One of the things I have had to do in recent times was to renew my driver’s licence. This took me to the headquarters of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Abuja. The procedure requires the applicant’s presence: forms to be filled, fees to be paid, fingerprinting to be done, and so, that was how I found myself in the expansive and impressive premises of the FRSC Headquarters. It turned to be a memorable experience. In-between the processing of my papers, I was handed over to a young officer in the digitalized command centre at the Headquarters, to give me a brief overview of the operations of the FRSC. I considered this a special privilege, but it turned out that the FRSC opens its doors to visitors seeking information, because just as I was stepping out of the room after almost 45 minutes of briefing, another group of visitors including journalists, were led into the command centre for their own briefing session. I could not fail to notice the fact that the operations of the FRSC are highly modernized and digitalized.
This is a sign of progress and growth because that was not always the case. When the idea of the creation of a special unit for road safety, separate from the Police Department, gained ground in the 70s, this was in response to the enormous carnage on Nigerian roads. Professor Wole Soyinka who suggested the idea to the Oyo State Government has written about how the Ibadan-Ife road had become a death trap for the students and lecturers at the then University of Ife. He would later take on the leadership role of sensitizing the Nigerian public to the evil of road rage, mobilizing volunteers to go onto the road to check drivers, or to assist accident victims. In later years, he became the pioneer Chairman of the Federal Road Safety Corps. In those early days, road safety officers relied on their raw courage, and few equipment, but they were a truly inspired group.
The need for road safety in Nigeria cannot be overstated. Over the years, so many lives and limbs have been lost on the roads. Today, Nigeria has a network of 204, 000 kilometres of paved and unpaved roads, with 12.76 million registered motor vehicles and motorcycles at the ratio of 57% and 43% respectively. Between 1960 and 2015, a total of 1,521, 601 casualties were recorded on our roads. Road traffic cases were particularly most serious between 1976 and 1993, with casualty figures consistently exceeding 30, 000 per annum. Established in 1988, FRSC claims in its annual reports that casualty figures on Nigerian roads have been on a downward trend. This conclusion must be in terms of relative figures in direct proportion to population. For, whereas total casualty figure as reported was 11,299 in 1960, it was 38, 059 in 2014 and 32, 826 in 2015. In 1960 Nigeria’s population was 45.2 million; today, it is about 183.5 million, with more vehicles on the roads.
No one can question the wisdom behind the setting up of this strategic agency and due credit must be given to the founding fathers, the successive administrations that have built up the agency and international organizations like the World Bank, which have provided necessary support. In 1988, the FRSC had a staff strength of just about 300, today it has over 19, 000 workers on its payroll, and it is able to make its presence felt on all Nigerian roads. It is better equipped; its staff are better motivated, and it has attracted a large number of volunteers, also known as Special Marshals who at critical moments step in to act as traffic control officials. According to the FRSC, deaths on Nigerian roads per 100, 000 was 9.0 in 1990; over the next 15 years, this was reduced to 3.62.
Whereas a total number of 8, 154 persons were killed on Nigerian roads in 1990, the number had reduced to 5, 044 in 2015. But perhaps the biggest area of achievement has been in the fact that more people today are apprehended for traffic offences. Between January and June 2014, about 258, 538 traffic offenders were apprehended nationwide; and for the same period in 2015 – 254, 203 persons. In the various reports, the states with the highest cases of traffic offences and fatalities are Kaduna, FCT, Ogun, Kogi, Oyo, Nasarawa, and Edo in that order while the states with the least incidents are Borno, Bayelsa, Yobe, Ekiti, Taraba, Abia, and Akwa Ibom.
It is refreshing that over the years the FRSC has been able to generate such significant data on road safety and fatalities in Nigeria. When I visited the control centre, many uniformed officers were busy behind telephones and computers, receiving information from the public and satellite command centres across Nigeria. Two large screens in the room provided real live indication of accident cases in all the six traffic corridors into which the country has been divided. I was told, and a live demonstration was used to illustrate the claim, that once there is a reported accident in any part of the country, the information is relayed to the nearest FRSC Command for immediate action, all the way up to the National Headquarters which monitors the dispatch of the nearest FRSC patrol team in that corridor on a rescue mission. The officer told me that the FRSC has the capacity to get to the scene of any road accident within minutes, because its men are all over Nigerian roads. I didn’t expect him to say anything otherwise. He was marketing his organization and he would of course tell me all the good things. But I wondered: how many Nigerians know the toll free emergency numbers to call in the event of an accident?
