Governor Kashim Shettima
Governor Kashim Shettima on Sunday presented 450 Sharan buses to commercial vehicle operators under the National Union of Road Transport Workers and Road Transport Employees Association of Nigerian. Resident in different parts of Borno State.
The buses were meant to cushion effects of attacks by Boko Haram insurgents on commercial vehicle operators, hundreds of whom have suffered various attacks on highways and routes within the State, Shettima said. The Governor said during the symbolic presentations to hundreds of drivers at the Government House in Maiduguri, that beneficiaries are expected to repay 50 cost of the buses after generating income. Each of the 10 seater buses cost N1.1 million but beneficiaries are to repay N550,000 to the Government through their union officials over a monitored period.
“Since Borno State started facing the challenges of insurgency in 2009, one group that has remained a silent victim is the National Union of Road Transport Workers. Countless number of commercial drivers who are members of the union have lost their lives on account of moving people from one point to another, to make people succeed in doing businesses, visiting families and keeping our society functional. We all know that once vehicles, especially commercial vehicles connecting states are out of the road, then a society is brought to a halt. This is because more than 70% of citizens all over Nigeria depend on commercial transport for mobility of trade, social and cultural activities. We depend on commercial transport for the food we all eat in houses and virtually all our house hold items.
What really surprises me, is the courage of members of the NURTW. Drivers under this association defy all fears and convey people, food items and other essentials of lives into Borno State in the darkest days of Boko Haram Insurgency. Some of them even lose their lives in the process but many others still carry on. A lot of them take the bull by its horn. This is a group that keeps Borno connected to the rest of Nigeria and helps in conveying the needs of our people into Borno State so we can all exist as a society. If anyone recalls the attacks of Boko Haram along Ngamdu, Mainok, Benesheikh, Jos, Potiskum as well as the religious riots in Kaduna and reprisals in the southern Nigeria over the years, then he or she will appreciate commercial drivers under the NURTW, because often times, they were caught on the high ways” the Governor narrated.
He explained his administration’s efforts in the area of roads to boost the activities of commercial drivers and other road users.
“As part of our own measures to make activities of members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) easier, this administration has since 2011 embarked on different road projects to creatively open up Maiduguri which is not just our largest city in the State but that with the highest traffic of motorists, many of which, are members of the NURTW. You may recall that it was this administration that constructed ring roads around the Mai Doki round about which has made vehicles coming from the four angles ahead of the roundabout, to easily negotiate to the right hand side, and connect to other routes without falling into the roundabout traffic. That has decongested the area. Our administration, it was, which reduced the size of the old Mai Doki roundabout its to create additional lanes and since that was done, the nightmare faced due to traffic has significantly reduced if not eliminated.
We have also built alternative routes like some sort of internal bye-pass, if we can call them so, and these bye-passes such as the long one coming from airport road by the Revenue Board, linking with Maduganari-tashan Kano on one part and also linking the Secretariat road at another end, while at third end, the same road connects with Damboa road through neighboring the Eye Hospital. We constructed another long stretch of bye-pass connecting Bulabulin, Gwange and Monday market with Gidan Madara and Lagos street. Both roads were constructed with small but important bridges.
These projects have gone a long way in reducing traffic for members of the NURTW and other road users in Maiduguri. We have constructed other road projects including investing over fourteen billion naira on community roads and drainages in places like Bulumkutu from Tsallake down to other sections of the very large and highly populated Bulumkutu which your members now ply without flooding and horrible sites, previously associated with the places. I am sure you must heard or perhaps you know about the Gwange community roads and our slumps remodeling programme, in which we use thick interlocks to assemble roads that connect densely located houses with major roads, and all of these have made it possible for members of the NURTW and other road users to be able to access many communities, so as to pick weak and old persons, pregnant women in labour and those in emergency situations that require vehicles picking them at their door steps.
Some, if not many of you, have driven cars on top of many roads we built. Time wouldn’t permit me to list the roads but you know them. We have embarked on different highways, inter-villages and township roads in the Southern parts of Borno even though Boko Haram succeeded greatly in stampeding our great plans due to attacks on construction workers to the point that most International construction companies with superior technology abandoned Borno State.
We had to take our destiny on our hands by importing functional construction equipment to engage in direct labour works. Were it not for Boko Haram we would insha Allah, by now, have gone far in re-constructing the Maiduguri-Konduga-Bama-Gwoza Highway because the project was provided for in our 2014 budget and when it couldn’t be done due to security problems, we carried over the budgetary provision to the 2015 budget and we all know that Bama and Gwoza roads were seized. We came with so much ambition to remodel Borno State and make it an envy of many States in Nigeria, we wanted to make Borno a place every citizen would be proud of and by Allah’s will, we will succeed. Boko Haram will certainly come to a sustainable end Bi iznillah” he said.
National President of the NURTW, speaking through the State leader, Alhaji Bello Maduganari, said by giving out 450 buses, the Governor has assisted 4500 families because each of the buses would have direct impact on 10 families based on known projections worked out by the Union many years ago. He also said no Nigerian Governor has paid attention to commercial drivers under the union as much as Governor Shettima has done. Since 2011. The President listed previous support the Governor gave to the union which include ten million naira and provision of vehicles for operational use by the union’s headquarters in the State.
Leader of the Road Transport Employees Association in Borno State paid glowing tributes also commended the Governor and pledged continued support to his administration.
Highlight of the occasion was presentation of the vehicles to the beneficiaries and test drive by the Governor.
Comments