Sharing roads with container-laden trucks is a constant source of worry to motorists. In Lagos, where Oshodi-Apapa Expressway leads to the ports, truckers constitute authorities unto themselves, and chaos is the result. So when Chief Chris Orode talks of rebranding the trucking business, everyone should listen and hope. In 2005, when the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa, MOWCA, decided to set up a specialised bank for the sub- sector, Orode headed the team that toured 17 of the 25 MOWCA countries.
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The chartered accountant's 19 years experience in the Maritime Shippers' Council came to bear.
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His team's feasibility study impressed the organisation.
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The headquarters was to be located in Nigeria and former President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered the then Transport Minister, Dr. Abiye Sekibo, to ensure the bank takes off. That was in February 2009.
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The bank has remained on paper only, due to what Orode says is "the Nigerian factor," while billions of naira the United Nations Trade and Development, UNTAD, Code assures on such a venture is lost to capital flight. And he has been consulting for Association of Maritime Truck Owners, AMATO, since February 4, 2011.
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It looks like the Federal and Lagos State governments have given up on regulating truckers.
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General traffic rules still apply. The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Transport, is thinking of giving the mandate to a body to restore sanity at the ports. For now, it is an all-comers' affair. We all travel abroad and see the orderliness in ports. Here, it is terrible.