FCTA transport guidelines raise dust

 Some commercial transport operators in Abuja have frowned at the recently released guidelines of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) directing among others, that all passenger service (commercial) vehicles in Abuja be air-conditioned. The FCTA Secretary of Transport, Kayode Opeifa, had on Monday, after a meeting with licensed taxi operators, released the guidelines. The guidelines […]

 Some commercial transport operators in Abuja have frowned at the recently released guidelines of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) directing among others, that all passenger service (commercial) vehicles in Abuja be air-conditioned.

The FCTA Secretary of Transport, Kayode Opeifa, had on Monday, after a meeting with licensed taxi operators, released the guidelines.

The guidelines included plate number colour, proper vehicle registration and road worthiness  compliance. 

Some of the commercial vehicle operators who spoke with our reporters however faulted the guideline on air-conditioning in commercial vehicles plying different routes within the FCT.

A cab operator, Ephraim Manasseh, said the government ought to review the policy as the existing economic condition in the country would make it hard for taxi operators to adhere to the guideline.  

“If you can check from Berger to A.Y.A. most of the taxis are not using brand new tyres. We are all buying ‘tokunbo’ (used) tyres because of the economic situation. Let’s say we buy cars with air-conditioner or fix air-conditioners, will the passengers pay for it? That will be extra cost on our heads. Any car that uses air-conditioning consumes more fuel. The government needs to look into it and resolve the matter,” he advised.

Ernest Ezeagu, chairman of taxi drivers at the Berger Park, Abuja also complained that the cost of running and maintaining the vehicles used for their business was already too high and as such the new requirement of air-conditioners in them was likely to put many of the commercial vehicle operators out of business.

“If you say that everybody should have AC, many people will become thieves; they will look for another country or another state to go to. The taxis in Abuja are  many, we are paying to the government but they don’t do anything for us. They want to make many people useless,”  he said.

Mr Ezeagu also said the previous governments had provided brand new vehicles but that was no longer the case.

For Awoyinka Sunday, another taxi driver in Abuja, the policy is simply the result of some persons seeking to enrich themselves.  

“When people are looking for contract, they sit  in their office and think of the kind of contract they can throw to government to impose on the public. I know it cannot work. Where is Sure-P? Where is Abuja Liaison? When they brought them out, did they last? That is how this too is going to be,” he said.

An IT consultant, Victor Olajide, said the FCTA should have been more concerned about the road worthiness of the vehicles plying FCT roads, as according to him, the issue of AC was too frivolous.

“If the vehicle is not actually good what is the benefit of having an AC there? We should look at the vehicles themselves, how good they are – the interior, the exterior, the engine. If they are sound, having AC would have been one of the least,” he said.

According to the new guidelines, all taxis operating within the FCT must be air-conditioned on or before October 1,  2018.