New Telegraph

FRSC: Strengthening safe road culture at 33

Thirty-three years ago, precisely on 18th February 1988, the Federal Government of Nigeria established the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) as the nation’s lead agency saddled with the responsibilities of identifying the causes of road traffic crashes and proffering appropriate solutions to the menace that had placed the country in the position of the second most hazardous nations in Africa to drive motor vehicles in.

With its lead agency status, FRSC was set as an institution to make effective use of instruments of education, science and technology to resolve the intractable challenges of motorisation in the country which was heightened by people’s fatalistic beliefs towards road traffic crashes.

For a nation that had nearly surrendered itself to wanton killings on its highways which most of the people falsely attributed to either “the will of God” or “evil spirits,” the establishment of the FRSC 33 years ago was hailed by some discernible Nigerians as the most comprehensive policy that could address the menace of road traffic crashes in the country.

It’s worthy of note that prior to the establishment of the Corps, there were various efforts made by some concerned individuals, organisations and corporate bodies to create public awareness on the effects of road traffic crashes and tackle the menace to no avail.

With the incapacity of such efforts evidenced by the yearly public enlightenment programmes annually carried out by the Nigerian Army during the ember months particularly in the month of December; the creation of the Highway Patrol Unit under the Nigeria Police and the Oyo State Road Safety, the mandates of the new FRSC were expanded to essentially include conducting research into the causes of road traffic crashes and using all modern tools to adequately address them while prompt removal of obstructions formed an essential part of its mandates.

FRSC thus started its operations with a renewed spirit of road traffic management system built on public goodwill, integrity and service delivery by its personnel. Backed by enabling law espoused in Decree 45 of 1988 as amended by Decree 35 of 1992 under the military rule, captioned as Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, but repealed and re-enacted as FRSC Establishment Act 2007, during the civilian rule, the statue provided adequate powers to members of the Corps to utilise not just the efficacy of public enlightenment programmes, but to embark on aggressive enforcement of traffic rules and regulations to return sanity to the otherwise chaotic Nigeria highways. Accordingly, right from its inception to date, successive leaderships of the Corps have strived to build on the solid foundations laid by the founding fathers in creating public awareness on issues of road safety and enforcement of traffic rules and regulations without fear or favour.

The first decade of the FRSC from 1988 to 1998 was devoted to laying solid foundation for the organisation; creating alliances between the organisation and strategic members of the public through enlightenment programmes particularly, among the drivers and raising awareness that could convince every Nigerian that in its enforcement strategies, FRSC would not be “business as usual.”

To this end, offenders who were apprehended for various traffic violations were not only sent to the banks to effect payment of the coded fines, but made to attend post-payment lectures in the commands after which video clips of road traffic crashes were shown to convince them that road traffic crashes were real, and that because they are caused mostly by human factor, they could be prevented with adequate caution and adherence to the rules of the road by the drivers.

However, this non relenting efforts of the young and energetic members of the Corps who shared the value orientation with the leadership of the organisation chaired by the internationally acclaimed Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and managed by Dr. Olu Agunloye as the pioneer Corps Marshal, it became evident that most of the notorious traffic violators started showing remorse and promising to abide by the rules and regulations guiding the use of the roads. As for the elite members of the society who believed that any law could only be enforced on those less privileged members of the society, the target of the public enlightenment efforts at them coupled with enforcement system that did not exclude anyone from been apprehended whenever they committed traffic violations saw them cautioning their drivers and abiding by the regulations.

With the combined strategies of aggressive public enlightenment and robust enforcement coupled with the introduction of the new licensing system by the Corps, Nigeria’s FRSC successfully commenced a new engagement with the Nigerian public in matters of road safety that restored relative sanity to the roads.

This tempo of aggression was sustained throughout the Corps’ first 10 years of existence with majority of the people hailing its noncompromising stance on matters of road safety as a healthy development By the time the FRSC entered its second decade which commenced in February 1998, the organisation had experienced its first leadership change four years earlier. This saw the change of barton from the pioneer Corps Marshal, Dr. Olu Agunloye to Major General Haldu Anthony Hananiya (rtd) who introduced obvious changes into the organisation’s culture of civility upon which the Corps was founded, to a new regimentation that gave impetus to the organisation as a paramilitary agency.

•Kazeem is Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM) and Corps Public Education Officer.

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW

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