I completed the processing of my driver’s licence. And when it was time to take my leave, I was given some reading materials. A careful perusal would offer more information: the FRSC Call centre receives on the average a total of 258 calls per month on road traffic crashes, and most of these calls are made between June and December. It is as if Nigerians get more reckless on the roads as the year comes to an end. Then the vehicles mostly involved in road crashes are cars, followed by motorcycles, minibuses and trucks, while the principal causes are over-speeding, loss of control and dangerous driving.
On the whole, a lot still needs to be done to curtail road traffic crashes in Nigeria and to check the menace of dangerous driving; the area of challenge is in deepening the prevention strategies of the FRSC and similar organizations that have been set up by state governments such as LASTMA in Lagos and TRACE in Ogun state. A team of Road Safety experts from Nigeria are scheduled to proceed on a two-year deployment to Sierra Leone, which is encouraging, but before we begin to do Father Christmas across Africa with what has been achieved so far, we must never lose sight of the fact that the quoted statistics of persons killed or injured on Nigerian roads is not just cold data, but human lives. Nigerian motorists need to be constantly reminded that they cannot be allowed to either commit suicide or kill others.
It is certainly not surprising that over-speeding is the major cause of accidents on our roads. The FRSC and similar organizations at the state level must insist on the observance of speed limits and impose the stiffest penalties on offenders. It is always very scary driving on any road in Nigeria. Most of our motorists, commercial or private, behave as if the best way to handle a vehicle is to exhaust the speedometer. Speed bumps on inner city roads have made little or no difference. Even when persons are not driving under the influence, they just like to speed. Each time I see any major road being dualized, I immediately think in terms of the number of lives that will be claimed by the road once it is completed. Every person behind the wheels on our roads is a potential Formula One participant.
The commercial drivers are worse. They drive dangerously and lose control, because in any case, they are half of the time, completely drunk. Every motor park has a nearby section where alcohol is openly sold. In between trips, the drivers worship at the paraga and ogogoro shrine, and get thoroughly inebriated before they jump behind the wheels. State governments and the FRSC must liaise with the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) to enforce the ban on the sale of alcohol at motor parks across the country; pro-active steps should also be taken to check drunk driving. In some other parts of the world, motorists are routinely stopped and asked to take a breath or sobriety test. We need that here.
Nigerians like to break the law, or test it. When the compulsory use of seat belts was introduced, it was quite a battle getting people to comply. In the same manner, they may resist the observance of speed limits, but this must be strictly enforced. Loss of control while driving, is caused not only by drunkenness, but also the abuse of cell phones. The way some people treat cell phones like a toy is unbelievable. Even while driving, they use one hand to hold a phone; the other hand is on the steering, while their mouth is engaged in animated conversation and their ears in a listening mode. Engaged in such a delicate task as driving, they are nevertheless distracted. I have seen many suicidal drivers on our highways, chatting on phone and going at top speed. This must be addressed.
The various FRSC reports didn’t dwell much on the roadworthiness of vehicles on Nigerian roads. Half of the vehicles out there are imported, used vehicles with broken down parts and bad tyres. Nigerian motorists are not likely to change tyres until the tyres burst, and of course, very few buy new tyres. Roadworthiness checks must not be voluntary or optional but compulsory. The roads are also bad. Bad roads don’t make for safe driving. And to worsen it all: many motorists don’t bother to go to driving schools or take driving tests, and they have no driver’s license. They learn to drive by accident; they have no knowledge of road signs and traffic rules. They drive all the same and cause accidents. The FRSC should seek the enabling powers to ensure that certain traffic offenders are banned for life from driving on our roads. That is the surest way to reduce road carnage. [myad]
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has made it clear that its members have not issued any threat to go on a nation-wide strike.
“Our attention has been drawn to a news briefing on AIT by some pocket of marketers parading themselves as IPMAN members, calling for nationwide strike over petroleum product sharing formula. The national body did not plan any strike action.” In a statement in Lagos by the National Operations Controller of IPMAN, Mike Osatuyi, the Association said that those who made the threat to embark on strike are some marketers, who were not members of IPMAN.
