FRSC: Commercializing safety
No doubts, the establishment of the FRSC has, after 13 years of its existence, impacted tremendously on the road traffic situation in Nigeria. It has succeeded in reducing road traffic fatality index which hither to was at an alarming rate. 1987 Statistics, alone, showed 26, 000 road accidents that resulted in 7,912 deaths. The FRSC […]
No doubts, the establishment of the FRSC has, after 13 years of its existence, impacted tremendously on the road traffic situation in Nigeria. It has succeeded in reducing road traffic fatality index which hither to was at an alarming rate. 1987 Statistics, alone, showed 26, 000 road accidents that resulted in 7,912 deaths. The FRSC has also played prominent role in easing the chaotic traffic situations that daily characterized the transport system in our cities and highways. If it were not for the commitment of the FRSC, the daily traffic grid-lock experienced by road users on the Gwagwalada axis of the Abuja-Lokoja highway would have left traumatic stories to be told. The Commission has prevented several accidents by removing broken down vehicles from the highways. Members of the FRSC have also saved the lives of many accident victims by rushing them from accident scenes to the nearest hospital for medical attention. It will take the whole of this page to enumerate the contributions of the FRSC in the management and administration of road safety in Nigeria.
Nonetheless, the FRSC recently launched an initiative that has earned her severe criticisms from the Nigerian people; putting the reputation it built over the years at stake. A deadline of August 2012 has been fixed by the FRSC for drivers and vehicle owners in Nigeria to respectively obtain the newly upgraded driving license and number plate both of which were launched earlier in the month by President Goodluck Jonathan at the FRSC headquarter in Abuja. Speaking during the launching ceremony, President Jonathan revealed that the initiative is the outcome of a meeting he had with the FRSC chief executive, Mr. Osita Chidoka, about three years ago while he was an acting President. President Jonathan added that “the initiative is meant to alter the culture of recklessness displayed by drivers, their impunity and lack of consideration for other road users”.
In his speech at the occasion, the FRSC Marshall, Mr. Osita Chidoka, explained that the new driving license and number plates are part of a credible database that would make it easy to retrieve information about every vehicle owner. Mr. Osita further affirmed that the upgraded driving license and number plates are interlinked and will, henceforth, be connected to each individual in order to help the FRSC track road offences and monitor the driving behavior of vehicle owners.
While drivers are required to obtain the new driving license at the cost of N6, 000.00; vehicle owners would pay N15, 000.00 for the new number plate. A vehicle owner, thus, requires a total of N21, 000. 00 to obtain the two items. This is happening in a country where government is dragging her feet in the payment of N18, 000. 00 monthly minimum wage for workers. The exorbitant cost of obtaining the two materials prompts suspicion on the minds of Nigerians who believe that the entire initiative is more about money than it is about safety. A conservative arithmetic of the revenue that would accrue to FRSC from this project is huge enough to rationalize the apprehensions of Nigerian tax payers whose patience seems to be taken, especially in this case, for granted. If there are, for example, twenty thousand vehicle owners in Nigeria today who are required to pay for the new driving license and number plate; that which will accrue to the FRSC would be in hundreds of billions of naira!
The FRSC is, by the Act establishing it, a federal government agency which statutory responsibility does not include revenue generation except of what builds up through fines collected from traffic offenders. If government had intended to primarily use the FRSC as a revenue generation outfit, it would have placed it, like the Nigerian Customs Service, under the Federal Ministry of Finance. Moreover, licensing is basically the job of Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs) because licensing authority constitutionally rests with state governors and the Minster of Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This seemingly overlapping role of FRSC, perhaps, accounts for the allegation by many Nigerians that the Commission is usurping the powers of the VIOs and by extension state governors as it concerns licensing of drivers and vehicles.
If the basis for changing the existing driving license and number plate, as advanced by the FRSC boss, is fundamentally to have a “credible database” about vehicle owners to ease the tracking down of drivers who violate traffic rules and regulations, then the project in its present form is uncalled for. Most Nigerians believe that such an exercise could still be accomplished without necessarily changing or introducing new driving license and number plate; believing that the exercise is largely about authenticating information. For now, upgrading the driving license and number plate in use is not enough reason for justify the initiative. Moreover, even the upgraded license and number plate still leaves several security questions unanswered. What if, for instance, a criminal uses a stolen car to commit a crime?
Some chief executives in Nigeria, it appears, think that the best way to please their “Ogas” in order to probably remain in their positions is by introducing taxes even such are not desirable. The current boss of the FRSC would have his name written in gold without necessarily levying Nigerians by initiating new driving license or number plate. His name could ring louder bells and even surpass the heights attained by Prof. Dora Akunyili, former Director General of the National Agency for Food Administration and Control (NAFDAC) if he can, for instance, effectively enforce the law banning the use of siren by unauthorized persons. The misuse of siren has today become a nuisance and threat to road users in Nigeria. Other areas of road safety in which the FRSC boss can do better include regulating night journeys; tackling indiscriminate mounting of additional headlamps by commercial buses; enforcing the law banning the sale and consumption of intoxicants at motor parks; improving the welfare of officers and men of the FRSC; and intensifying public enlightenment campaigns.
The FRSC’s new initiative amounts to increasing the already heavy financial burden hanging on the neck of most Nigerians. Operators of commercial vehicles are already threatening to increase transport fares. However, if government inspite of public criticism is convinced with the initiative, it is only just that such is done at her expense. The new initiative will invalidate hundreds of thousands of existing driving licenses which expiry dates extend beyond the August 2012 deadline given by the FRSC for acquiring the new documents. It is thus unfair to ask drivers and vehicle owners to pay for items which period of validity is cut short by the issuing party. President Goodluck Jonathan could have been misled in to endorsing the FRSC’s extortionist initiative. We therefore call on Mr. President to reverse the initiative. May Allah (SWT) guide our leaders against initiating laws that will be detrimental to the well-being of citizens, amin.