…Tasks before regulators
By Uche Usim
LAST March 6, the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, James Ocholi, died in a car crash along the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway, alongside his wife and son.
The report from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) showed that the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) they were in had a (tyre) blow-out.
From FRSC statistics, about 10,050 people die annually from road accidents last year. While this translates to about 27 lives daily blow-outs have been discovered to be a major cause of these fatalities.
The Benin-Ore Expressway also witnesses heavy road carnage almost on daily basis.
While the Federal Government has banned the use of vehicle tyres above four years old for safety reasons, it is rather shocking that the new and trusted ones which the authorities mandate motorists to use may also have been compromised by poor handling.
Some tyres may not have expired going by the dates indicated by the manufacturers but could have been damaged due to bad handling in the course of shipment from countries of origin.
Investigations show that before tyres arrive in shops and markets across Nigeria, they are ignorantly manhandled by stuffing one tyre into another in attempt to pay less import duty.
Industry watchers say such practice is not uncommon among desperate importers who, propelled by greed and desperation to pay less duty, squeeze tyres meant for four containers into one. Profits are made by twisting or squeezing three to four tyres into one. This often leads to ruptures or blasts when the tyres come under intense pressure on the road.
According to an official of the FRSC who does not want his name in print, the tyres are in the squeezed or compressed state for months and are only brought out and stretched to their normal positions after they are delivered to the markets or shops where they are to be sold.
“The most visibly affected and dangerous part is the tyre bead with round metal wire. The bead of the tyre is supposed to have an airtight seal between the tyre and the rim. Where this fails, air will escape from the tyre and this could lead to explosion leading to possible loss of control and accidents.
“Importers will pay for one container. But the number of tyres in that single container ought to fill up three or four containers. So, they sell them and make more profits while endangering lives. This is also a means through which government revenue leaks because the shipment is assumed to be one container instead of three or four.
“Tyres contain metallic parts that when twisted or squeezed, they become compromised and damaged internally,even if they are new. An average tyre user without knowledge of the product may not know when it is compromised,” he explained.
Vehicle experts say officers of the FRSC and Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs) can hardly know a compromised tyre as all they look out for are expiry dates.
Poor enforcement
Stakeholders say officials of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) either compromise their positions looking the other way while the compromised tyres come in or lack the equipment and expertise to detect bad tyres even in their new state.
Experts say a tyre may not have expired and yet not good for use. Tyres not bought from direct brand distributors stand a 50 per cent risk of being compromised. The real brand distributors have a corporate reputation to protect.
Such brand distributors offer after-sales service and can replace bad tyres to ensure customers get value for money spent on the products they sell. From various parts of the world, particularly in advanced economies, hundreds of tyres are removed from vehicles penciled down for destruction.
From the advanced countries, these disused tyres are compressed using a specialised (PAS108 specification) Tyre Baler and then exported worldwide to various sites where they are expected to be used in the construction industry and for other applications. When the used tyres are being compressed, it is presumed that such tyres are no longer meant for use by vehicles so little or no attention is paid to the tyres’ integrity.
Unfortunately, these partially condemned tyres get sold to motorists in third world countries who find them incredibly cheaper because it reduces the operating costs of commercial and private motorists. That also explains why there is a growing market for used tyres across West Africa. Used tyres seized by operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) amounts to over a hundred million naira yearly.
Ignorance
FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, disclosed recently that 250 different brands of tyres are used in Nigeria. He added that some motorists use tyres meant for agricultural purposes on commercial vehicles, thus widening the gap for crashes.
Oyeyemi insists that used tyres do not in any way guarantee safety of its users.
Panacea
Maritime stakeholders opined there is need to enforce regulations at the seaports since Nigeria is an import dependent nation. This will ensure that goods that meet government’s approved standards come into the country. To this end, industry watchers have welcomed the move by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to return to the seaports to help control the importation of substandard products.
SON’s Acting Director General, Dr. Paul Angya, at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja said the eviction of SON officials from the ports has fuelled the import of substandard goods.
“The reason they gave was to be able to fast track trade at the port to cut down the turnaround time. But with the consequences of SON leaving the ports, with the influx of substandard products which is almost over running Nigeria, those reasons they gave at that time may have been germane then but at this time, they are no longer cogent because what we are suffering now far outweighs any benefit from that decision and apart from that, as we speak, the present facilities available to do the job are different and improved.
“And so there is no need for anybody to hold down any container at the port because things are largely digitised and computerised. It’s time for the government to take SON back to the ports so that it can do the job of policing the quality of products coming into Nigeria. The port is the most strategic place for the agency to effectively prevent the inflow of substandard products. More than 90 per cent of products come through the ports and about 70 per cent of them do not meet SON’s specifications,” Angya explained.
The Corps Marshal of FRSC, who also spoke at the forum, urged the government to heed SON’s appeal of returning to the ports to check influx of substandard goods, especially tyres and other household consumables. Aside returning to the ports, experts say the government’s regulatory agencies like SON must live up to their responsibilities by being more proactive rather than reactive. They also want regulatory officials to desist from demanding gratification before carrying out their legitimate duties and advised that importers and exporters be properly monitored to ensure proper import and export procedures are strictly adhered to while recalcitrant stakeholders are identified and punished appropriately. Industry watchers have lauded the periodic raid of markets notorious for selling substandard tyres.
In Kaduna State alone, over 10,000 units of used tyres not good for use were confiscated.
A SON official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the raid would be intensified to ensure that even after successfully smuggling used tyres into the country, there would be no space to display them for sale in the open