“We, the national body of the union are not planning to embark on any strike, because we don’t have any issues with the government whatsoever. We appeal to Nigerians and all independent marketers to go ahead with their normal business and avoid creating panic buying in the society.” Osatuyi commended the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation over petrol intervention scheme given to marketers to augment distribution, calling on the government to make the product available to marketers. The operations controller commended the steps taken by President Muhammadu Buhari to reposition the NNPC for greater efficiency, adding that the measures inspired hope and confidence in the future of the nation. The IPMAN operations controller applauded to the Group Managing Director of the NNPC and Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, whom he described as a renowned oil industry expert with the needed global exposure, competence and integrity. He said that it is important for all IPMAN members to reciprocate the government special intervention petrol supply to marketers, saying that the Federal Government, through NNPC/PPMC, should be lauded for these special schemes. “The only way to ensure total eradication of queues in the country is when this intervention of petrol supply is sustained,” he said. Osatuyi, however, advised NNPC/PPMC to ensure sustainability of the product so that marketers could sell at approved price of N86.50k per litre. He said the commitment of government in this regard was a clear demonstration of its readiness to partner with IPMAN on effective fuel distribution. [myad]
The Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasiru Ahmed El-Rufai has announced the composition of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the clashes in Zaria between the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, otherwise known as Shiite, and the Nigerian Army in December 2015.
A statement from Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, said that the commission has Justice Mohammed Garba, the presiding justice of the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal as the Chairman.
Director of the Centre for Islamic Legal Studies, Institute of Administration of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Dr Bala Babaji, was also named as the Secretary to the Commission.
Another member of the Commission is Professor Ibrahim Gambari, a former minister of Foreign Affairs, who was also an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and head of the UN Department of Political Affairs.
Aruwan said that the judicial commission was “established under Section 2 of the Kaduna State Commission of Inquiry Law, 1991.”
He also said that Governor El-Rufai has signed the instrument establishing the commission of inquiry, which is expected to submit its final report six weeks after its first public sitting.
Aruwan said the terms of reference mandated it “to determine the immediate causes of the clashes, examine the historical circumstances and contributory factors of the clashes.”
It would also “ascertain the number of persons killed, wounded or missing during the clashes”.
It would “identify the actions of persons, institutions, federal and state actors, and determine whether such actions were necessary, appropriate and sufficient in the circumstances in which they occurred.
He said the state government “consulted widely with the governments of the 19 Northern States and the Federal Government.”
Aruwan said that this was done “in a bid to identify credible, independent and impartial persons knowledgeable in various aspects that the Inquiry is expected to cover.”
The bloody clash in Zaria between the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and the Nigerian Army from took place between December 12 and 14 last year. [myad]
The Medical and Health Workers Union (MHWU), Lagos State Council, has warned that taking garri, local staple food from cassava, in water, can cause the dreaded Lassa fever even as its members now take it upon themselves to embark on public enlightenment on this.
Chairman of the union, Razak Adeofalade, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that house rats that caused Lassa Fever are mostly in contact with garri.
“We are going to encourage members of the public to depart from the process of drinking garri at this moment. It is better that the cassava flour is utilized for `eba,’ because of the use of hot water.
“We are waging total war and that is: `War against Rats,’ and that is what we are going to do to ensure we do not have another victim of Lassa Fever in the state.
“We will also be telling them to ensure that their fruits and raw vegetables are properly washed if they must be consumed raw and cook to the appropriate temperature.
“The whole essence is to enlighten our people because education carries a lot of weight in this whole activity.” [myad]
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has directed security agencies to arrest Biafra agitators in the State.
A statement by the state commissioner for information, Dr. Austin Tam-George, the governor said it had come to the attention of the Rivers State government that some Biafran agitators had resorted to illegal processions, and had assaulted law abiding citizens and residents of the state.
“Governor Nyesom Wike strongly condemns the acts of criminality perpetrated by Biafran agitators by whatever name, in the Oyigbo area of the state.
“The government has directed all security agencies in the state to arrest and prosecute all Biafran agitators who flout the ban on illegal separatist processions and demonstrations in Rivers State. The government urged all residents in the state to remain calm and law abiding.
Governor Wike had banned further protests by the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). The groups have been calling for the release of Nnamdi kanu.
The Director of Biafra Radio is facing charges, including treasonable felony.
The Police in Rivers had last year arrested over 20 Biafra agitators over illegal protests in Port Harcourt. They are currently remanded in prison custody. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to begin a three-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) tomorrow, Sunday to participate in this year’s edition of the World Future Energy Summit.
A statement by the senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Garba Shehu said that President Buhari will join the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki Moon, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi and other participants as a special guest of honour at the Summit.
The Summit which, the statement said is now in its ninth year of existence, has developed into one of the world’s most influential events dedicated to advancing future energy, energy efficiency and clean technologies.
