Moses Akaigwe

This is how on-air personalities and recorded jingles have been identifying the latest radio station to hit the airwaves in Nigeria, National Traffic Radio {NTR}. The station has been test-transmitting digital audio services on 107.1 frequency modulation {FM} from the headquarters of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Abuja.

NTR commenced transmission on November 12, 2019 preparatory to formal commissioning as a veritable enlightenment and education tool in the execution of the FRSC’s mandate of entrenching better road safety culture and reducing road crashes across the country.

The station’s signal is received clearly in the Federal Capital Territory and the neighbouring states, and is streamed live on the internet via own app that can easily be downloaded and activated in a couple of minutes.

An initiative of the Corps Marshal of FRSC, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, the radio station became a reality about 10 months after the FRSC first dropped hint of the coming of the project following the nod of President Muhamadu Buhari, and the approval of broadcast licence by the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC.

A statement on the station’s app confirms a commitment to fostering the culture of best global road use, such that all road users have quality road experience; ensuring that Nigeria becomes one of the 20 nations with the safest roads by 2020; and a nation where road safety crashes result in no deaths.

Echoing this commitment last week, Dr. Oyeyemi had urged Nigerians, particularly the motoring public, to sustain collective vigilance against the menace of road traffic crashes in the country, saying joint effort remains the panacea for dealing with the challenges.

Oyeyemi made the remark during the visit of the Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, to the Traffic Radio Station on Wednesday.

He said the purpose of having a specialised broadcast station was to boost advocacy, enlightenment and education of the public with programmes that would impact on the safety of lives and properties.

“The SGF is here today to inspect the facilities, and by next week, we would be receiving the National Broadcasting Commission to also inspect before we officially inaugurate, ” the FRSC boss said.

On his part, the SGF noted that the National Traffic Radio was first of its kind in the history of the country, and commended the efforts of the corps in ensuring that road crashes were curbed to the barest minimum.

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“It is a good thing to see that an organisation has its own radio station to help in delivering their mandates. The corps now has clear pictures of what is happening across the country in terms of road traffic crashes and addressing them immediately with the help of the information they had gotten from the public,” Mustapha remarked.

And the SGF was right! It was exciting monitoring NTR broadcast from Lagos as the corps’ various commands and other callers fed the station with traffic situations in many parts of the country over the weekend, including the reports of accidents.

If you are tuned to NTR at dawn, but don’t want to miss the comprehensive Radio Nigeria network news at 7 am, leave the dial on 107.1, for the traffic radio hooks up to the one hour news bulletin every morning.

It must have come to motorists heading towards the usually congested Asaba end of the Niger Bridge Friday evening as a big relief, when a caller reported that the stretch was good to go.

During the intermittent Traffic Update in the morning two days ago {on Saturday}, situations on the roads linking destinations in the north-west, like Zuru, Sokoto, Jega, and Birnin-Kebbi, were featured in the broadcasts. From the corps’ Ogun state command, Lawrence Ope phoned in to update the listeners with happenings on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

National Traffic Radio’s test transmission is expected to run for at least three months, but the Corp Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, whose office manages the station, said yesterday that no date had been fixed for its commissioning. .

Beyond traffic information through the regular updates, the station has regular programmes, such as Weather Report, Rush Hour, Traffic Care, Main Bowl {sports programme], and ’Road Palava.

If you are a lover of music, NTR will give you a surfeit of in various genres – both local and foreign; and new and old ‘schools.’

Kazeem urged listeners to call the National Traffic Radio numbers 08052998090; 09067000015; send SMS text to 08052998012; or send Whatsapp messages to 08052997848, to report traffic situations or road crashes in their areas.