THE Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), has pledged to eliminate all sorts of crime, especially thuggery and robbery, if the Federal Government creates a Bank of Transportation.
The association made this pledge during the celebration of its 42nd anniversary at the Igando headquarters in Lagos, promising that within one year of establishing the proposed Bank of Transportation, the police and other security agencies would heave a sigh of relief, as crime rate would substantially reduce.
The National Chairman of RTEAN, Mr Musa Muhammed, said: “To fight crime is to create massive employment for the teeming population of idle youths who have gone into crime because they are hopeless as there are no jobs. Our universities are turning out thousands of graduates and sending them to the streets in search of jobs. But if we have Bank of Transportation, like we have Bank of Industry and Cooperative Bank, we, in the transportation business, will be able to secure loans, buy aircraft, trucks, cars, buses and tricycles and give to jobless youths, especially graduates.
“Think of how many people that will work in an aircraft, how many people will work on buses, trucks and tricycles. We are in the business, so we understand how it works. For example, if we are able to access loans in our union and get 100,000 buses and distribute to our members, three persons will be working in each bus, two drivers and one conductor.
“The first driver works from 5:00am to noon, another person works from 12noon to 8:00 pm. The same thing is applicable to tricycle operation and trucks. If we do this consistently for years, we would have employed millions of people, especially graduates, who will be earning up to N80,000 monthly.
“Secondly, we would have also created more jobs for mechanics, panel beaters, vulcanizers, car washers and spare parts sellers. With such innovation, tell me if a serious youth who has a job would still go and be collecting N3,000 to go and fight as a thug for politicians. With Bank of Transportation, police and other security agencies would have less work to do.
“With the bank, there will be massive employment and the government will become popular, because we would have created enough employment for the youths. We are one of the strongest and most reliable job-creating organizations.
“We are employers of drivers. We are employers, we own the vehicle and we employ the drivers who are members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).”