“In a move signaling Nigeria’s re-engagement with the Middle-East region, President Buhari will also lead a team of his ministers to bilateral talks with the government of the UAE.
“After the talks, a number of agreements between both countries on economic, trade and bilateral relations are expected to be signed.”
Garba Shehu said that Nigeria is expected to gain from President Buhari’s visit by getting more support from the UAE for its war against terrorism and the recovery of Nigeria’s stolen funds.
President Buhari, he said, is also scheduled to meet with leading UAE businessmen who are interested in Nigeria with a view to encouraging greater investment inflows to critical sectors such as power supply, oil, gas and agriculture even as he will also meet with Nigerian professionals in the UAE.
According to Garba Shehu, the President will be accompanied by the ministers of Power, Works and Housing, Petroleum, Environment, Justice, Trade and Investment, Finance and Foreign Affairs, as well as the National Security Adviser. He is expected back in Nigeria, with his entourage on Tuesday, January 19. [myad]
Police security officer to the Permanent Secretary in the federal ministry of Science and Technology, Kande Magaji, is being decorated with her new rank of inspector of police by the permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Habiba Lawal. The Director of Finance and Accounts in the ministry, Mr. Charles Ogbuegebe assists her. [myad]
The Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has cursed those who diverted money meant for procuring arms for Nigeria soldiers to fight the Boko Haram insurgency, describing them as heartless. Aregbesola who spoke today at the 2016 Armed Forces Remembrance Day and laying of wreath in honour of fallen soldiers at the State House of Assembly in Osogbo, commended the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in unraveling the crime.
He said that every well-meaning Nigerian is of the hope that all those involved in the mismanagement of the arms fund will receive full retribution even as he insisted that all those found guilty must be brought to justice to forestall future occurrence. “It is even a monumental scandal of unimaginable proportion that funds meant for procuring arms for soldiers are shared among members of the Peoples Democratic Party without the least compunction. “I commend the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in unravelling this heinous crime and I sincerely hope that all those involved will receive full retribution. Some of the soldiers caught in the maelstrom and indicted have been pardoned but some have lost their commission while others face uncertain future. “Considering the circumstances of this unusual event, it is pertinent that a fresh inquiry be set up so that justice will be given to all those involved and our gallant soldiers will not be punished unjustly.” On the roles of soldiers in the Ekiti and Osun States’ governorship elections in 2014, which the committee set up by the Military has submitted its report, Aregbesola said the deployment of soldiers was avoidable. “The military high command also set up an inquiry into the roles soldiers played in the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections of 2014. The committee has submitted its report and made recommendations. “As a victim of the reckless deployment of soldiers in those elections, I will say it was an avoidable deployment of soldiers for a civilian duty and for which there was no threat beyond the capability of the police and other security agencies.”
This year’s Armed Forces Remembrance is the first to be held at the State House of Assembly after the cenotaph was constructed next to the parliament. The Governor stressed that the symbolism of holding the ceremony at the military cemetery is impeccable, adding that bringing it to the parliament is of even greater significance. Aregbesola said that the parliament is the symbol of authority of the people and so the fallen soldiers “being celebrated today in the midst of the people for their gallantry and supreme sense of patriotism.” [myad]
Miss Cynthia Ugbah, winner of Queen of Trust International 2015, has resigned her position over an alleged claim of sexual harassment by the organizers of the pageant.
“They wanted me to sleep with men for money and then give the money to them to better their own organization (apparently that is how it works). They are rogues, thieves, fake and most of all broke; they need pretty girls to fetch them money,’’ Cynthia said.
In her resignation letter which was made available to news men, Cynthia said that she took the decision to resign after much thought and careful consideration.
“I am convinced that my decision is in our mutual best interest and for the sake of peace. I’m sorry that circumstances at your pageant leave me with no other alternative than to resign but I thank you for whatever support I did receive during my time with your organization.
“I have already returned the crown and all other materials.’’
Cynthia alleged that since her resignation, the organizers have been tarnishing her image on the social media, saying: “I don’t think I did anything wrong in contesting …what I did was to fall into the wrong pageant where everything about them is full of s..i and packaging .
However, a statement from Ms. Onyeka Agu, Deputy National Director, Nigerian Queen Beauty Pageant, organizers of the pageant, said Cynthia was officially dethroned for gross misconduct. “All entitlement including her car will be handed over to the 2015 Runner up who can lead.
