Organized labour has faulted president tinubu’s fifty percent reduction in transportation costs during the yuletide season describing the federal government as confused.
Head of information of the NLC Benson upah, said, “Government is killing a cow with its mouth and we Nigerians are eating it with our ears.
For the national president of the Nigerian association of road transport owners, Yusuf Othman, the federal government cannot compel its members to slash transport fares by 50 per cent because the business is not owned by the government.
Othman said the association would first look at the operational cost to see if the directive is feasible.
The federal government on Wednesday announced 50 per cent reduction in transportation costs along 22 interstate routes during the yuletide season.
The minister of solid minerals development, Mr Dele Alake, who chairs the inter-ministerial committee on presidential intervention, said this when in Abuja.
Alake said the president okayed the directives in the spirit of the season given the economic realities facing Nigerians.
“This special presidential intervention will commence tomorrow, Thursday, December 21. It will end on January 4, 2024. The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Transportation, will be working with transporters, road transport unions, and Nigerian Railway Corporation to seamlessly deliver on this special presidential initiative,” said Alake.
He added that from Thursday, Nigerians wishing to embark on inter-state travel to any part of the country—Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Ibadan, Akure, Maiduguri, Sokoto, and other major inter-state transportation—hubs will be able to do so at half the cost.
On the operability of the scheme, Alake said, “I can tell you that all the relevant stakeholders in that industry have been engaged and all the parameters laid out and the Minister of Transportation has the full details and it’s on top of the game.
“In fact, we have met the presidents of the various transport unions …They have given us their own side of the case. We have had to haggle and negotiate, and everything is in top shape in terms of execution.”
“This idea did not emanate today. It had been in the works and before we now came to this conclusion of publicising it, all the I’s were dotted, and all the T’s had been crossed. And we have gotten the understanding of the various stakeholders, especially the transport unions.”
He assured Nigerians that there would be no price hikes at the expense of the passengers because the costs had been determined during the negotiations.
