The Committee on Driver Retraining and Road Safety has appealed to the Federal Ministry of Transportation to act swiftly on the National Assembly’s directive mandating the retraining and recertification of fuel tanker and articulated vehicle drivers nationwide.
National President of the Driving Schools Association of Nigeria, Mr. Jide Owatunmise, made the call on Thursday during a meeting with the Minister of Transportation, Senator Said Ahmed Alkali, where the Committee presented its position paper.
The paper followed the National Assembly’s directive instructing the Ministry to design an actionable six-month retraining programme.
According to Owatunmise, the Committee has concluded its sessions, finalised its report, and submitted its proposals, but has since received no further communication from the Committee’s chairman.
Expressing concerns over the growing rate of accidents, the Committee thanked the Ministry for its commitment to safer transport, but warned that accidents involving articulated vehicles have sharply increased since the directive was issued.
“The retraining of drivers is now more crucial than ever,” members stressed, citing lives lost and property destroyed in preventable crashes.
The Committee highlighted alarming gaps in driver competency, including cases where tanker and trailer operators lack valid licences. It insisted that retraining and recertification are indispensable to reversing Nigeria’s surge in haulage-related accidents.
While commending the Minister for securing Federal Executive Council approval of the National Transport Policy and the N142 billion earmarked for modern bus terminals across six geo-political zones, the Committee insisted that road safety must remain paramount.
“Effective transport infrastructure is essential, but without safety, it is incomplete,” the Committee declared.
Responding through the Director overseeing the office of the Permanent Secretary, Musa Ibrahim, Senator Alkali assured the Committee of the Ministry’s full support, while acknowledging budgetary constraints.
“The Minister is not sleeping over that. We all know what budgetary issues are. If anything is not captured in an agency’s budget and it comes midway, generating funds becomes extra-budgetary. The Honourable Minister is working around the clock to resolve this and will communicate updates through the Committee chairman,” Ibrahim said.
The Committee concluded by urging the Ministry to mobilise funding without delay, stressing that successful implementation of the retraining programme would save lives and strengthen the Ministry’s Performance Management Scores.
