VANGUARD
LAGOS — The Federal Government’s efforts at making the Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, vehicles popular in Nigeria, may not get the needed gravitas after all, Vanguard investigation has revealed.
What technicians are saying
This is because many of the local automobile technicians who are supposed to push the aggressive rollout of the project know little or nothing about this auto technology, though the government is ready to roll out the first set of buses, what with the 40 of such buses donated earlier this week to the government by Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMAN, and Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC Limited. NNPCL Foundation.
Vanguard investigations revealed that the CNG acceptance could witness initial setbacks as most of the technicians claimed ignorance of the system.
An auto mechanic in the Oluti area of Lagos, identified simply as Ola, told our reporter he hadn’t even heard about the technology, let alone come across it.
Meanwhile, Ola is one of the most popular auto mechanics in the Old Ojo Road axis of the Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos State.
He specialises in the maintenance of Japanese vehicles and solves for his colleagues, and intricate auto issues which they find confusing.
But when Vanguard sought his opinion on how Nigeria could leverage CNG technology, he said: “Which one is CNG? I am not aware of that kind of fuel?
“I don’t think I can touch any vehicle that is not powered by petrol for now, not even diesel engines,” he declared.
Another technician, who wouldn’t like his name mentioned, said that CNG-powered vehicles are still new to Nigerian mechanics and advised that the government should establish centres to massively train technicians if it wants it to succeed.
“As you can see, most mechanics do not know what CNG is all about. The Federal Government can partner with some established workshops across the country to train technicians to make it work.”
Mr Henry Ogbonna, a Mercedes Benz mechanic with more than two decades’ experience in Apapa, told Vanguard that before now they used to disconnect and remove CNG gas cylinders as instructed by vehicle owners because people didn’t know the usefulness and where to refill the gas.
“Some owners of Mercedes-Benz V and flat booths would ask us to disconnect it, and we have removed many of them in this workshop,” he said.
“Last December 2023, we removed one CNG cylinder from a customer’s car.”
“If the Federal Government is serious about it, we won’t have any option than to go and train on how to install it in customers’ cars,” he further added.
READ THE FULL STORY IN VANGUARD
