Anambra To Have Association Of Women Commercial Drivers 

Raymond Ozoji, Awka

As part of efforts geared towards regulating activities in the transport sector, the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) has said that in no distant time women in the transport industry in Anambra will be brought under one umbrella.

RTEAN held that transport business was not specifically meant for the male folks alone but also for women who derived satisfaction in being fleet owners as well as commercial bus drivers.

Speaking at the weekend in Awka during an elaborate meeting of RTEAN Anambra state chapter, the chairman of the association, Comrade Kingsley Maduagwuna Baron, said that transport business was open to anyone who chose to invest in the enterprise. He emphasized that the industry was not meant for touts and miscreants.

Baron also noted that RTEAN would organise a symposium where women would be educated on their pivotal roles in the transport industry, adding that women were cab drivers, bus drivers, trailer and truck drivers in other states of the federation.

Furthermore, he said the meeting was convened to familiarize all the local government executives of RTEAN with the state officers and vice versa. The RTEAN chairman explained that the meeting was also part of the move to galvanise all its members towards the onerous task of enthroning sanity and orderliness in the transport sector of Anambra state.

Chief Justine Brown Anyadike, the Managing Director of Ohaneze Mass Transit Limited and chairman of RTEAN in Nnewi-North local government area, however, suggested a robust synergy between RTEAN and the state ministry of transport to enable it to achieve its goals and objectives.

Anyadike was also cognizant of the fact that touting was a hydra-headed monster in the transport industry.

He noted that although the state government appointed some individuals to champion what he described as anti-touting, he expressed worry that the said group only arrested drivers randomly and equally subjected commercial drivers to some illegal fees, stressing that the same situation prevails at Nnewi-North, Onitsha, Awkuzu junction, Oba junction, Ekwulobia, Ihiala and some other places across Anambra state.

Anambra-East local government chairman of RTEAN, Hon. Jude Clement Obidike, said RTEAN was the oldest transport association formed by the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1933 and in 1978, the government of the federation enacted a law backing the establishment of RTEAN.

Obidike maintained that by the establishment act, RTEAN is the father of all the organisations in revenue collection for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He said RTEAN will reduce illegal collections of money from commercial drivers as well as ensure that revenues collected went to the coffers of the federal and state governments.

Mr. Obiegbu Ikechukwu Ikeobi, the Njikoka local government chairman of RTEAN and Provost of the association said the meeting was convened to keep the public abreast of the preparations of RTEAN to commence work in earnest.

Ikeobi said security agencies in the state were aware of RTEAN’s preparedness to begin operations and that touts were currently on the run because the commissioner for transport, Dr. Christian Madubuko, has started clampdown on fake revenue collectors.