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Challenges
of repositioning FRSC
By Sun News Publishing
Friday
February 22, 2008
It is in order to ensure this harmony, coherence and congruence
that Chidoka has consistently identified the security and
social implications of compromising the integrity of the driver’s
licence as the bane of road safety underdevelopment in Nigeria.
He declared recently that, out of the 12million driver’s
licences in circulation, only records of 2 million of them
could be found in the Commission’s database, leaving
10 million ‘fake’ ones. And in a paper he presented
at the award night organized by the Alumni Association of
the University of Nigeria, Abuja branch recently, he captured
this scenario succinctly when he said, “The restoration
of the integrity of the driver’s licence has a value
reorientation.
Young adults who currently get their first driver’s
license through illegal means without testing or training
are physiologically denuded of the moral ethos that fires
the idealism of youth. A nation whose youths, as a matter
of course, are conditioned to inadvertently or consciously
commit their first crime of possessing fake driver’s
licence is on the way to failure.
The incapacity of the state is magnified by the sheer horror
of a citizen who is licensed to kill by the state through
the issuance of a driver’s licence without testing,
certification or payment of the statutory fees to government”.
He maintains that the restoration of the integrity of the
driver’s licence, therefore, remains one of the challenges
of his administration, which he has vowed to tackle head-on.
Thus, as this piece was being written, a public statement
appealing for understanding of the delay in the issuance of
the driver’s licence for this year, to enable the commission
re-design and add more fool-proof security features to the
licence being issued.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the syndicates who are
beneficiaries of the corrupt system will not sit low and watch
their illegal means of livelihood being cut away on the platter
of nationalism, hence their desperation to use the media to
distract attention. But Nigeria’s national interest
is bigger than any individual’s interest; and protecting
the collective interests of the nation should be the nationalist
motive of all the patriots. Therefore, the assurances by Chidoka
that his reform process would be pursued to its logical conclusion
call for the public’s collective support, as it would
enhance the capacity of the Nigerian state to deal with the
social and security challenges of the people.
Chidoka has not changed the management team he met on the
ground, yet he has been able to make a huge difference in
his determination to bring FRSC back on track, both in the
administrative and operational areas within the six months
of his administration. For instance, he has instituted a weekly
management meeting where major policy decisions affecting
the commission are taken with inputs from all members. As
at today, the commission can now boast of an authentic and
comprehensive staff list with all personnel having their hitherto
elusive personal identification number (PIN) just as the much-awaited
Road Transport Safety Standardization Scheme (RTSSS) has since
been launched by no less a personality than the Vice President,
His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, himself, the implementation
of which commences this year as an antidote to many of the
traffic challenges in the country.
Moreover, his ability to work harmoniously with people of
other ethnic groups and religious persuasions sees him relating
freely with staff from all sections of the country, both Christians
and Muslims without regards to primordial sentiments; his
commitment to the reform programme of the present administration
of His Excellency, Alhaji Shehu Musa Yar’adua, saw him
implementing fully and to the satisfaction of all the staff
of the Federal Road Safety Commission, the Federal Government’s
consolidated para-military salary structure in November and
December 2007, which has in fact, made him a hero among FRSC
personnel, most of who became so passionate about him that
they now prefer to call him, “the True Face of the New
FRSC”.
His clear understanding of the concept of grand strategy as
a means of mobilizing institutional resources to achieve the
national objective of accident and obstruction –free
roads became manifest during the last Sallah, Christmas and
New year celebrations when commuters nationwide observed massive
presence of FRSC personnel in all black spots and ensured
effective traffic flow. And by the time he is through with
the current reorganization in the licensing scheme of the
commission, we have assurances that Nigerians who will posses
the document would be proud and free to show it anywhere in
the world without fear of it being fake.
So, as the FRSC commences a new operational year, which the
last Christmas and New Year celebrations heralded under an
atmosphere devoid of the usual traffic holdups and pervasive
road traffic crashes nationwide, Nigerians are unanimous in
their commendation for Chidoka’s initiatives in effective
traffic management and, therefore, saw his appointment as
well deserved. They thus saw the need for him to sustain the
tempo of the commission’s activities throughout the
year to save the nation from the usual carnage which made
the World Bank to classify its highways in the 70’s
and 80’s as most prone to road traffic accidents in
Africa.
There is no doubt that when his current campaigns of road
safety to relevant stakeholders for concrete partnership with
the commission on issues of road safety and his internal realignment
process, is completed and begin to yield fruits, the new year
through the nation’s attainment of the much-desired
safe roads, both the government of Nigeria and the motoring
public will appreciate more this new dynamism, which many
now say is a revolution in road safety management in the country.
• Sani Abdullahi, Deputy Route Commander in the FRSC,
contributed this piece from Wuse-Abuja. |
