FRSC @36: SO FAR,SO…

Road Safety Article

On February 18, 2024, the Federal Road Safety Corps turned 36 years.No drums were beaten. No red carpets rolled. No glasses clinked. Just prayers. Encouragement. And an anniversary message from Dauda Biu, the Corps Marshal. Now, I wish I could do a flowering exposition on the achievements of the FRSC.

But, alas, it must be mentioned that the organization has had its fair share of challenges, controversies and, yes, hiccups. The Corps’ relevance has, within the last three decades plus , been questioned on more than one occasion, culminating in its merger with the Nigeria Police in 1999.

The Corps tethered on unsteady feet as it sought to grapple with challenges of an ever changing traffic environment and populace. The World was fast going digital, roads networks had increased and vehicular traffic had also escalated. The driver’s license was not only going to the highest bidder, but the highest bidder could very well not even have an inkling of how to turn the steering wheel.

The Corps manpower could barely contend with the situation, more so as its operational vehicles and equipment were either non-existent, non-functional or battered; and its data management was totally manual and unreliable.

But permit me to say that this did not in any way deter the Corps of committed men and women who strived to put in their best, even in the face of such seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

In 2007, at his inaugural speech as the newly appointed Corps Marshal and Chief Executive, Osita Chidoka, vowed to lay a solid foundation that would enable the Corps “restore the integrity of the driver’s licence.” He further harped on his intention to transform FRSC into a World class, technology-driven organization.

To lend credence to this, the Corps invested heavily on technology with 450 V-SAT installed as at today to ensure interconnectivity in its daily activities, while creating a database of drivers, vehicles, road crashes and an online offenders register. The FRSC database holds over 10million records and is fully manned by staff of the Corps. The FRSC presence has been felt like never before, with an increase in staff strength and operational materials like patrol vehicles, ambulances and tow trucks, even though there is still need for more. Former Corps Marshal Boboye Oyeyemi tenure witnessed injection of more logistics, courtesy of former President, Mohammadu Buhari while the current President, Bola Tinubu has equally demonstrated his passion for the Corps through the injection of new patrol vehicles and other logistics to drive the Corps mandate.

As a fall-out of this, acquisition of the drivers licence today is no more an all-comers affair as it used to be. There must be concrete evidence of drivers’ training, and this is where the driving school standardisation scheme comes in, with about 868 of them presently certified to train drivers and recommend/present them for issuance of drivers licence. The one-stop shop for drivers licence, as well as the online application makes the process stress-free. Today, the re-vamped number plate (vehicle registration) is tied to the driver for better data management and owner identification. Admittedly, this innovation suffered a temporary setback some years back but is back on stream. The FRSC data center is a masterpiece that has been acclaimed, not just in Nigeria, but globally. Amongst others, it has helped in reducing emergency response time to 5 to 30 minutes. Perhaps, what could be seen as a confirmation of the pace being set by the organization, would be in the prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in 2008, the World Bank rating of FRSC as best example of a lead agency in sub-Saharan Africa, the conferment on the Corps with the National Productivity awards, as well as the fact that it has become a model for road safety consciousness in sub-Saharan Africa, like Ghana, Sierra Leone and Mali. These are in addition to the numerous awards from government,private organizations as well as the media for service delivery over the years.

But more still needs to be done if the Corps wishes to actualize the UN Decade of Action for road safety 2021-2030 which seeks to reduce road deaths and serious injuries by 50percent by 2023.. With the twin evil of over-speeding and dangerous driving rearing their ugly heads as well as overloading of vehicles with goods,passengers and animals, the Corps must brace up to its responsibility in the area of legislation, public enlightenment, enforcement, inter-agency collaboration, as well as stakeholders engagement, while government should strengthen the organisation’s capacity and logistics through increased funding.

In the words of Osita Chidoka: “the next 25 years will be critical as the world confronts the millennium development goals, climate change, population growth and urbanization. In Nigeria, the FRSC would focus on improving driver training, increasing capacity for enforcement, enhanced road audit while seeking for adequate road furniture on our roads as well as improved vehicle inspection as we seek to reduce deaths in line with the UN Decade of Action of 2030.

As we celebrate our glorious and chequered past, we are today standing on the solid foundation of our founding fathers to internalize our core principles and deliver safer roads and fuller lives. It is exciting that as we mark 36 years of policing our roads, Dauda Biu, the current helmsman is excited at the achievements of the Corps in the area of road traffic crash reduction. In January 2024, he proudly announced to Nigerians the feats achieved by the Corps. The announcement was made while reeling out the Corps’ scorecard for 2023. He revealed that from January to December 2023, a total of 10,617 road accidents were recorded on Nigerian roads. This data, when compared to the 13,656 of the same period in 2022, signifies a considerable feat of 22 percent reduction in road traffic crashes. In the same vein, while 6456 people were killed by the menace in 2022, the Corps succeeded in bringing down the curve of deaths having recorded a total of 5081 road fatalities in 2023. This represents a 21 percent reduction in deaths. Another milestone was recorded in the number of people rescued without injuries. The figure reveals that a total of 38930 people were rescued with injuries in 2022, as against 31874 people in 2023. This represents 18.1 percent reduction.