The National Commercial Tricycle and Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association (NATOMORAS) has issued a stern warning to the federal government over what it described as “unfulfilled campaign promises” made by the Tinubu administration.
At a press conference held in Abuja on Monday, Alhaji Usman Buba Gwoza, national president of NATOMORAS, said the association, which boasts over 18 million registered members across Nigeria, mobilized extensively for the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2023 general elections.
Gwoza said: “We were the only association of tricycle and motorcycle riders that openly endorsed the Tinubu/Shettima ticket.
“We campaigned, mobilized, and served as polling agents from wards to states — and we did all that without collecting a single kobo.”
He said the association was promised federal appointments, funding support, and the distribution of 2,000 CNG-powered tricycles to empower members, none of which has materialized nearly two years after the election.
“We feel used. We feel dumped. We feel betrayed,” he said.
In October 2024, Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, publicly announced that the tricycles had been handed over to NATOMORAS.
However, Gwoza said, “Till today, not even one tricycle has been given to our members.”
He added that NATOMORAS members sponsored themselves to attend stakeholder engagement meetings organized by the Presidential Initiative on CNG (PiCNG) across four states, but still received no support.
“We believed in this government and gave our all. But if this silence continues, we will have no choice than to mobilize our members to peacefully protest nationwide,” he added.
He called on President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima to honour their word.
“You stood before us and made a vow. Keep it,” he stated.
Politics Nigeria reports that NATOMORAS is one of the largest informal transport associations in the country and played a critical role in grassroots mobilization during the 2023 elections.
