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Despite the much hyped AIDS pandemic, the number of productive lives and property wasted each day by road traffic accident deserves much more than the attention being paid to it at present’—Amb. Greg Mbadiwe, former Chairman of FRSC.
Mbadiwe, the immediate past chairman of Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) scored the bull’s eyes when he made the above quoted statement in 2006 at the Annual Corp Marshal’s Conference in Lokoja, Kogi State.

The rate of fatality on our highways is assuming a dangerous dimension so much so that its incidence has simply overwhelmed the agency saddled with the responsibility of minimizing it. It appears FRSC is at its wits’ end as far as reduction of accidents are concerned.

It is simply mind-numbing that at times when efforts are being made to deliberate on sensitive issues about road safety, the impression that usually comes to mind is really alarming and disturbing because both the government and its agency, FRSC, are known for paying lip-service to project execution. Why making noise all over the place preaching the gospel of road safety, when the will and capacity to create the necessary enabling environment that will guarantee safe driving is lacking.

Road accident is a worrisome issue world-wide, but the Nigerian experience has taken a more worrisome dimension as our roads and vehicles plying them are both death traps and regrettably, the palpable inefficiency of FRSC to evolve proactive strategies to contain the nagging situation has not helped matters. The cruel combination of these negative factors have conspired to make the rate of accidents on our roads more pronounced than ever before.

Available statistics shows that Nigerian roads kill over 34,000 lives annually, while about 16,000 persons are permanently maimed. These figures are not realistic as, more often than not, many tragic road accidents are not recorded in various parts of the country. The reason for the high death rate as the data revealed is due to the non-availability of road accident rescue team on our highways and doctors’ attitude to patients who can not pay deposit fees before treatment.

Although, road accident is a worldwide phenomenon, in Nigeria, the incidence is the worst because of failure of the leaders or those entrusted with the task of minimizing it to rise to the occasion. They allow their sense of judgment to be overwhelmed by corruption in search of quick wealth. Analysts have observed an uncanny correlation between corruption and inefficiency that currently plagues FRSC, a dangerous trend that has imperilled safety on our roads.

Come to think of it, what does it feel when a beloved friend or relative waves you goodbye in the morning to travel to a neighbouring city only to be told a few hours later that such a person is dead? That is the most agonizing and heart-breaking news that every man on earth hates to hear. Nothing is as bad as such news and that is the usual tale of Nigerian road accidents and death of beloved ones.
As we step into the ‘ember months’, the Commission is likely to regale Nigerians with the usual razzmatazz of operation this and operation that, all purportedly aimed at curbing road accidents this season.

After the nauseating fanfare captured live on television and radio stations, the officials of the Commission will retreat into their shells satisfied that they have once again taken their fellow compatriots on a ride, ßwhile the money budgeted for the exercise disappears into God-knows-where.
While a sizeable proportion of Nigerians are united in their views that bad roads play a significant role in the preponderance of accidents in the country, the Chief Executive Officer of FRSC in his inverted sense of reasoning thinks otherwise.

At the recent maiden executive committee meeting of West African Road Safety Organisation (WARSO) held in the Ivorien Capital city of Abidjan, the Commission’s boss admonished fellow delegates to pressurise their home governments to divert money to other road safety related matters, ‘instead of just allocating funds for road construction and maintenance’. This conclusion is rather unfortunate. He probably would want the fund for road maintainance to be given to road safety agencies so that there will be enough to feather private nests. It actually shows how detached the man is from reality.

But commenting on the role of bad roads as a causative factor in road accidents, Dayo Onibile of Niger Delta Inquirer newspaper wrote: ‘The deep ditches and potholes on the roads are nothing but death traps as many of them have caused many accidents. If any thing, many of the accidents are caused by tired drivers trying to negotiate their ways out of ditches on our highways’. Onibile hit the nail on the head.

Another major contributory factor to the high rate of accidents in the country is the activities of drunk drivers. This is one glaring area the FRSC has failed woefully in the discharge of its functions. In France, the government declared war on drinking while driving four years ago with the French police clamping down on drunk drivers. This resulted in the reduction of accidents in that country by 20 percent. But in Nigeria, the reverse is painfully the case as FRSC leadership, immobilized by lack of ideas watches helplessly as drivers high on ‘ogogoro’ (local gin) and beer turn our roads into slaughter slabs.

Investigations conducted revealed that precious time is wasted on frivolities like unnecessary power play by the leadership of the Commission instead of engaging on assignments that will impact positively on the lives of Nigerian road users. This unfortunate situation has grievously imperilled its optimal performance. Analysts contend that as long as the status quo at FRSC remains, so long will Nigerians continue to mourn the loss of their beloved ones through avoidable road accidents.

Given the statistics available from reliable sources on road traffic injuries in Nigeria, it is obvious that road safety accomplishments in the last one year has not been impressive. In spite of all the media hype and pointifications by the high priests of the Commission, the death of thousands of Nigerians on our highways in circumstances that are highly preventable is far from satisfactory.

Nigerians are so dissatisfied with the abysmal performance of the Commission that its pronouncements are scarcely accorded any credibility. Not even by a ten year old. Generally reputed for speaking with bifurcated tongues, the loud inefficiency of the Commission’s leadership has negatively lowered the hitherto enviable image of the agency both nationally and internationally. Dashing from one media house to the other waving a list of phantom achievements like a talisman is not the solution to the avoidable crisis that have besetted the 20-year old Commission.

The seemingly indolent leadership of the Commission must wake up from its self-induced slumber, put on its thinking cap in order to satisfactorily perform its statutory responsibility of reducing accidents on our highway. Also, let the agency intensify patrol activities; apprehend those driving rickety vehicles with poor headlamps; liase with Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to check infiltration of substandard tyres into the country; ban night journeys; put a halt to reckless issuance of drivers licence; co-opt Universities into conducting research on how to reduce accidents; procure equipment to tow broken down heavy duty trucks and those that will detect those that have taken alcohol or drugs and check over loading.

Kingsley writes from Makurdi.