for the state governments that have been carrying out maintenance on federal roads within their jurisdictions, road transportation would have stopped.”

    Why roads are collapsing

    A retired civil engineer with Julius Berger, Mr Kayode Akinsowon, said standard roads ought to last over 20 years. He said Nigerian roads do not meet global standard.

    He explained that roads are expected to have drainage channels on each side as well as shoulders on both sides of the road known as walkway. The construction of drainage channels is the first stage of road construction, he said.

    Akinsowon said: “This is to enable the drainage channels drain water that is not supposed to stay on asphalt surface after it has been laid on the road. The longer water stays or remains on the surface of asphalt; it wears off the asphalt and causes decay of the road.

    “Unfortunately, road designers in government ministry of works don’t make provision for this important aspect of road construction, hence the roads start peeling off after a year or two.”

    The problem with most of the federal road network, comprising 34,000 kilometres in length, is that they were built in the 70s and in the early 80s thus, virtually all of them have deteriorated beyond maintenance, he added.

    Problem of underfunding road sector

    The chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Works, Ora Ozomgbauchi, (Ezeagu/Udi Federal Constituency, Enugu State) has identified under-funding as the major factor responsible for the bad roads across the country.

    He said: “Look at the Abuja/Abaji road, when the contract was awarded, it was supposed to be completed within five years. It has lingered and it has entered its seventh year. Given the funding pattern in the budget, it could take another five years to complete. Once there is funding gap, there will be ripple effects and requests from the contractors for upward review of the cost.”