Daily Independent Online.
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Monday,July 19, 2004.
Call Banire to
order, angry mini bus drivers tell Tinubu
By Victor Ebimomi
Reporter, Lagos
Drivers under the aegis of Lagos State Mini
Bus Drivers Association, an affiliate of Self Employed Commercial Drivers
Association of Nigeria (SECDAN) has cried to the state Governor Ahmed Bola
Tinubu to call his Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Muiz Banire to order so that
peace could reign among transport associations in the state.
The commissioner was said to have recently
ordered that all transport unions operating in the state must merge with the
National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Road Transport Employers
Association (RTEAN), saying the two bodies are the only ones recognised by the
state.
But in a statement signed by Mr. Joseph
Ogoh, the Secretary General of the Mini Bus Drivers Association, the body
faulted the commissioner’s action saying it was a violation of democratic
spirit in the land and that it was ready to fight against it.
“The recent directive by the Lagos
state Commissioner for Transport, Miuz Banire that all transport unions and
associations must merge with either the National Union of Road Transport
Workers (NURTW) or the Road Transport Employers Association (RTEAN) since both
are the only recognised bodies is nothing other than an attempt to shame
democratic norms and compel the self employed drivers t o resist in whatever means it deems fit”, the
statement said, adding: “Since Muiz Banire is anti-change, it is an
acceptable fact that those who make peaceful change impossible, definitely make
violent change inevitable”.
The association said it was worried by the
inconsistencies of the commissioner, which it maintained was a recipe for
crisis just as it wondered if he was not trying to play out a written script.
According to the association the
commissioner had in May 2001 through a statement signed by the Public Relations
Officer of his ministry banned the NURTW in all parks and garages in the state
“in order to achieve peaceful co-existence among the self employed
drivers who are users of the park”.
It added that in the said statement, it was
categorically stated that the NURTW had no business in the parks and garages
“because the law does not permit it to draw its membership from among
self-employed road worker” and that it should limit its activities to
companies and corporations with a workforce of more than fifty employees. The
decision according to the association was further explained that it “was
to ensure that all unions and associations act within the confines of their
constitutions and in line with the trade union act, so as to forestall clash of
interest”.
“We are amazed that the Tuesday, June
29,2004 statement of Miuz Banire is contrary to his statement of May 30,
2001” the association lamented.
It maintained that the position of law had
changed on the issue stressing “it is against this background that we call
on the honourable commissioner to explain to us (self employed drivers) and the
general public why he should introduce military tactics to force us into a
marriage with strange fellows on same bed”.
The union therefore enjoined the state
governor to urgently intervene in the issue before it would escalate into
crisis that might likely threaten the peaceful environment of the state.
