Haulage In Nigeria: The Quest For Roadworthiness By Chigozie Chikere
A little systemic imagination helps to convey the scale of neglect to roadworthiness in Nigeria’s trucking sector. If the 61,090 people who lost their lives in 14,087 road crashes nationwide between 2006 and 2014 lived in one community, its population would be similar to Lagos of 1872 when it became a British colony. Lagos itself which records annually the highest number of road crashes and fatalities is home to the largest fleet of articulated vehicles in Nigeria as it registers an average of 12,000 trucks every year. In 2011, the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) reported that Nigeria has an average of 5,000 tankers involved in wet cargo haulage, and 2,500 trailers in dry cargo plying Nigeria’s roads daily. FRSC records also revealed that between 2007 and June 2010, a total of 4,017 tanker/trailer crashes were recorded on Nigerian roads, with a yearly average of 1,148 crashes and a total of 4,076 persons killed in such crashes involving tankers and trailers.Evidently, the figure