…Petrol scarcity looms as he says no going back on strike from Wednesday

By Bose Adelaja

National Public Relations Officer of Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD, an arm of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Comrade Adebayo Atanda, in this interview, speaks on why petrol tanker drivers are not dropping their threat to embark on nationwide strike from Wednesday, January 15 over the menace constituted by containerised vehicles in Apapa axis, Lagos.

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Your union threatened to commence a nationwide strike on Wednesday, January 15 if some of your demands are not met. Are you still going ahead with the strike?

We are just withdrawing our services as spelt out by our national leader. I know government will rise to the challenge because of the pains Nigerians will experience if this action is embarked upon. This is the best weapon to register our plight. Our challenges are glaring to government and members of the public and I don’t think anybody will blame us for withdrawing our services.

We are not the only people that transact business in Apapa, other road users work in the axis. I give kudos to our National Chairman for taking the bull by the horn by announcing the withdrawal of services.

Except urgent measures are taken, tanker drivers have decided to withdraw their services with effect from January 15, 2020, because we don’t know where the containerised vehicles derive their powers from. They are on the road 24 hours thereby obstructing free flow of traffic to and fro the depot and this has negatively affected the state of our roads.

Have you reached out to the association that regulates the activities of containerised vehicles?

We did not reach out to them directly because government is our intermediary as we are all road users on the axis. We know that 80 percent of petroleum products are lifted from Lagos and tanker drivers travel to Lagos from other parts of the country to lift products.

Under normal circumstances, tanker drivers are expected to spend three days on the road and are given allowances to cover the three days but for the past few years, the three days have extended to three weeks, thereby exposing the drivers to danger on the road. Based on this, our National Chairman stated categorically at the last quarterly meeting that we cannot continue to die in silence. This is the major reason we have decided to withdraw our activities effective from January 15, 2020.

What has government done since you registered your plight?

Government is aware that tanker drivers are orderly on the road and we do not allow our activities to disturb others. The primary responsibility of containerised vehicles and tankers is to lift petroleum products but when the depot cannot be accessed, this calls for concern among stakeholders and government is aware that we are going through a difficult moment on the road.

What kind of effect does this have on your members?

The effects are pathetic. A situation where tanker drivers spend weeks on the road causes ill health, financial and family instabilities. Many of our members have been attacked by touts, especially at night. Although government has set up a joint task force to regulate activities in the Apapa axis, the menace constituted by containerised vehicles makes the withdrawal of our services long overdue. The plight of Nigerians is paramount to us.

That is why we are creating awareness so that the end-users are not caught unawares by the proposed withdrawal of services. We have decided to go this extra mile because we feel the plight of members of the public and will not want to subject them to hardship.

Could you be more specific about the challenge?

Whatever transpires on the road usually takes place in the night when people including law enforcement agents have closed. Touts take over the roads at night to extort our members and when this cannot be achieved, they resort to violence. This poses a threat to the drivers as they cannot abandon their trucks for fear of being vandalised. We have been able to survive till date due to the grace of God but, if someone is pushed to the wall, the next thing is to react before things get out of hand. That is why January 15, 2020, exercise is necessary.

Are you not worried about the likely implications of the strike?

The implication will be great because members of the public depend largely on petroleum products for survival but we don’t want this to happen. That is why we are crying out and we hope government will intervene by calling the owners of containerised vehicles to order. We have made this public through the media and people are aware of our intention. Our National Chairman has reached out to the appropriate authorities including the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

How can you describe your relationship with the operators of containerised vehicles?

We have a good rapport; it is only that the menace they constitute on the Apapa axis creates challenges for other road users. The gridlock on the Apapa axis of Lagos State is affecting our activities. Our finances have been affected and our members are suffering even though government is investing so much on the roads. The impacts of the investments are not being felt due to the indiscipline of road users. Government has been collaborating with us, listening to us and carrying us along on its activities and that is why we cannot do anything without informing them.

Would you say the joint task force on Apapa gridlock has helped the situation?

The government has done its best to set up the task force but, frankly speaking, the issue of containerised vehicles should be looked into. Apart from the lifting of petroleum products, tanker drivers have no other reason to come to Apapa.

We can temporarily cope with bad roads because a portion of the Apapa/Oshodi Expressway is undergoing reconstruction; only that this may be difficult to carry out within Mile 2/Apapa axis until the containerised vehicles are removed.

We have been sensitising our members on the danger of working in the night but the present situation in Apapa is not helping matters.

Our drivers do not want to travel in the night anymore and we have told them to park their vehicles between 6 and 7 pm to continue their journey the next day but they are helpless because of the endless queues in Apapa.

Though our lives are in the hand of God, government has the power to secure the roads.

Your members recently complained that they are being extorted by the task force. Is it still ongoing?

Our members do not have the wherewithal to do that because they don’t have money to throw around. They are only entitled to allowances to fuel their trucks and feed on the road. Where do they get the money to bribe people? They are being attacked by touts because there is no money to part with. We have more than 11,000 registered members on our database.

This does not pose a problem because PTD is divided into four zones, namely: Lagos, Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt, led by zonal chairmen who report to the headquarters.

On risks

Tanker drivers are exposed to a lot of risks, indiscipline, and carelessness on the part of other road users. For example, some of our drivers have been attacked or manhandled by touts as they go about their duties.

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We have been doing our best by not taking the law into our hands and this is one of the issues raised during our quarterly meeting which took place on December 20, 2019. Our National Chairman enumerated some of the challenges faced by tanker drivers in the course of carrying out their legitimate activities.

Vanguard