Poor maintenance culture is crippling the transport scheme introduced by the Federal Capital Territory Administration to ease transportation problem in the territory

 

 

Sunny Idachaba

 

When the vehicles were brought into the country, most Abuja residents saw them as solution to their transportation problems. First to arrive were the green cab taxis, a 307 Peugeot model, which were operated on hire purchase basis with initial N350, 000 deposit. Subsequent payments were instalmental before the person could claim owner.

 

Buoyed by the enthusiasm that greeted the green cab taxis, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, introduced 54-seater buses to further ease transportation problem in the city following the ban on commercial motorcycles from the city centre. The buses marked: “Abuja Urban Mass Transit Company, AUMTCO” were equally embraced by Abuja commuters. The buses provide relief to commuters, who commute from satellite towns to the city centre daily. Not yet done in its quest to give succour to the residents, the administration imported the London prototype taxis to complement the green cab ones. But presently the owners are experiencing operational problems.

 

Probably the authority did not envisage environmental factors and the nation's poor maintenance culture, which the operators may encounter during the conception of the idea of the transport scheme. Some of these vehicles are not meant for Nigerian roads. This explains the current problem the operators are facing.

Two years after the introduction, most of these vehicles are off the road. Worse hit are the London taxis, which are almost disappearing from the roads. Unlike other vehicles, the London taxis were not leased out to private operators. They are managed by Abuja Leasing Company, ALC, the agency overseeing the management of all the vehicles. Tunde Tiamiyu, the administrative officer of ALC said the agency employs the services of mechanics and drivers to ensure that the taxis were well maintained. But Oladele Aliyu, one of the mechanics at the garage told Newsworld that out of 50 cabs brought into Abuja only 12 are still plying the streets because of maintenance problems. According to him, the parts are not readily available and in many cases, it is difficult to get the right kind of mechanic that can fix any problem any time there is such a need.

 

A female official of Abuja Property and Investment Company, who prefers to be anonymous told this magazine that investors are interested in seeing the returns on their money. In her words, “it was fraudulent in the first place to purchase cars that are not serviceable with public money.” The vehicles were procured with the assistance of a consortium of banks and Abuja Investment & Property Development Company. Cosmos Akanya, a manager with one of the banks said feelers from the headquarters in Lagos is indicating that two years after his bank invested in the company, it was expected that report sheets would make the investors happy but that appears far from reality at the moment.

 

The problem is not peculiar to the London taxis; the long buses are also affected. Several of these buses are parked along Mpape expressway. Investigations by this magazine show that only about 15 yellow buses managed by Sonic Global are still plying the roads out of over 30 previously. Emma Agbo, an auto mechanic in Garki II, whose workshop is used mostly for the maintenance of some of these buses told this magazine that for some of the vehicles, their parts can be secured only in Lagos and Onitsha, outside of which the vehicle would have to be parked for sometime, until the parts can be procured from the manufacturers, which in many cases would have resulted in further depreciation of the broken down vehicles.

 

Some of the London taxis are parked at the Garki II office of Abuja Investment Company. There is every possibility that some of the parts are cannibalized. But Tiamiyu said for the fact that the taxis are parked at the premises of the company shows that they have not been abandoned. He agreed that there may be instances that some artisans employed to maintain the cabs might have attempted to remove some of the parts but said it was one out of ten cases.