“We will be releasing more details shortly; we believe a beauty queen should be an example for others to follow.” [myad]
“Every evil weapon they fashioned against me did not prosper and even the ones they are fashioning now will not prosper.” These were the words of the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, at a meeting with All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders across the three Senatorial Districts of Edo State.
Governor Oshiomhole narrated: “in this hall, around this time last year, we held a meeting to share information about what was going on in various local governments and the specific challenges in each of those local government in order to fashion out appropriate response. “Some of the statements that we shared in those meetings included threats that by June, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole would have been impeached because PDP would write results whether we liked it or not. “They would overrun the House of Assembly and once the House is proclaimed in June, before the end of June, Comrade would be banished to his house in the village and from there to prison. “Those who made those threats, who supervised those processes, even now in their early 90s, are writing letters to explain how they shared money meant for defence.”
The governor went on: “around this time last year, in January, a few weeks to the election, many were saying quite recklessly on radio and television that we were finished. “The former President, Goodluck Jonathan, told our National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to inform me that after the election, he will put me, Adams, the son of Oshiomhole, in a hole and I told Chief Oyegun to inform him to dig that hole very deep because although I am short, in the course of pushing me into the hole, nobody knows who will get there first. “Since he is taller than me, he needs to dig the hole deep enough so that either of us can get in. “In the end, he is inside the hole and I am busy putting dust into that hole.” Oshimhole boasted: “the one who tamed a lion with bare hands, now with automatic weapons, no antelope can dare us in our own forest.” [myad]
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The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has made it clear that its members have not issued any threat to go on a nation-wide strike.
A Visit To FRSC, By Reuben Abati
This is a sign of progress and growth because that was not always the case. When the idea of the creation of a special unit for road safety, separate from the Police Department, gained ground in the 70s, this was in response to the enormous carnage on Nigerian roads. Professor Wole Soyinka who suggested the idea to the Oyo State Government has written about how the Ibadan-Ife road had become a death trap for the students and lecturers at the then University of Ife. He would later take on the leadership role of sensitizing the Nigerian public to the evil of road rage, mobilizing volunteers to go onto the road to check drivers, or to assist accident victims. In later years, he became the pioneer Chairman of the Federal Road Safety Corps. In those early days, road safety officers relied on their raw courage, and few equipment, but they were a truly inspired group.
The need for road safety in Nigeria cannot be overstated. Over the years, so many lives and limbs have been lost on the roads. Today, Nigeria has a network of 204, 000 kilometres of paved and unpaved roads, with 12.76 million registered motor vehicles and motorcycles at the ratio of 57% and 43% respectively. Between 1960 and 2015, a total of 1,521, 601 casualties were recorded on our roads. Road traffic cases were particularly most serious between 1976 and 1993, with casualty figures consistently exceeding 30, 000 per annum. Established in 1988, FRSC claims in its annual reports that casualty figures on Nigerian roads have been on a downward trend. This conclusion must be in terms of relative figures in direct proportion to population. For, whereas total casualty figure as reported was 11,299 in 1960, it was 38, 059 in 2014 and 32, 826 in 2015. In 1960 Nigeria’s population was 45.2 million; today, it is about 183.5 million, with more vehicles on the roads.
No one can question the wisdom behind the setting up of this strategic agency and due credit must be given to the founding fathers, the successive administrations that have built up the agency and international organizations like the World Bank, which have provided necessary support. In 1988, the FRSC had a staff strength of just about 300, today it has over 19, 000 workers on its payroll, and it is able to make its presence felt on all Nigerian roads. It is better equipped; its staff are better motivated, and it has attracted a large number of volunteers, also known as Special Marshals who at critical moments step in to act as traffic control officials. According to the FRSC, deaths on Nigerian roads per 100, 000 was 9.0 in 1990; over the next 15 years, this was reduced to 3.62.
Whereas a total number of 8, 154 persons were killed on Nigerian roads in 1990, the number had reduced to 5, 044 in 2015. But perhaps the biggest area of achievement has been in the fact that more people today are apprehended for traffic offences. Between January and June 2014, about 258, 538 traffic offenders were apprehended nationwide; and for the same period in 2015 – 254, 203 persons. In the various reports, the states with the highest cases of traffic offences and fatalities are Kaduna, FCT, Ogun, Kogi, Oyo, Nasarawa, and Edo in that order while the states with the least incidents are Borno, Bayelsa, Yobe, Ekiti, Taraba, Abia, and Akwa Ibom.
