A nation's commerce depends largely on an efficient and safe highway system. If the United States with suffice highway network is still planning for better ways to manage its road transportation system, then, Nigeria with inadequate and unsafe highway network must wake up now to develop this critical sector.NIGERIA is a nation of enterprising peoples. Trade is a binding essence of the vast landmass. The colonial government developed railways and roads to move goods from the hinterland to the ports, for export. After attainment of self-governance, we now move agricultural produce from the semi-arid regions of the north to the southern parts, and manufactured goods move from the south to the north. Any hitch in the supply of beans, yams, pepper, tomatoes and onions from the north affects the kitchens in homes across the nation. We have reached a point of recognizing that trade is essential for national survival and security. With such importance, there is need for a regulatory framework to guarantee interstate commerce!In The Guardian newspaper of September 29, 2011, Joe Adiorho reported a policy initiative of ECOWAS, which organized a sensitization and training workshop in Cotonou on the development of Joint Border Post (JBP). The move is aimed at facilitating transport and trade within the region, in order to actualize the goal of regional cooperation and integration. Seme/Krake will be the first JBP, to be funded by the European Union. This will remove all barriers and bottlenecks, which impede the free flow of goods and services thereby reducing transport and logistics costs and serving to boost efficiency in the economy of the member states. What is the situation within the member states, and especially Nigeria'The challenges of interstate commerce in Nigeria are legion. The Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry has moved beyond the issuing of Industrial Permit (as if regulation alone will create industrialists to ensure industrialization across the nation). With a comatose rail system, the road bears the brunt of movement of peoples, goods and services across the nation. The Federal Highway network of 34,000km must be seen in the broad perspective of interstate commerce, communications and national security.What are the experiences on Nigerian interstate highways' Transporters, commuters, business owners and consumers relate harrowing experiences on the nation's highways. There are several organisations including the Nigerian Road Federation (NRF), the National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), National Association of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Road Transport Employees Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSON). The major complaint of transporters is the bad condition of roads in Nigeria.A transporter hauling goods from Lagos to Port Harcourt faces daunting challenges. Nigeria Police Highway Patrol covers the nation. Police checkpoints are necessary to forestall crime. The transporters have their ways of relating to the Police on the highways. However, there is a multiplicity of charges by states and local councils who demand their own permits for a commercial vehicle to pass through their respective domains. Therefore, drivers carry mind-bungling amounts of cash in order to pay for passage through various territories. As a result, many truckers travel at night when the legion of money collectors would be off the roads! The result is high risk of driving on roads at night, and exorbitant premium payments for goods-in-transit insurance.While trucks move across America mostly at night, in Nigeria, it is suicidal. In a personal experience a while back, at about 11.00 p.m., trailer drivers just packed their vehicles for miles on the highway approaching the Sagamu Interchange and abandoned them. Word filtered down that armed robbers were operating at the Interchange. Then at 3.00 a.m., the drivers returned to their vehicles and resumed their journeys. The truckers believe that Nigeria Police alone cannot solve the problem of banditry on our roads at night. They say that it is beyond the Police alone. It is a matter of national security!There are many parallels in the experience of the American nation and that of Nigeria! America is a nation on the move. Vegetables grown in Southern California, Florida, New Mexico and Texas are trucked to every part of the nation. Manufactured good are moved across the nation on roads and a few existing railroads! Truck drivers are a powerful group in the United States (U.S.), where roads are considered of strategic importance. America's Federal interstate highway network is 85,000 miles while Nigeria's interstate highway network is 34,000km (about 22,580 miles).In its history, when faced with similar challenges, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Department of Transportation (through its Federal Highway Administration) established the Interstate Commerce Commission to look into the peculiar challenges of a nation on the move! This has ensured that nothing impedes the movement of military personnel, goods and services in the nation. America provides models that can be applied for the development of Nigeria.For these reasons, all stakeholders in Nigeria must show interest in the stalled Reform Process on roads in Nigeria. Farmers grow crops. Industry produces goods. Trade ensures movement of goods. As is the case in the U.S., Nigeria must consider Interstate Commerce as of strategic importance and work to eliminate many impediments to the smooth movement of goods and services.The Nigeria transport industry needs a common platform that will speak with One Voice. The status quo reflects their varied interests. The present multiplicity of registered groups is reflected in the on-going Road Reform effort in which the transport industry has two slots on the board of the proposed Road Agency of government. This was borne of apprehension that their members might not support the road user charges that are sine qua non for proper road financing in Nigeria. However, NACCIMA is to be represented and the transport sector is a powerful group within it.We no longer have a Ministry of Transportation. In the present structure for road administration in Nigeria, the Ministry of Works is responsible for construction and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) handles maintenance of federal roads across the nation. The supervision of traffic has been ceded to Federal Roads Safety Commission and the Federal Highway Patrol Unit of the Nigeria Police. There is need for a unified structure for road administration in Nigeria. FERMA cannot, on its own, collect tolls on federal roads while there is an on-going process to establish the National Road Fund and the Federal Roads Authority (FRA). We can learn from Ghana, which had many agencies for handling roads until the country brought all together as the Ghana Highways Authority.It devolves on the Nigerian Ministry of Commerce to organize an urgent gathering of stakeholders (transporters, fleet owners, drivers, passengers, state ministries of commerce, road construction companies, individuals interested in roads and security agencies) for the setting up of an agency to ensure unimpeded movement of goods and services in Nigeria.
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