John Ejovwoke Onojeharho is the chairman, Governing Council of the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology, NITT, Zaria, the only such institute in West Africa. In this interview with Obinna Nwachukwu, he highlights the potentials and challenges facing the transportation industry in Nigeria.
The NITT governing council headed by you has been in office since 2019. What impact has it made on the institute?
Upon our appointment as a Board in 2019, we had our job clearly cut out for us. We had the direction we wanted to take this Institute. One of the strategic directions for us was to ensure that the Institute is known for what it’s supposed to be, and as the first and foremost Transportation Institute in Nigeria and in the West African sub-region. We tried to first of all, engage the staff and the management to what the challenges were, and they came out with a number of issues. First, is infrastructure, they didn’t have enough classrooms, their hostels were not enough. Secondly, they had a lot of projects that have been ongoing, some for more than 10 years, some more than 15 years that were not completed, they had a lot of projects here and there.
The other one was that they wanted to establish a very stable artery centre to be able to propagate the knowledge of NITT in other geopolitical zones, these were the core things that we met on ground. The council then decided to first resolve those issues and fix those challenges. So we started off on how to get infrastructure in place, additional classrooms and how to ensure that projects that have been ongoing are completed, put to use and ensure that the artery centres are functional. This was the driving spirit of the council. So we set to work, we visited all the artery centres, we also saw all the ongoing projects, we knew that we needed more classrooms and all of that. But we realised that to be able to do that, we need to carry everybody along, that was what informed the workshop we had in Kaduna; to first of all, bring everybody together, and then re-digest those ideas, concerns, challenges to see how we can all address those challenges.
Once we finished with that, we set to work to ensure that those projects are completed. Now they’ve been completed and put to use, and we have also provided classrooms. So if you go round the institute now, you’ll see new classrooms and hostels springing up just to ensure that those infrastructures we talked about are in place. But, we didn’t end there because we know that even if you have the infrastructure, you need people to run that infrastructure. It will interest you to know that since
inception, NITT did not have staff conditions of service. But as I speak, the Head of Service of the Federation has already approved the condition of service for NITT staff, this is the first they’re having since the beginning of the institute. Another thing is that for the first time in history we have been accredited by NBTE to admit students directly for OND and HND at NITT. So from next year, we will have students admitted through JAMB apart from course participants.
Before now, what was the admission process?
Before now, the NITT was a professional institute that gets people from the industry to come and update their knowledge. We were not growing our own timbers so to say, we were only reshaping our own timbers that were in other places, that’s why we call them participants, they are not students. But for the first time, we’re going to have students who will study for OND from the scratch to HND and all of that.
And of course, we now also have the master’s programme, in collaboration with ABU, we also now have the Ph.D. programme in collaboration with ABU. These are giant strides and clear transformation. Like I have always said, we need to sweat the assets, we have a lot of things here, so we have to sweat them and make sure they are being used. When we have a stream of students studying for the whole year or two years and using those machines and facilities, that is what will bring out NITT the more.
Read also: Increase in transport costs persist in October
The other thing is that we saw that NITT was publicity shy, and they, as it were, were hiding with no visibility. So when you mention NITT outside this environment people would wonder what it was all about. So we set out to change that narrative, that NITT must be visible, and be a household name. Then we started some initiatives, getting a consultant and ensuring that we attend seminars, recently, we had a conference in Abuja; all of that was to ensure that we have the necessary visibility to sell our name, preparing it for the intake of students, because if NITT is not known and you see it in JAMB, people would wonder what it is. So prospective students will not even want to come around, but if they know what NITT is all about, then, of course, you will get the number of students you want to come to NITT. So in a nutshell these are what the board has been doing.
NITT is located in Kaduna which is one of the hotbeds of insecurity in the country. In what ways has it affected the institute?
Well, it is affecting us in several ways, for example, NITT was supposed to have an activity in Zaria. We were supposed to host a regional game and that’s supposed to be November this year but we lost the hosting rights, even though they gave us the hosting right, because of insecurity. We have been asked to move it back, Abuja have taken it over from us now. So we are being affected because that would have brought us part of the visibility we are looking out for. But, because of this insecurity, people said they can’t come to Zaria, so we gave the hosting right to another research Institute. The same thing applies to people that are supposed to come here for regular courses. Recently, we were supposed to have the ministry’s performance review in Zaria but they also said they won’t come because the insecurity here is too much. So it’s affecting us adversely, but we are believing God that this will soon be over so we can go back to normal.
You were an operator in the oil industry are you comfortable with the continuous subsidization of fuel importation in Nigeria?
Not at all.
What then should be the way out considering the billions Nigeria spends monthly subsidizing fuel importation?
Clearly, fuel subsidy is not sustainable. It is not a sustainable route at all. As a country, we should do away with fuel subsidy, but, need to be able to provide reliable and efficient urban transportation system as it is done in other countries so that people will park their personal cars and go with public transport. If we don’t have good public transportation, and we are relying on private cars, people will always complain when you remove subsidy. But if we have for example, a working rail system and you need to come to Zaria, you won’t bother; buying PMS will be optional because you have an alternative.
But right now, buying PMS is the only option. But, if you provide urban rail and water transportation that are reliable and affordable, the purchase of PMS will be a luxury and optional, that’s why we’re talking intermodality. When you drop at the airport, there’s a rail waiting to take you to your next destination. Or there’s are busses that will take you to your next destination. Then of course, using your car becomes a matter of luxury. And if you opt for luxury, you should be able to pay for it. But if you don’t have an efficient urban and intercity transportation; not just one mode, inter-mode, then anytime you want to remove subsidy, there’ll be hue and cry. But the subsidy is what is destroying the economy.
I read in the papers in September were we spent how many billions, I can’t remember the exact figure, about N129 billion for subsidy. And put that to the fact that for education, you are voting less than N40 billion, the same thing for health. And in one month, you spend over N120 billion, then you should know that the economy is not running smoothly, and it’s not sustainable. Because the money you spend in one month for subsidy, you’re not even spending that for healthcare and education.
