Apapa Gridlock: Utomi Advocates Intermodal Transport System

• Apapa Gridlock: Utomi Advocates Intermodal Transport System

The Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Values in Leadership, Prof Pat Utomi, has called on professional bodies in the transportation sector to work with the government in ensuring that intermodal transportation was achieved in the country.

Utomi made this call while delivering a keynote address at the investiture of Dr Bashir Jamoh, as the newly elected President of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration in Nigeria.

Speaking at occasion themed, ‘Ensuring Competitiveness and Attractiveness in the Nigerian Transportation Sector – The Role of Professional Bodies,’ which also served as a platform for the inauguration of CIoTA’s National Executive Council and Governing Council, Utomi stated that infrastructure and solid institutions were key to resolution of the challenges facing the transportation sector.

He therefore charged the new executives to come up with globally acceptable positions, which they should present to those in authority to move the transportation sector forward.

While bemoaning the gridlock in the Apapa area of Lagos, Utomi called on the professionals to work with the government in ensuring that intermodal transportation was achieved, as it would also help the economy to develop.

Also speaking, the Director-General Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr Dakuku Peterside, noted that collaboration among relevant agencies and professional bodies was required to achieve the development of an effective transportation sector in Nigeria, stressing that this was a basic condition for economic development.

Peterside who was represented by the Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services, Mr Gambo Ahmed, said NIMASA was committed to the actualisation of a robust transportation sector in the country.

He pledged that the agency would continue to work with professionals in the transportation industry to make the sector more viable and globally competitive.

The NIMASA DG lauded the election of Jamoh, who is also NIMASA’s Executive Director, Finance and Administration, as President of CIoTA.

He expressed the readiness of the agency to work with the institute and other relevant bodies to realise a viable transportation sector.

“In NIMASA, we have adopted collaboration as a means to achieving our mandates, because we know we cannot do it alone. The transport sector is too large, the need for concerted efforts, through partnerships, cannot be overstated, as this is the only way we can compete favourably with other nations,” a statement quoted him as saying.