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By Kenneth Jukpor
Following the recent passage of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration (CIoTA) Nigeria bill into law, the body has said that the law could be a basis for positive transformation in the nation’s transport sector as high level of professionalism would be observed across all modes of transportation.
The Institute has also assured that there is no conflict of interest between the body and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Nigeria.
CIoTA has emerged as the only institute recognised by law to superintendent activities of transport professionals in Nigeria, while CILT is also pursuing similar legislation in the country.
The President of CIoTA Nigeria, Dr. Bashir Jamon stated this during a national press conference last week, while he frowned at squatters building houses on rail lines around the Naval Dockyard in Apapa, Lagos, assuring that the Institute is concerned about reviving the rail system and developing efficient multimodal transport system in Nigeria.
Dr. Jamoh, who is also Executive Director, Finance and Administration at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), stressed that signing the CIoTA bill by President Mohammadu Buhari in June 2019 would revolutionalize the nation’s transport sector.
He assured that the Institute under his watch with continue to advise government and formulate policies that would revive the transport sector, especially to restore multimodalism in transportation.
He said ‘CILT and CIoTA have been working hand in hand over the years, but as of today, the recognized body for the professional transporters is CIoTA Nigeria, we are reaching out to the CILT as we have been doing before the chatter, and we would continue to do so. It is left for the two bodies to decide what to do before the consideration of their own (CILT) bill”
On funding, he stressed that the Institute is solely private driven as it doesn’t depend on financial support from the Federal Government, noting that membership fees and other sources of income would provide funds needed to run the activities of the Institute.
“The major problem in the sector today is the dearth of the rail system, in those days, not up to three decades when I came to Lagos, you can easily have your container transported via rail, you can take it from Apapa port, Lillypond, Kaduna and so on”
“As far as this government is concerned in the last four years, there has been a lot of revolutions in terms of rail system, the President has equally directed that all ports must be connected with rail lines. It may not be as fast as you think, because it is easy to destroy, today if you go to the Naval Dockyard, you would see rail lines where people have buildings on top of them”
“The rail lines have its provisions and there is nowhere in the world where people build houses on top of rail lines, today, if you go to Apapa, you would see those rail networks being used as a building, and you expect it all to work back in a single day? It is not possible because the rail was not built in a day”
He assured that CIoTA would continue to train professionals and also advise government and all stakeholders to adopt and implement global best practices in Transport Administration.
“The six two political zones will be duly covered to lead specific transportation related initiatives from water in the South South to rail and inland in the north west roads in the east; north central will focus on pipelines/cable transport and aviation in the Lagos hub of the South West”
Meanwhile, a former Director General of NIMASA, Barr. Temisan Omatseye has commended CIoTA on the passage of its bill, noting that it was a good development for the nation’s transport sector.
Omatseye who is also a former President of African Shipowners Association (ASA), advised CIoTA to maximize the opportunity to insist that only transport professionals are allowed to hold critical positions in transport sector agencies.
He also reserved praise for the CIoTA President, Dr. Jamoh, who had championed the bill as well as the recently passed Anti-piracy law.
