Nigeria’s highways have increasingly become theatres of dread, fear, and avoidable sorrow, largely due to the typical road behaviour of heavy-duty and articulated vehicles. These vehicles—trailers, tankers, long trucks, and construction haulers—are today both the arteries and the affliction of our economy. While they perform the indispensable duty of moving goods and services across a country grossly under-invested in rail transportation, their reckless operations have turned them into agents of destruction, claiming lives, crippling infrastructure, and undermining public safety on a scale that borders on national emergency.
A typical Nigerian highway encounter with an articulated vehicle is often marked by excessive speeding, dangerous overtaking, disregard for traffic signs, and an alarming indifference to the lives of other road users. Many of these drivers operate without formal road education, without valid driving licences, and without any structured training in the handling of heavy machinery. A significant number are former motor boys who graduated into drivership through sheer familiarity rather than competence. Worse still, anecdotal and investigative reports frequently link this group to substance abuse, fatigue-induced driving, and a culture of bravado that places profit above human life.
Ironically, these same drivers form the backbone of Nigeria’s supply chain. They transport cement, steel, petroleum products, foodstuffs, agricultural produce, and imported goods from ports to hinterlands. In a consumer-driven economy like Nigeria’s, it is not an exaggeration to state that over 80% of inflationary outcomes are influenced by road transportation costs. The price of food in the market, the cost of building materials, and even fuel pump prices are all tethered to the efficiency and availability of these heavy-duty vehicles. In the absence of functional railways and inland waterways, Nigeria simply cannot do without them.
Yet herein lies the vexatious paradox: the nation loses far more in value, lives, and infrastructure than what this sector contributes to economic growth. Daily, families are plunged into mourning as articulated vehicles mow down pedestrians, crush smaller vehicles, and ignite infernos on highways. Conservatively, it can be argued that hundreds of thousands of Nigerians are lost yearly to trailer-related accidents—either directly through collisions or indirectly through road damage and secondary crashes. Entire households are wiped out in seconds, breadwinners are lost, and communities are scarred permanently.
One of the most dangerous practices worsening this carnage is overloading. In a bid to maximize profit per trip, many trailer operators deliberately adjust payload capacities far beyond manufacturer specifications. This reckless alteration distorts the aerodynamics and balance of the vehicle, compromises braking systems, and makes steering unpredictable. On bad Nigerian roads, such imbalance becomes fatal. Overloaded trailers overturn, jackknife, or lose control on slopes and bends, resulting in catastrophic accidents. Beyond human casualties, these excessive loads crush pavements, destroy asphalt layers, collapse bridges, damage drainages, and accelerate road failure—thereby imposing massive economic adversity on national infrastructure.
Law enforcement, regrettably, has lost remarkable control over this sector. Traffic rules that apply to private motorists seem suspended when it comes to trailers and their proprietors. Weigh stations are either nonexistent, abandoned, or compromised. Enforcement officers are often overwhelmed, compromised by bribery, or outrightly intimidated. Proprietors—many of whom are wealthy logistics barons—operate above the law, shielding their drivers from accountability. The result is a culture of impunity where violations are normalized and sanctions are rare.
More troubling is the growing body of reports linking articulated vehicles to the transportation of contraband goods, arms, ammunition, and even terrorist logistics. These vehicles, by virtue of their size and long-distance reach, have become harbingers of criminality on Nigerian highways. They allegedly convey terrorists, bandits, and their motorcycles across states under the guise of commercial haulage. This turns an already dangerous sector into a national security liability.
Due to the absence of formal traffic education and professional discipline, these heavy-duty vehicles routinely crisscross into urban centers and township roads designed strictly for light vehicles. The consequences are devastating: fragile urban roads collapse, bridges are overstressed, electric poles are knocked down causing prolonged outages, and drainages are damaged—leading to erosion and flooding. Each incident stretches public finances, diverting scarce resources from development to emergency repairs.
Their notorious breakdown culture further compounds the chaos. Poor vehicle maintenance, lack of pre-trip inspections, and ignorance of road etiquette lead to unattended obstructions on highways. A single broken-down trailer, left without warning signs, can trigger multi-vehicle pileups and hours of gridlock. The tragic mayhem involving the convoy of legendary boxer Anthony Joshua—where lives were reportedly lost due to such an obstruction—stands as a painful reminder that no one is immune to this menace.
Comparatively, in jurisdictions such as Europe and Japan, articulated vehicle operations are governed by strict licensing regimes, compulsory periodic training, functional weigh stations, digital monitoring, and zero tolerance for violations. Drivers undergo continuous education, vehicles are routinely inspected, and enforcement is technology-driven rather than discretionary. The contrast exposes a glaring discipline and governance gap in Nigeria.
The way forward must be deliberate, collective, and urgent. I propose a National Road Transport and Traffic Safety Conference, bringing together all stakeholders: federal and state governments, road safety agencies, transport unions, logistics companies, urban planners, engineers, security agencies, civil society, and the media. Such a conference should re-examine traffic education, redefine licensing standards for articulated vehicle drivers, enforce payload regulations, and deploy technology such as cameras and automated weigh stations.
Government must enforce laws consistently, improve road infrastructure with proper signage, punish offenders through fines and licence suspension, and invest in alternative transport systems—especially railways—to reduce overreliance on road haulage. Public awareness campaigns must re-educate drivers and the public alike, while professional training should become mandatory for all heavy-duty drivers.
In conclusion, articulated vehicles are indispensable to Nigeria’s economy, but their current mode of operation is unsustainable and deadly. Until discipline, education, enforcement, and accountability are restored, our roads will continue to bleed lives and resources. The choice before us is stark: reform this sector decisively or continue to pay the price in blood, broken infrastructure, and national grief.
THE TYRANNY OF ARTICULATED VEHICLES ON NIGERIAN ROADS:AN ECONOMIC NECESSITY TURNED NATIONAL NIGHTMARE By Barrister Joseph Obinna Aguiyi
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