Editorial
Standards And Public Safety
Wednesday, October 14, 2015 was World Standards Day (WSD), a day set aside by the United Nations to raise awareness on the importance of standardisation to boost world economy, while promoting the reliability of goods in the society. It also pays glowing tribute to thousands of experts around the world who participate in standardisation activities.
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU), based in Geneva, Switzerland, were established to facilitate standardisation of goods and services under the banner of the World Standards Cooperation (WSC).
This year’s theme: “Standards: The World’s Common Language”, was designed to highlight the importance of collaborative efforts to develop voluntary international standards that facilitate trade, spread knowledge, and disseminate technological advances. The fact that standard is good for trade, and also makes it easy for people around the world to work together cannot be over-emphasised.
Besides, standards set the minimum specifications and requirements for products and services, and therefore, provide the framework upon which the desired quality and safety of products and services can be based. In addition, standards help consumers in improving choice and access to goods and services; lowering cost; protecting health, safety and the environment; while making it easier to assess the quality and reliability of products and services.
As usual, conferences, exhibitions, seminars, and public-private performance review sessions were held across the world to assess progress thus far, and fashion prospects for improvement in the quality and safety of products and services. In Nigeria, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), organised road show in four cities and made familiarization visit to some factories.
In fact, apart from the “walk for standards” road show in Lagos (South-West), Awka (South-East), Abuja (FCT/North-Central) and Kaduna (North-West/North-East) with the purpose of sensitising the public on the role standards play in everyday life, SON did not host any event in the whole of the South-South.
Meanwhile, Director-General of SON, Dr Joseph Odumodu, said that the event, would help raise awareness on the dangers that sub-standard products like fake and old tyres pose to the safety and well-being of Nigerians, just as he insisted that like previous ones, this year’s event would help reflect on the benefits of standardization to the nation’s economy.
He urged members of the public to desist from patronising sub-standard goods in an effort to check the influx of such commodities to the country, because, according to him, the continued patronage of such goods would only sustain the businesses of those involved in the illicit trade. Odumodu admitted that the influx of substandard goods was currently trending at 30 per cent but promised to reduce that figure to about 10 per cent before the end of 2015.
The Tide feels particularly disappointed at the lackadaisical attitude of SON to the issue of standardization of products and services made available to Nigerians through the various markets. We are worried because SON seem to have preferred lip-service to real enforcement of compliance to standards as fake and sub-standard products continue to flood our markets, thereby making the nation a dumping ground.
While the developed world has for decades established standards for manufactured products, and even recognised patents for excellence, Nigeria is yet to enforce common regulations guaranteeing quality and safety of products and services in critical areas of our national life.
We expect that Nigerians will shun sub-standard products, no matter how cheap, and commit to utilising certified and standardised goods. While we reckon that poverty might be a contributive factor in sustaining this menace, we also know that no Nigerian would want to sacrifice his or her life on the altar of fake products.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
