AMB EKPA ADVOCATES MERGING OF TRANSPORT POLICY MAKING ENTITIES
Oru Leonard
A foremost road and mass transit administration advocate, Amb. Anthonia Ekpa (Phd), has urged the Federal Government of NIgeria to bring all transport policy makers under one administrative roof for the sake of strategic synergy.
Dr Ekpa, who stated this as the lead speaker at the 9th Nigeria Annual Transport Lecture organized by Transport Day Newspapers held at Abuja decried the scattered transport policy entities across various ministries in Nigeria.
Ekpa decried the scattered transport policy entities across various ministries in Nigeria, saying that a strategic synergy is required to ensure easy and effective and quick response to issues of road transportation development in the country.
“All over the world, road transportation administration and road construction entities are housed together.
“Because the people doing the thinking and the people doing the coordination and the people doing the Construction and the researchers must be on the same table discussing. The former Director of Road and Mass Transit Administration in the Federal Ministry of Transportation and Retired Permanent Secretary of the Federal Republic of NIgeria said.
On funding of the road projects, Ekpa called FGN to give more attention to road infrastructure development and stressed the need to accord road development equal priority as other modes of transportation, such as aviation and shipping and the railways.
In her presentation themed: “Nigeria’s Transportation For Development; Sectoral Achievements, Prospects and Challenges”, she stated, “I have seen more than two decades in service, and I’m convinced that not the funding of transportation sector is inadequate when you consider the fact that transportation is linked to the Sustainable Development Goals. In fact, the belief is that without transportation, the SDGs will not function”, adding that official records shows that more people die in Africa on roads mishaps than from HIV AIDS and and malaria.
