Agenda Papers Editorial:Curtailing New tragedy of fallen fuel tanker, scooping & burning of Nigerians—By Austine Uche-Ejeke

The last few weeks have been replete with news of fallen fuel tankers in different parts of the country.

It is not only the accidental crash of the tankers but some of them igniting fire and burning hapless Nigerians.

In one of the recently released reports it shows that about 265 Nigerians have lost their lives in four months as a result of fallen fuel tankers.

Like everything Nigeria it is spreading like wild fire and epidemic that hardly any week passes by without the ugly story of a fallen fuel tanker.

It is not that it is a new thing but the frightening aspect of it is the frequency of its occurrence and that is what should be the concern of every Nigerian.

Recently the fallen tanker at Niger state seems to be the most horrendous of them all as over 98 Nigerians lost their lives. According to the details of the accident the tanker fell and people swam on it to scoop fuel and boom it ignited fire that consumed close to one hundred lives.

As that was not enough a few days later another fuel tanker fell in Enugu and killed dozens of lives too. At the last count over 18 people lost their lives in the horrific incident.The pathetic aspect of it was the story of the loss of eleven members of a family consisting of a husband, wife, children, younger brother, housemaid and apprentice traveling to Abakaliki for the burial of the man’s late father. What a cruel way to die!

Other accidents of fuel tanker fall and explosions have been recorded and most recently a few days ago in Jigawa state another petrol laden tanker also fell.

The big question now is why are we having so much of these fallen tankers on our roads with some of then exploding and burning people and properties.

One of the reasons for the fall is located at the bad state of our roads in which these petroleum products are being transported. It is still not only worrisome that in this 21st century Nigeria still transports high volume of petrol from Lagos or Portharcout to other far parts of the country like in the North or further South South.

It would have been a different thing if the country contends with the long distance haulage of fuel in very good roads but the reverse is the case as most roads which these tankers ply are terribly bad and in most cases can be described as death traps.

The case of bad roads apart, the state of the tankers and their drivers is another contributing factor for the fall. Most of the tankers are in very terrible condition and yet the Road safety and VIO will see them and allow them free passage.

In most of the cases the drivers of these fuel tankers are young looking men who are so rough and unkempt. They dangerously drive as if life has a duplicate and without regard to other road users.

Some of the people driving on the road always drive cautiously on citing fuel tankers or trailers to avoid being crushed. In fact on Lagos roads motorists don’t drive close to any tanker or trailer but keep a reasonable distance to avoid collision.

To prevent further tanker falls and explosions the government should build more fuel dumps and tank farms that will store large volume fuel. This will be enough to serve a particular region without necessarily transporting fuel from distant places.

Also the government should endeavour to fix the roads in which these tankers ply to avoid falls from bumps, potholes, craters. Doing this will go a long way in curtailing the spates of falls.

Thirdly security agencies and road managers like Road safety, LAST MA and VIO should brace up in their duties of ensuring that fuel tankers and trailers are road worthy after ensuring that the roads are also road worthy. This will go a long way at reducing the accidents.

Closely related to this is the proper checks on the drivers of these tankers and ensure that they have relevant drivers license, training and are mentally balanced devoid of drug and alcohol while on the road driving. Those that contravene the law should not be spared but punished to serve as a deterrent to others.

Added to all this and if the government has done the roads and road managers ensured that tankers and their drivers are certified fit government agencies saddled with the responsibility of orientation and mobilization should carry out mass education of the people of not going near fallen petroleum tankers. Nigerians should be educated that no matter the level of poverty and hunger in the country they should not attempt going near a fallen tanker to scoop fuel.

They should be told that doing that tantamount to committing suicide and that anybody caught doing it will be severely punished by the law

In the same vein security agencies should be proactive and quick in response and cut off any spot that witnessed fuel tankers fall even before people swoop on it. This will go a long way to save lives.

Finally if measures are not put in place to sanitize our roads and proper checks put on the vehicles and drivers the epidemic of fallen fuel tankers may continue and this could turn out to be another way of life in which the country will be losing innocent lives and properties on a regular basis.

The government should do their own part while the citizens should also do their part by avoiding scenes of petrol tanker falls to scoop fuel.

**Austine Uche-Ejeke, a public affairs analyst and publisher of Agenda Papers wrote vide eaustineuche@yahoo.com*