The March 6 road crash that claimed the lives of Minister of State for Labour James Ocholi, his wife and son, has brought a great amount of grief to many people. Equally heart-wrenching was the death of an army general in another car accident around the same time. The two tragedies remind us of an everyday reality on Nigerian roads. Many road users never get to their destination alive. For them the roads have become a one-way street to the great beyond.
Deaths by road mishaps have been trending lower in the last three years, according to figures from the Federal Road Safety Commission, the government body charged with ensuring safety of road users. The number of fatalities in 2013 was 6,450. It declined to 5,994 in the following year — a seven percent decline. Last year, there was a further drop to 5,075 dead. Encouraging as this may appear, it is far from satisfactory. We’re losing too many people due largely to avoidable road mishaps. The FRSC data don’t tell the whole story as many accidents are not reported to the authorities. According to a World Bank report cited by the British Broadcasting Corporation, road accidents may end up killing more Africans than malaria by 2030. This prophecy should not be allowed to come to pass.
“The deaths and injuries that result from these crashes cause considerable loss of economic and human resources not only to the victims and their families but the nation at large,” FRSC’s Corps Marshall Boboye Oyeyemi said last month.
If we take the Ocholis as an example, you can imagine the loss to the nation: it robbed us of a senior lawyer and serving federal minister, a mother and top university administrator, as well as a young graduate with great potentials.
Preliminary reports from the FRSC blamed their unfortunate deaths on over speeding and failure to use seatbelts. Many lives are lost daily on our roads for the same reasons. This is where the FRSC comes in. Its functions include: making the highway safe for motorists and other road users, educating motorists and members of the public on the importance of discipline on the highway, and preventing or minimizing accidents on the highway. Among other roles assigned the agency are regulating the use of mobile phones by motorists; regulating the use of seat belts and other safety devices; determining and enforcing speed limits for all categories of roads and vehicles; and controlling the use of speed limiting devices.
The Commission’s performance in fulfilling its mandate since its formation in 1988 is somewhat mixed. It is common knowledge that many vehicle drivers still don’t have a valid driver‘s license. Most of those who have one probably bought it, and didn’t undergo any driving test to ensure their suitability. As long as this is still the norm, we can’t say the agency has succeeded in making our highways safe.
Its enlightenment campaigns, especially during Eid, Christmas or Easter holidays when most Nigerians travel, are perhaps commendable. The problem is with enforcement. We don’t know how many crazy people are behind the steering wheel, parading as drivers who are not happy unless they’ve shed innocent blood. Penalties and fines that the Commission imposes on offenders are often not severe enough to deter road offenders. One example will suffice. While the fine for dangerous driving is 50,000 naira, driving under the influence of drug or alcohol only attracts 5,000 naira. Why should the disparity between the two be so wide when both infractions could equally cause immeasurable damage and destruction?
Also, the barefaced madness exhibited by drivers of military vehicles is due to the inability of the Commission to rein them in. This class of road users, believing they are above the law, flouts traffic rules with impunity. And woe betides any road marshal who dares to stop them. That this has been going on for decades without the military authorities stepping in to redeem their image tells us that they must approve of this lawlessness and also benefit from it. In civilized societies, military officers don’t operate above the law. They are subservient to the law of the land. Nigeria shouldn’t be an exemption.
Drivers of bank bullion vans, commercial buses and truck drivers are another set of terrorists on wheels. Sadly, the FRSC is still not able to successfully curb their dangerous habits. Corps Marshal Oyeyemi recently said fleet operators’ vehicles accounted for almost 300 lives lost last year through sheer recklessness. Particularly notorious is a household name in cement manufacturing in the country whose truck drivers have no qualms about shoving other road users into the bush.
To curb excessive speeding that is responsible for half of road mishaps, the FRSC has asked all commercial vehicles to install a speed limiting device by April 1. Mr. Oyeyemi and his marshals must ensure strict compliance. Otherwise, many say it will further strengthen the opinion that the Commission is more interested in issuing driver’s license and plate numbers than in ensuring sanity on the road. By way of a rebuttal, I’ve heard the FRSC boss say it’s not a revenue-generating agency. Few believe him. The onus is on him to prove them wrong.
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