House Urges FG to Review Mass Transport Policy, Resuscitate Urban Mass Transit Scheme

Juliet Akoje in Abuja. 

The House of representatives has urged the federal government to review the Mass Transport Policy and Management with a view to making transportation affordable and accessible as a social right to all Nigerians.

It also urged the federal government to resuscitate the Urban Mass Transit Scheme in the interest of Nigerians.

These resolutions followed the adoption of a motion on the need to Resuscitate the Urban Mass Transit Scheme in Nigeria moved by Hon. Aniekan Umanah at plenary presided by the deputy speaker, Hon. Idris Wase. 

Umanah noted that in 1989, the Urban Mass Transit Scheme was established by the federal government to ameliorate transportation challenges in Nigeria.

According to him, “The objectives of the scheme were to moderate the national urban transit scheme, alleviate the problems of urban commuters and the general masses as well as lay the foundation for organized mass transit in Nigeria.”

The scheme, he added, helped to reduce the overriding gap between increasing public transport demand and the decreasing supply in the transport market.

He added that almost all the States and Local Government Councils in the country including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as well as private entities participated in the scheme, which greatly improved transportation for the people.

“The Mass Transport Scheme failed due to factors such as poor management and lack of strict processes, which weakened its sustainability. Millions of commuters across the country still experience difficulties in commuting due to insufficient mass transit vehicles thus exposing them to grave dangers such as harassment, kidnappings, and robbery, among other things, “he said.

The House however mandated its Committee on Land Transport to liaise with relevant stakeholders with a view to establishing policy frameworks that would further improve the transportation sector and report back within six weeks for further legislative action.