By Babatunde Ayedoju

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One of the means of transportation in modern times is road transportation. In fact, it is unimaginable how an individual will survive in the 21st century without transportation. Considering the fact that it is not everybody that can afford a car or a motorcycle, commercial transportation is obviously a very economically viable and strategic business.

In Nigeria, this business is done by many people who are known as commercial drivers. As many as they are, they have two organisations that serve as umbrella bodies for them. Those organisations are the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN).

These are the two organisations that have been saddled with the responsibility of providing leadership and decorum for people who do transport business in Nigeria. Unfortunately, experience has shown that these unions tend to be bedeviled with violence, which most of the time occurs during change of baton among the leaders.

While some leaders of these unions over the years have tried to give the organisations a new public image that suggests civil behaviour and ‘gentlemanliness’, the groups have still not been totally free from stories that have to do with violent clashes, especially during change of leadership.

Few days after Nigerians joined the rest of the world, especially in places where people follow the Gregorian calendar, to celebrate the new year, a 60-year-old driver identified as Fatai Elusanmi was reportedly hacked to death by his colleagues in Ifetedo, Osun State.

Investigation by The Hope revealed that Elusanmi was killed by some members of the drivers’ union at the motor park where he also worked as a ticket agent.

The wife of the deceased, Mrs. Amoke Elusanmi, said that before her husband’s death, he had told her that one of his brothers called Lawrence came to beat him where he was buying clothes. In her account, Lawrence had told her late husband that one Akebaje and Moji sent and also paid him to kill the deceased.

She added that the national body of the drivers’ union had earlier asked her husband to take over as chairman of the motor park in Ifetedo but he declined because of his age and the fact that he did not have enough money. She claimed that her late husband promised to recommend another person which irked the immediate past chairman of that park and some other people and they threatened to kill him.

Aside that, in November 2022, members of a faction within the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) stormed some motor parks in Osogbo, Osun State, where they drove away both passengers and drivers and to sacked their executives and took control.

The transporters, who were said to seize armed with guns, clubs and other dangerous weapons, reportedly besieged the Old Garage to take over control of the motor park from Kazeem Oyewale (aka Asiri Eniba).

Another set of NURTW members also launched another attack at Oke-Baale, Ilesa Garage, Aregbe and Olaiya Ojuirin garages, attacking members of transport unions at the parks.

Few hours later, a group of transporters allegedly came together with arms and stormed the state secretariat of the union in Sadiat area of Osogbo, turning the place into a theatre of war.

They were said to have inflicted injuries on the state Financial Secretary of the union, Sunday Akinwale, with cutlasses and other dangerous weapons, while a pregnant woman working in the union secretariat, simply identified as Doyin was stripped naked and her clothes torn. It was also gathered that the windscreen of Akinwale’s Toyota Sienna was reportedly broken and vandalised beyond repairs by hoodlums.

Thereafter, the Osun State Police Command issued a statement that it had arrested 10 suspects over the attacks across some motor parks in the state on the premise of forceful takeover of the parks. The command’s spokesperson, SP Yemisi Opalola, said five guns, nine live and four expended cartridges and five cutlasses were recovered from the suspects.

Between March and May last year, the NURTW in Lagos State had its fair share of crisis. The national body of NURTW suspended its Lagos chapter’s Chairman, Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly called MC Oluomo, indefinitely over alleged misconduct, insubordination, and inciting members of the state chapter against the apex body. Following the suspension of MC Oluomo, Lagos council of NURTW decided to distance itself from the national body of the union. The Lagos State Government also set up a Parks and Garages Management Committee and made MC Oluomo the chairman.

Loyalists of Oluomo and some members of NURTW later reportedly clashed in some motor parks when some of Oluomo’s followers tried to force the NURTW members to switch allegiance.

The NURTW in Ondo State also experienced crises which sometimes turned violent, making the state government to ban the union and set up a 21-member State Motor Parks Management Committee led by the former state chairman of the union, Jacob Adebo.

Similarly, in 2014, members of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, staged a protest, calling for the removal of the state chairman of the union, Rotimi Olanbiwonu, for having spent nine years on the seat contrary to the eight years specified in the union’s constitution.

They had also accused the embattled chairman of high-handedness, alleging that he collected huge sums of money from the state government as empowerment for members and diverted it to private use.

In the words of Dr Daniel Ikuomola from the Department of Criminology and Security Studies, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, violence, over the years, has become part and parcel of Nigeria’s democracy. He cited the fact that there are many people in the transport business, which gives numerical strength to their leaders.

According to the seasoned criminologist, aside the fact that leaders of transporters have become partisan, they make a lot of money once they come into office. These factors make the unions prone to violence during change of leadership, as the leadership positions appear to be very juicy.

Talking about how to stem the tide of violence in Transport unions during leadership transition, Ikuomola cited strict obedience to laid down rules of the unions; fixed tenure for each administration which must be adhered to; and advised that such unions should be encouraged to become less partisan.

According to Dr Mrs. Kemi Adebola, a sociologist from the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), leadership positions in transport unions are very competitive. She explained that prominent members of the unions tend to form blocs, making elections among them to become a matter of the survival of the fittest.

“The trend can only be mitigated, as there will always be agitation during elections even in developed climes. However, the laws of such unions need to be enforced and applied to everyone without fear or favour,” she added.