It is refreshing that over the years the FRSC has been able to generate such significant data on road safety and fatalities in Nigeria. When I visited the control centre, many uniformed officers were busy behind telephones and computers, receiving information from the public and satellite command centres across Nigeria. Two large screens in the room provided real live indication of accident cases in all the six traffic corridors into which the country has been divided. I was told, and a live demonstration was used to illustrate the claim, that once there is a reported accident in any part of the country, the information is relayed to the nearest FRSC Command for immediate action, all the way up to the National Headquarters which monitors the dispatch of the nearest FRSC patrol team in that corridor on a rescue mission. The officer told me that the FRSC has the capacity to get to the scene of any road accident within minutes, because its men are all over Nigerian roads. I didn’t expect him to say anything otherwise. He was marketing his organization and he would of course tell me all the good things. But I wondered: how many Nigerians know the toll free emergency numbers to call in the event of an accident?
I completed the processing of my driver’s licence. And when it was time to take my leave, I was given some reading materials. A careful perusal would offer more information: the FRSC Call centre receives on the average a total of 258 calls per month on road traffic crashes, and most of these calls are made between June and December. It is as if Nigerians get more reckless on the roads as the year comes to an end. Then the vehicles mostly involved in road crashes are cars, followed by motorcycles, minibuses and trucks, while the principal causes are over-speeding, loss of control and dangerous driving.
On the whole, a lot still needs to be done to curtail road traffic crashes in Nigeria and to check the menace of dangerous driving; the area of challenge is in deepening the prevention strategies of the FRSC and similar organizations that have been set up by state governments such as LASTMA in Lagos and TRACE in Ogun state. A team of Road Safety experts from Nigeria are scheduled to proceed on a two-year deployment to Sierra Leone, which is encouraging, but before we begin to do Father Christmas across Africa with what has been achieved so far, we must never lose sight of the fact that the quoted statistics of persons killed or injured on Nigerian roads is not just cold data, but human lives. Nigerian motorists need to be constantly reminded that they cannot be allowed to either commit suicide or kill others.
It is certainly not surprising that over-speeding is the major cause of accidents on our roads. The FRSC and similar organizations at the state level must insist on the observance of speed limits and impose the stiffest penalties on offenders. It is always very scary driving on any road in Nigeria. Most of our motorists, commercial or private, behave as if the best way to handle a vehicle is to exhaust the speedometer. Speed bumps on inner city roads have made little or no difference. Even when persons are not driving under the influence, they just like to speed. Each time I see any major road being dualized, I immediately think in terms of the number of lives that will be claimed by the road once it is completed. Every person behind the wheels on our roads is a potential Formula One participant.
The commercial drivers are worse. They drive dangerously and lose control, because in any case, they are half of the time, completely drunk. Every motor park has a nearby section where alcohol is openly sold. In between trips, the drivers worship at the paraga and ogogoro shrine, and get thoroughly inebriated before they jump behind the wheels. State governments and the FRSC must liaise with the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) to enforce the ban on the sale of alcohol at motor parks across the country; pro-active steps should also be taken to check drunk driving. In some other parts of the world, motorists are routinely stopped and asked to take a breath or sobriety test. We need that here.
Nigerians like to break the law, or test it. When the compulsory use of seat belts was introduced, it was quite a battle getting people to comply. In the same manner, they may resist the observance of speed limits, but this must be strictly enforced. Loss of control while driving, is caused not only by drunkenness, but also the abuse of cell phones. The way some people treat cell phones like a toy is unbelievable. Even while driving, they use one hand to hold a phone; the other hand is on the steering, while their mouth is engaged in animated conversation and their ears in a listening mode. Engaged in such a delicate task as driving, they are nevertheless distracted. I have seen many suicidal drivers on our highways, chatting on phone and going at top speed. This must be addressed.
The various FRSC reports didn’t dwell much on the roadworthiness of vehicles on Nigerian roads. Half of the vehicles out there are imported, used vehicles with broken down parts and bad tyres. Nigerian motorists are not likely to change tyres until the tyres burst, and of course, very few buy new tyres. Roadworthiness checks must not be voluntary or optional but compulsory. The roads are also bad. Bad roads don’t make for safe driving. And to worsen it all: many motorists don’t bother to go to driving schools or take driving tests, and they have no driver’s license. They learn to drive by accident; they have no knowledge of road signs and traffic rules. They drive all the same and cause accidents. The FRSC should seek the enabling powers to ensure that certain traffic offenders are banned for life from driving on our roads. That is the surest way to reduce road carnage. [myad]