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By Adewale Sanyaolu
The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) have forged ties to improve safety in the distribution of petroleum products.
MOMAN Chairman, Olumide Adeosun, and his NARTO counterpart, Yusuf Othman, made the commitment at the 2021 MOMAN/NARTO Workshop with the theme: ‘Safety In Road Transportation of Petroleum Products in Nigeria: Short and Long Term Imperatives held in Lagos at the weekend.
Adeosun said about 13 per cent of the roads in Nigeria are paved hence the need to pay adequate attention to the safety of petroleum products movements and that of the motoring public.
He said the state of Nigerian roads are appalling, adding that all hands must be on deck by stakeholders because every molecule of hydrocarbon that moves within the country gets done by road transport, hence the need to ensure they are delivered safe.
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Addressing participants at the event, Minister of State for Transport, Gbemisola Saraki, said that the recent approval given to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, to rebuild 21 federal highways across the country at a cost of N621 billion was a direct government response to the aspirations of trade route users. The minister said data from the Federal Road Safety Corps, (FRSC), showed 5,320 traffic accidents and 2,471 deaths were recorded in the first half of 2021 nationwide.
She said: “Most of the victims were young people who were in their prime, leaving families and loved ones behind.
About 52 per cent of those crashes were caused by speeding, she said, while other factors included poor roads, unskilled drivers, rickety trucks, and substance and alcohol abuse,’’
Saraki said the federal government, for its part, was doing its best to rehabilitate roads across the country that had been neglected for years by previous administrations. She said the government recognizes that there is a direct link between transportation and the rising cost of food in the country and is making efforts to remedy the situation.
“Of the 21 routes, nine were selected in the Center-North, three in the North-East, two in the North-West, two in the South-East, three in the South-South and two in the South-West. The roads total 1,804.6 linear kilometers,” she added.
