By Promise Adiele
Nigeria’s foremost business mogul, Aliko Dangote, needs no detailed introduction. His conglomerate, Dangote Group, is the largest multinational chain in West Africa and one of the largest in the whole of Africa. The group owns about eighteen business subsidiaries operating across ten African countries. Among the business concerns of the conglomerate are cement, sugar, salt, flour, steel, oil & gas, and packaging. Hardly can any household in Nigeria conduct its domestic or culinary affairs without using an item manufactured by the Dangote Group. Besides these household items, the chairman of the group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is an accomplished businessman and a philanthropist who has brought many honours and respect to Nigeria. He has touched lives positively and remains a rare bright spot on the fabric of Nigeria’s battered image abroad. Annually, Dangote Group mitigates recurring employment stasis in Nigeria and Africa by providing employment for many people and sustaining their economic fortunes.
Today, Dangote is a signpost for success, hard work, patriotism, and entrepreneurship. His business ideas and acumen have been studied by students of Finance, Economics, and Business Administration in their seminal papers and project works. Even then, research is ongoing in various areas to interpret and emulate the Dangote successful business initiative. In the past, the billionaire donated a hostel to the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria valued at N1.2 billion. He had made similar gestures to Bayero University Kano and the University of Ibadan, where he donated a multi-billion-naira Business School complex. Indeed, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and his numerous investments have touched the lives of Nigerians positively.
However, like a shadow, inseparable from the real image, the heavy-duty trucks that convey the company’s numerous business consignments across Nigeria have given the Dangote brand a bad name. These heavy-duty, long vehicles constitute a big nuisance on Nigerian roads due to the recklessness of the drivers and as a result, Nigerians are crying out in pain.
The deplorable conditions of many Nigerian roads, which have accounted for multiple accidents where lives have been lost, are a stark reality that confronts every road user daily. However, many heavy-duty, long vehicles are known to have caused these accidents due to their utter recklessness and notoriety on the roads. Given the positive image the Dangote Group enjoys across Nigeria, it is distressing to note that many of these heavy-duty, long vehicles carry the Dangote insignia, which confers ownership of such vehicles on the conglomerate. The drivers of these vehicles wilfully disobey traffic signs. They intimidate other road users and deliberately violate every traffic rule in the book. Whether it is within the Lagos metropolis or in the interstate roads across Nigeria, these vehicles are easily recognized by their reckless attitude. Many times, they have been involved in road accidents that have left some vehicles damaged and lives lost. Regrettably, for some obscure, impenetrable reasons, traffic officers appear helpless to check the recklessness of these Dangote drivers or even bring them to book. The traffic lights are not for these drivers. They overtake with contempt, honking their horns in a way that constitutes noise pollution, emitting decibels injurious to the eardrums. Today, the fear of these Dangote drivers is the beginning of wisdom for any road user in Nigeria. Given the public outcry against these drivers, Nigerians are complaining in pain; therefore, it is important to bring their pain to the public domain.
Dangote Group is one of the largest private sector employers in Nigeria and in fact, in the West African sub-region. Therefore, it can be argued that such a large employer of labour employs the best hands in its various departments to carry out the day-to-day business activities. For the group to record success daily, it simply means that they have the best group of staff in the land. Unfortunately, this cannot be said of their drivers, given the way they conduct themselves on the road. The question to ask is, what procedure is followed before these drivers are employed? Are they simply handpicked from the streets and assigned the onerous responsibility to drive such heavy-duty vehicles? Regrettably, most of them cannot speak simple English or even communicate in the popular local lingo, pidgin English. They get angry easily and profusely release curses and other forms of verbal onslaught on road users, even when they are at fault.
If a conglomerate as big as the Dangote Group can employ the best hands in the land, first class graduates, men, and women with proven records of professionalism and experience, if the group can insist on excellence in many of its departments which accounts for their business success, then why must its transport department and the drivers tarnish the good image of the company in such a glaring manner? Perhaps, the distinguished chairman and most of the high-ranking officials in the conglomerate are not aware of this issue, but it is a fact that the majority of the drivers under the employ of the Dangote Group are reckless and will ultimately bring the good name of the company to disrepute.
Recently, it was reported in the media that a reckless Dangote driver hit a young lady identified as Ruth Otabor near Auchi Polytechnic, in Edo State. Her leg was amputated afterwards, but she could not survive it. She died in a hospital in Edo State. It was reported that the representatives of Dangote Group took the responsibility of her medical bills and evacuated her remains from the hospital to give her a befitting burial. Ruth was the younger sister of Phyna, the Big Brother Naija Season 7 winner. Also, it was reported recently that a truck belonging to Dangote Group crushed some family members to death in Enugu. The incident occurred at Four Corner, along Enugu-Port-Harcourt expressway, in Nkanu West Local Government Area of the state. Although the Dangote Group has denied ownership of the offending truck, insisting that it belongs to a third party, eyewitness accounts report that the truck indeed belongs to the company. Many other incidents of road accidents involving Dangote Trucks cannot be detailed here. Many such incidents are not reported in the press because uncelebrated, ordinary people were involved.
There are many other big companies that have articulated vehicles which all constitute a snare on many Nigerian roads. Lamentably, it appears all these drivers feed on a common trough of the daredevil, tragic menu. It seems they are all united in a common resolve to establish a culture of bloodshed and grief on our roads. Most of the drivers are so young that one begins to imagine how they were employed in the first place. Some of them neither wear uniforms nor are identified by any tag except for the big vehicles they carelessly manipulate on the road with the company’s name obscurely written on them. They block the road indiscriminately without displaying the C- Caution warning to alert other road users of the presence of danger. A big conglomerate like Dangote Group should have well-trained drivers who understand the implications of driving for one of the largest conglomerates in Africa. Those responsible for recruiting these drivers should do more because the negative image they are creating for the conglomerate will ultimately affect public perception and subsequent apathy towards the group.
While we celebrate Alhaji Aliko Dangote for bringing fame and honour to our country, while we see him as an inspiration for hard work and success, the drivers who drive big vehicles for his company are gradually tarnishing the good image he has built over the years. It is therefore important that the chairman is aware of the attitude of many drivers in his employ and take the necessary steps to overhaul that department in his reputable conglomerate. Nigerians have suffered so much as a result of bad roads. Many Nigerians have lost their lives due to death traps on our roads. Driving has become a nightmare across cities and even across states due to bad roads. It will, therefore, be very unfair on Nigerians to be harassed, hounded and intimidated further by those who drive Dangote Group’s heavy-duty vehicles.
Promise Adiele PhD
Mountain Top University
promee01@yahoo.com
X: @drpee4
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