The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barrister Hassan Bello, has described the transport sector as the wheel that drives the Nigerian economy. The NSC boss explained that if, to that effect, government failed to have a modern infrastructure and transport system in place, the nation’s economy was bound to be sluggish. According to Bello, the economy would not only be sluggish, it would get to a point it would become stagnant. He said, “The transport sector and the establishment of dry port will be the game changer in our economy. Exportation of goods is also transportation, as is the rail industry. The free zones that we are going to create will be a game changer, and we have thought a lot about it. Speaking on the National Transport Commission bill which is before the National Assembly, he said that the new Commission would be expected to be the regulator of the transport sector.”It is the modern economy. You cannot operate and regulate at the same time. You are either of the two. The bill has been passed in the House of Representatives, together with the railway, ports and harbour bills. What they do is to free all these sectors from public monopoly,” he said. Bello added, ‘We believe strongly that the private sector can participate and should be allowed to drive the economy. Though we pray for a responsible private sector, there is also an economic legal engineering which the transport sector is undergoing. The Commission, when created, will take over the regulation from the ports authority. The roads, railway, ports, and maybe in future, aviation will be regulated by the Commission. It is a welcome development for Nigeria.”
