Controversy has continued to trail the implementation of the 50 per cent Federal Government discount for inter-state travellers, as one of the foremost transport unions, the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria, RTEAN, has said it was not carried along in the decision-making and implementation process.
This was as some travelers wondered if the policy actually worked in the nation’s capital, Abuja, saying their experiences showed otherwise.
President Bola Tinubu had on December 20, 2023, announced a 50 per cent discount on road transport travels across some designated routes from December 21, 2023, to Jan 4, 2024, and free train rides across the country.
Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr Dele Alake, who made the announcement on behalf of the president, had stated that the move was part of President Tinubu’s efforts at enhancing the well-being of Nigerians, especially during the festive season.
The travel routes captured in the programme include Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Ibadan, Akure, Maiduguri, Sokoto, and other major inter-state transportation hubs.
Alake, who is the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on the implementation of the End of Year Transportation Subsidy Programme of the president had on Monday on his ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) handle, said over 160,000 passengers had benefitted from the initiative which ends tomorrow.
According to him, the initiative has been a huge success, with both the Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, and the Association of Luxury Bus Owners of Nigeria, ALBON, recording huge number of passengers.
“As the Chairman of the Committee on the Implementation of the End of Year Transportation Subsidy Programme of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I am pleased to report that our program has been a tremendous success, benefiting over 160,000 passengers across the country”, he added.
A breakdown of the figures, according to the Committee chairman revealed that the Nigerian Railway Corporation NRC has ferried around 71,000 so far while the travellers conveyed under ALBON reached 77,122 during the period.
I am proud to share that between December 21 and December 31, 2023, the NRC conveyed 71,000 passengers, while buses under ALBON carried 77,122 passengers”, he said.
However, as the initiative draws to an end, RTEAN, which was supposed to be one of the major middlemen in the implementation of this initiative, has denied any involvement in the process.
The General Secretary, RTEAN, Yusuf Ibrahim, who spoke with one of our correspondents over the telephone, said after the first closed door meeting held with the Federal Government, the Association had been in the dark, adding that FG sidelined them.
He said; “We have not been involved. At the initial stage, we were the people the government called and held meetings to discuss the modalities but as we speak, we have not signed any agreement with them and we are not doing so. That is the position of things.
After we had a closed door meeting with the Federal Government, they said we were going to take off and we haven’t still taken off, so, if I am telling you otherwise, I am just deceiving you. I don’t know, maybe in the nearest future, they may consider involving us.
“We have been the frontrunner and we even brought the solution to the problem and advised them on how to go about it so that there will be proper accountability because we have a system, which is cashless where everybody will be on record, you will have proper records on what everyone is doing and in all 774 LGAs of the federation, so all these parts we suggested to them but we don’t know what criteria they put to make the decision they made.
We even told them that all these transport operators are our members and if we are engaged, definitely, they will also be carried along.”
One of our correspondents who also visited some of the branches of these transport operators, observed that while they were not complying with the 50 per cent discount for travellers, they also increased the cost of transport fares as compared to what it used to be about two weeks ago.
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For example, the Young Shall Grow Motors, which is one of the official company identified by the federal government to implement the 50 per cent discount, increased its fares on its morning executive bus from Abuja to Owerri and Umuahia, which used to cost N35,100, to N38, 100, Abuja to Enugu, Onitsha which used to cost N35,100 to N38,100, while Abuja to Abia and Port-Harcourt which used to cost N40, 000 to N43,100.
