Eddie Ajon: Rescuing Abuja mass transit By Jamila Musa

This aptly describes the appointment of Eddie Ajon as the Acting Managing Director of the Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company (AUMTCO).
A careful perusal of his résumé will convince all and sundry that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mohammed Bello, in his avowed determination to better the lots of the inhabitants of Abuja through the provision of transport infrastructure, has appointed a seasoned professional in the transport sector to pilot the reformation of this company for the good of the citizenry.
The role of transport infrastructure in the development of a new federal capital city cannot be overemphasized.
For the dream of building a virile city like Abuja is not an utopian dream but a reality, the transport sector’s success is sine qua non to its development.
It is in realisation of the immense importance of this sector to the advancement of the development of the city that government created the company to administer and provide good transport infrastructure for the use of its people.
One of the basic ingredients identified as germane to the success of any government policy or intentions is the human resource.
It is important here to recognise the minister for his administrative maturity in deliberately making Ajon the acting managing director of AUMTCO.
This is a complete departure from the past practice where round pegs in square holes were appointed and a systematic approach to governance where it is no longer business as usual in appointments.
No wonder, the FCT has recorded tremendous developmental strives in the area of transport infrastructural provisions and management.
Today, the AUMTCO has recorded tremendous transformation due to the transformational and technical knowledge of the present management.
The acting managing director being a season manager of men and resources has raised the spirit of staffs who now believe that the nearly comatose state which the Acting managing Director met the place will soon be a thing of the past.
Some of the new measures introduced by the new management include the free bus ride for all students of the territory on uniforms of recognized school.
This is the company’s social responsibility to residents of the FCT.
It has introduced mandatory repairs and resuscitation of once abandoned routes, the quick payment of staff salaries and allowances to spur productivity and the promotion of team spirit among staff and management of the company.
These and many more initiatives the new MD has introduced in the short period of his resumption in fulfilment of the mandate given to him by the FCT Administration to in no distant time put the company back on the path of profitability.
The company I believe shall be on the profitable level if the FCT administration sees to it that the present management of the company is supported more to carry out necessary reforms.
Today, the management of the transport company’s resource base has been incentivized as the acting managing director has insisted on the stick and carrot leadership philosophy.
The company’s staff now know that the need for all staff in all cadre of the company’s staff pyramid to sit up in the discharge of their duties cannot be overemphasized.
The company even though a public sector company is now being run as a private company to improve on its revenue base as the government now has other sectors competing for its meagre resources and attention.
The management has imbibed also on staff the need today to swallow the bitter pills to cure the identifiable maladies that have underdeveloped the company.
Proudly today, the company is on its way to enhanced growth and efficiency.
The measures put in place by the new management to curtail revenue leakages and reduction of corrupt practice is yielding fruits as more checks and balances are being introduced and fine tuned from time to time to enhance its efficiency and workability.
These measures if implemented religiously will buoy up company’s finances and the more finance that accrues to the company will be deliberately used to increase its fleet of buses and the creation of more routes in the FCT.
In the areas of the image and acceptability of the company as an acceptable brand in the public transport systems of the FCT, the management of the company in its renewed determination to enhance the image of the company has reinvigorated its public relations department to include professionals to help rebrand the near damaged image of the company in the ever competing transport environment of the federal territory.
This paid off immediately with the patronage and customer base of the company increasing astronomically daily.
As the image of a company also depends on services and branding, the management has deliberately introduced new services and brands to the lists of enjoyable and marketable items.
The image of the company is today at its soaring higher and higher.
Today, AUMTCO is the transport company of choice in Abuja intracity transport.
It is now more comfortable, cheap, accessible and reliable.
Thanks to its new management, the company would soon hopefully diversify its services to the intercity transport.
In this process the territory’s inhabitants will also have access to any part of the country through the AUMTCO buses.
Musa writes from Abuja

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