Road Safety

The goals of the Federal Road Safety commission are: making the highway safe for motorists and other road users; recommending works and devices designed to eliminate or minimize accidents on the highways and advising the Federal and State Governments on the localities where such works and devices are required and; educating motorists and members of the public on the importance of discipline on the highway. “In exercise of the functions, members of the Commission shall have power to arrest and prosecute persons reasonably suspected of having committed any traffic offence.”

 

 However, a first time visitor, driving along the Abuja Airport Road, the notorious Abuja-Keffi expressway, or the Nnamdi Azikwe ring road, will tell you that the Highway Code has been suspended in Abuja.  The ignorance and lawlessness exhibited by Abuja motoristsis second to none, with traffic and law enforcement officers playing the role of collaborators rather than law enforcers. They are not interested in road safety. Their focus is revenue generation and revenue generation only. What they do with the money only they know.

 

 We are a country of road users. We have no choice. Cars, buses, trucks and articulated lorries have come to define how we move and ferry goods from one place to another. It is amazing therefore, considering that this is our primary source of movement that we do not have one of the most sophisticated and well-regulated road networks in the world but that is another story.  Abuja however is different. There is a great road network and the traffic layout is well planned. The problem is it is not well managed and the drivers who have emigrated here quickly forget themselves on our smooth multi lane highways, like some young adolescent, not yet aware of his alcohol tolerancewho suddenly finds himself in a drunken stupor and out of control of his faculties. The road surfaces are so good that we get carried away. The authorities do not realize the dangers that we the residents of Abuja face. The drivers here are the most impatient in the world; they do not stop at traffic lights. Of course the greatest culprits here, are politicians and government officials. And no road rage here o! Most drivers have bought their licenses and “no sabi drive at all”. So when there is a crash Na morgue straight!  

 

 Insanity at its purest, only in Abuja would a vehicle choose to drive one-way on a ten-lane expressway!  Oblivious to the speed limits are private cars, commercial vehicles, articulated lorries and siren-blaring escorts, meandering wildly on the wide surfaces kamikaze style in death defying maneuvers.

 

Civil engineering contractors are building fine roads with no priority given to road markings to guide the motorists and pedestrian bridges. The pedestrians have resorted to playing chicken with cars driving at over 100kms per hour on ten lane roads! Utter madness. And to rub salt in the wound, motorists are using what pavements there are for pedestrians, as an extra lane in rush hour traffic or as parking lots for cars. What is the FRSC doing? They would be a rich corporation if only they upheld the laws that they were created to uphold and guess what, they would also save lives and infrastructure in the process. Pavements are not built to carry vehicular traffic!!!

 

The FRSC is not living up to its mandate of making the roads SAFE for users. Vehicles travelling contra the traffic, at breakneck speed! Initially I thought a mad man or criminals making a getaway but now it is so normal that I just give way shaking my head in disbelieve. Na Wah O!

 

FRSC Please save us and put the kind of energy you put into the issuance of new license plate numbers and vehicle registration, into securing our roads. Employ adequate numbers of marshals and equipment to monitor these highways to hell and save lives. PLEASE!