Beer Sectoral Group, FRSC Unveil 2023  ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ Campaign

Raheem Akingbolu

The Beer Sectoral Group (BSG) of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) have launched the 2023 edition of the annual ‘Don’t Drink & Drive campaign’.

Speaking at the Launch in Lagos, the Chairman of the BSG and Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Hans Essaadi, said that the BSG had signed an MOU with the FRSC in 2017 to support the FRSC’s role in “achieving a safe motoring environment in Nigeria” and that it was this MOU that “gave rise to the “Don’t Drink & Drive” campaign, a flagship project of the BSG and the FRSC aimed at enlightening drivers and other road users on the dangers of drink-driving and how best to avoid this.”

To ensure that the FRSC works efficiently in its task to ensure safety of all road users, the Chairman pointed out that the BSG regularly donates new breathalysers to the agency, in addition to testing and recalibrating existing breathalysers.

“The breathalysers will be used in testing drivers before and after embarking on a journey to ensure that the drivers do not drink and drive,” he said.

Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dauda Biu, in his keynote address at the event, lamented that over 1.3 million people are killed through road crashes with about 50 million others sustaining varying degrees of injuries worldwide yearly.

He noted that developing countries, including Nigeria, account for about 91 per cent of global road fatalities with countries losing about five per cent of their yearly Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

With the theme, ‘Speed Thrills But Kills: Drive Responsibly and Avoid Overloading’, Biu, who was represented by Assistant Corps Marshal, Gilbert Igbokwe, Zonal Commanding Officer, FRSC, Zone RS2 comprising Lagos and Ogun states, noted that to eradicate road crashes and create a safe motoring environment is a task that must be done.

The Corps Marshal said: “The ember months campaign flag off is to remind ourselves that road crashes do not just happen, they are caused. We, the road users, are the prime causal agent, we are the victims and we must be the solution.

“Most of the crashes we record in our zone are speed related. Speed may easily lead to loss of control. Speed also increases the severity of a crash.”

“Alcohol is also a big factor that leads to crashes on our roads.”

The BSG and the FRSC have executed this campaign as an annual event from 2018 to date, except in 2020, when the campaign did not hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The campaign advocates against any association between alcohol consumption and driving, including advocating against the sale of alcohol at motor parks. To this end, the BSG and the FRSC conduct random voluntary breathalyser testing at motor parks, to demonstrate how the FRSC discharges its duty in testing drivers for alcohol consumption.