…FG says PIA clearly provides for safe workplace***
Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has urged tricycle and motorcycle riders to regulate themselves to ensure a smooth land transportation system that accommodates them.
Amaechi made the call at the Strategic Stakeholders Summit organised by the Amalgamated Commercial Tricycle and Motorcycle Owners, Repairs and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN) in Abuja, Thursday.
While noting that some members of ACOMORAN were graduates, he said the stereotype that they were bad could only be corrected, and their operations respected if their mode of transportation was fully regulated.
According to Amaechi, what we see in Nigeria is a chaotic land transportation system and this is because it is a responsibility shared between the federal and state governments.
“I think that if we regulate the motorcycle riders, then we’ll have a solution to complain about their indiscipline.
“I agree that genuine and real operators in this sector are not criminals.
I believe that if the government regulates you properly, you can be at home or you can be riding, and people will call you to come and pick them up.
“When I was Minister of Transportation, and they were telling us to ban you completely, I asked the question, where will go if we ban you?’’ he asked.
He said that for the government to ban motorcycle riders there should be an alternative provided for them to earn their livelihood.
“Where we don’t have an alternative means of employment, the best thing to do is to leave you and regulate you.
“So I replied to that request, saying I believe that your association creates huge employment that people are taking for granted.
One reason why I supported you is that you are part of the economic growth of this country.
“I realised that contrary to the impression that people have of you as illiterates and touts, things have actually changed,’’ he said.
Amaechi said that it is amazing that among them especially at the association’s leadership level; there were people who were well-educated, exposed and patriotic.
“I believe that graduates are also motorcycle riders, and I believe that some of you may not want to be Motorcycle riders, but you are forced by the economic realities,’’ the former minister said.
He advised the tricycle and motorcycle operators to streamline their operations and work together to provide better and safer transportation at their level of operation.
“Work together, work in unity, provide better transport, and if the government has not provided a regulatory framework for your sector yet, please regulate yourselves through your association,’’ he said.
In another development, the Federal Government says the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 clearly provides for a healthy and environmentally conscious workforce and safe workplace for businesses to thrive in the oil and gas industry.
Mr Farouk Ahmed, Authority Chief Executive (ACE), of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said this on Thursday in Abuja.
Ahmed made this known at the maiden edition of the Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC) Managers forum for the Midstream and Downstream Operators in the Oil and Gas Industry in Nigeria.
The forum, organised to probe into HSE challenges facing sustainable development of the industry, will provide framework for innovative and practical solutions to these challenges for the benefit of our environment, workforce, host communities and investment initiatives.
The ACE, while underscoring the critical role HCE could play, said the statutory provisions of the PIA on HSEC administration clearly indicated that the government appreciated the importance of a healthy and environmentally conscious workforce.
This, according to him, led to the creation of a directorate to manage the Health Safety Environment and Community matters in the mid and downstream value chain.
“In the past, the regulator and the industry through this platform exchanged ideas, thoughts and deliberated extensively on topical operational related HSE issues which yielded positive results as well as fostered relationship between the industry and the regulator specifically on HSE issues,” he said.
The ACE, however, said it was in this regard that the Authority decided to revive the forum to build on its past achievements, adding that the emergence of the forum was in response to heightened environmental consciousness and the global need for sustainable development in the industry.
“The oil and gas industry has for several decades maintained pride of place at the top of the global energy mix despite the threat posed by renewable and cleaner energy sources.
“However, recent concerns about global warming, exponential improvements in the efficiency of renewable energy alternatives and the politics of oil pricing have combined to pose almost an existential threat to the global petroleum industry.
“The threats of renewable energy sources which in the past were almost always dismissed by energy industry experts have today become more real than ever.
“As we speak, some of the big International Oil Companies are funding gigantic research into alternative fuels. As sweet as Nigeria’s crude are renowned to be globally, recently we lost our valued customers, and agas buyers are now competing with us in the same market space as suppliers.
“Nigeria is to continue to benefit from its vast petroleum resources, now more than ever is the time to build sustainability into our oil and gas value chain as well as management of its wastes.
“And, this task rests on the shoulders of not only the Regulators but all stakeholders. It is thus fitting that all the theme for this maiden edition of the HSE Managers forum for Mid and Downstream operators is: “LETS BEGIN,” he said.
He urged the participants to come up with a communique that would reflect the collective commitment to sustainable development, with actionable ideas and recommendations for enhancing the HSE performance of the industry.
In an remark, Captain John Tonlagha, Executive Commissioner, HSEC, Nigerian Upstream, Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC)
said the forum was tailored towards addressing the Midstream and Downstream operational and regulatory issues in the industry.
He said the platform which was emplaced in the then Department of Petroleum Resources era had served as a veritable tool to bridge the gap between the regulator and the entirety of the value chain in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
“Having put the HSE Managers’ forum into proper perspective based on its gains that we in the commission can attest to, I believe that the NMDPRA and all the players in this industry are on lasting partnership.
“This will consolidate gains of the PIA and institutionalise key and laudable HSE-related programmes that will further help in the actualisation of our collective mandate,” he said.
