By Olawale Ogunbusola
Oyo State has remained an indeed Pacesetter in the country, especially in the South Western Region owing to historic events, institutions and structures it houses till date; thanks to the first premier administrator, Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo who fore-fronted such initiatives.
As it is understood, one of the systems in the country that remains key is transportation with a huge protection of it by the 1999 Constitution as amended, while a section of the law set up an organization that oversees road transport under the federal and state ministry of Information known as National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
The NURTW as created by Section 40 Article 5 of the 1999 Constitution has been a formal unitary organization of road transport stakeholder for years in the country that engages and manages public transporters including motorcyclists, tricycle drivers, mini-bus drivers and commuters with average deliveries in terms of revenue upgrade and improvement.
Recently, the state government at administrators’ level began to give a cursory look at ways of improving their state economy, especially from after the outbreak of the novel virus, Corona virus or Covid-19 in that succor could hit the administrative sectors.
Recall, in 2015, the outgoing President, Muhammadu Buhari made bail-out funds to every state in the country that could enable state’s government pay arrears of workers’ salaries, one of the affected states included Oyo State with its pangs on Osun State as the out gone governor, Rauf Aregbesola concluded payment of half salary until the new Governor Sen. Ademola Adeleke cleared the backlogs in honour of his 1st hundred (100) days in office. What a hard time then?
Undoubtedly, the Pacesetter State, these years never researched focusing on transport system of the state until the 2nd Term Governor, Seyi Makinde, who pivoted his administration, far back in 2019 on four (4) cardinal points EDUCATION, HEALTH, SECURITY and ECONOMY came with an initiative known as Park Management System, PMS.
At first, the initiative came bizarre to every man in the country, as the idea of ways through which NURTW could be kicked out filled the heart, coupled with the fact that the then agitations for who ascended the leadership of the NURTW filtered the media. From that end, everyone concluded that Seyi Makinde is an angel who has socio-natural strength, by dowsing the portended undue violence that could have broken from various factions of the then NURTW?
Ask me, how does Seyi Makinde understand that funds could be generated formally from those quarters? ‘Story for the gods’ as Olamide, a Nigerian Afro-Pop singer once narrated?
Through legal and public consultation, Seyi Makinde instituted PMS, anointed a public transport veteran, Alhaji Mukaila Lamidi “Auxiliary” as the Chairman of the initiative, directly drawn for supervision by the Oyo State Ministry of Public Works and Transport, then led by Prof. Raphael Afonja and now Prof. Dahud Sangodoyin with a superb delivery as the Governor says. At least, the usual mayhem in the agency totally goes down. What a credible initiative then?
More recently, PMS in the State has operated on revenue ticketing ranging from #100, #250, #500, #1000 depending on the category of means of transport, which affords public transporters to ply more roads accessible, having satisfied the legal bidding .
However, it appears tactically NURTW strategy of fund receipt is gradually returning. Workers of PMS do not have an identifiable uniform, may or may not wear an identification card, yet demand payment from public transporters as low as #50 from different bus loading points, are there no more mechanisms to stop this in that the beautiful initiative which has been adopted by government administration of Ondo, Ekiti, which I am pretty sure Lagos will soon adopt becomes bastardized?
Similarly, researches, observations and investigations across the State reveal that we have had increased influx of public transporters, translated from hospitality Oyo State is known for, yet, it is calling for an address , as many of these transporters have no identification in case of crime commission, including rape, theft, rituals or kidnapping, how are the culprits be pinned down? It is high time the Oyo State House of Assembly led by Rt. Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin unitedly worked with Gov. Seyi Makinde towards implementation of Public Transport Regulatory Control Law, in no long as it appears the Law implementation is shilly-shallying for an approved PMS.
Similarly, many of the public drivers appear social indecent such as wearing of studs and permission of gin sales around bus or transporters’ loading points which psycho-social analysts have described pointer to road accident, social misbehaviour, rudeness and violence, which when not taken seriously could transcend challenge to the completed and uncompleted bus terminals in the State to include Challenge, Oojo, Iwo Road and Airport Areas. It is pertinent to say that mechanisms on taskforce be set for a formal correction as to clearly make the PMS flawless.
In conclusion, one can argue that PMS is a suitable renaming for NURTW as it improves the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) upward from #7 billion monthly and as well infrastructural development laudably perceived in the state, as closely monitored by the government itself and informal ‘ formal’ employment for youths and aged, men and women in the State, especially if the perceived flaws are considerably affected.
Olawale Ogunbusola from Ibadan
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