When drivers are licensed before learning how to drive

She was worried, but a bank told her not to worry as the bank salesman could help her procure a driver’s licence. She was asked to pay a certain amount and produce two passport photographs. A couple of days later, she got a brand new licence with which an account was opened for her. Two […]

She was worried, but a bank told her not to worry as the bank salesman could help her procure a driver’s licence. She was asked to pay a certain amount and produce two passport photographs. A couple of days later, she got a brand new licence with which an account was opened for her. Two years after she obtained the licence, Emmanuel is now learning how to drive.
Similarly, Anthony Osemota told Sunday Trust that he started driving twelve years after he obtained his first driver’s licence. According to him, he got his first driver’s licence when he was on the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Sokoto in 1998. Osemota was a member of the Road Safety Community Development Service. “At the end of the service year, we approached the FRSC leadership to help us obtained driver’s licence and our request was granted. We were made to make the list of our members, pay certain processing fees and we got our licence in less than two weeks.”
The story of Kingsley Inanila is a bit different from that of Osemota. Inanila has been driving for a while without driver’s licence but realized that he needed to do the right thing by acquiring his licence. He went to FRSC office in Mararaba to obtain his the licence, having fully perfected his driving skills to face any test. But surprisingly, he was asked to pay N5,250.00, but was issued a receipt of N3,000. When he sought to know why he made payment of N5,250.00 and he was issued a receipt of N3,000, he was told that N2,000 covered the various driving tests he was to undertake while N250.00 was for the learner’s permit.
The perplexed Inanila was, however given the option of keeping his N2,000, but to go and look for any office of the Vehicle Inspection Officer (VIO) to do the tests, make the payments there and later return to the FRSC for the licence.
Abdulazeez Gimba, unlike Inanila came close to it. He told Sunday Trust that when he went to FRSC office to obtain his first driver’s licence in 2007 in Yola, Adamawa State, he was directed to the VIO’s office after making some payments at the FRSC office.
According to him, he was asked to identify some road signs on the wall from a distance, which he did, adding that oncoming to the driving test aspect, he was asked to go as the only 504 saloon available was not in good condition for the driving test. But he was certified fit for the driver’s licence.
Also, a young lady working with one of the media houses in Abuja told Sunday Trust that she could not start car engine, but owns a driver’s licence. According to her, marketers of one of the leading commercial banks in the country came to her office to market their wares, and she indicated her interest to open account with their bank.
“When they told me their requirements which included national identity card, driver’s licence and international passport, I told them I had none of them. They told me to bring N6,000 to enable them process a driver’s licence for me. I gave them and they got me a driver’s licence which I used in opening an account with the bank in 2008.
She said her licence would expire in 2011, but was yet to know how to start car engine, not to talk of driving. “To me, I see driver’s licence as ordinary ID card I need to do transactions with my bank.”
Janet Audu, a civil servant obtained her own driver’s licence through a co-tenant who works with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC). According to her, the FRSC official presented the driver’s licence to her as a birthday gift.
She explained that “I told him my experience with a bank which refused to allow her cash a cheque issued her by one of her brothers simply because she could not produce any of the documents needed by the bank for identification among which is driver’s licence. One day he told me to bring my passport photograph and I gave him. I was surprised when I opened the package he presented to me on my birthday, I saw driver’s licence”.
When asked whether she owns a car or drive, she said “I neither own nor drive a car,” adding that all I know is that I use it as my identity card when I have any transaction with banks.
Commenting on the abuse of driver’s licence, Garba Yakubu, a member of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, said it was a function of morally debased society, explaining that driver’s licence was among the least important document people obtain without following due process.
“Tell me what people cannot get through fraudulent means in Nigeria. If people could occupy the highest office in the land through an electoral process believed to be fraudlent, is it that of the driver’s licence that would surprise you? This is what we preach daily, if a country has traded the fundamental principle of justice, equity and fairness, it would be difficult for such a country to attain any appreciable moral height”
According to him, it was rather unfortunate that people in positions of authority have no regard for the sanctity of life, adding that if driver’s licence could be faked or acquired without any driving skill or knowledge, then the country is in trouble.
In the past, getting driver’s licence was as difficult as passing through the eyes of a needle. It was due to rigorous and cumbersome process, not in payment but in passing the various stages of tests to qualify one to own a driver’s license. Then, when a prospective driver fails any of the driving tests, he would have to do it all over again, and the process continued until he is certified fit to be issued with a driver’s licence. During this time, the driver’s licence truly carried weight and value, and whoever is licensed to drive; no matter the class walked shoulders high.
Before a individuals could think of obtaining adriver’s  licence, he must have acquired all the necessary driving skills and the knowhow. Then, the fear of VIO was the beginning of good driving. It was not just passing driving tests; one must know all the necessary traffic signs and must acquire a little of how minor mechanical problems in cars could be handled in the event car develops minor problem while in transit.
But that era is long gone as many people in possession of driver’s licence do not know how to drive, some do not have the intention of learning how to drive.  In fact, driver’s licence means different thing to different people, and people could be licensed to drive before thinking of how to drive. To many, it is no longer a requirement for driving but a means of identification or security document. Many who have financial transactions to make with banks are even issued with driver’s licence right in the comfort of their rooms even if they hardly differentiate between gear and starry not to think of knowing any road signs or traffic rule.
The spokesman of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr. Samuel Obayemi admitted that his organization was not ignorant of such sharp practices by some persons; hence a decision to put in place measures to checkmate them.
He, however, noted that even though FRSC has the mandate to issue driver’s licence, the duty of testing the driving skills of drivers rests with the VIOs.
He said to avoid the practice of obtaining driver’s licence by proxy, the FRSC always insisted on certified VIO report as well as insisting on direct image capturing of the prospective licencees before the document is processed.
On whether he was aware that some commercial banks were in habit of obtain driver’s licence for their valued customers, Obayemi said he was not aware, adding that his commission would appreciate if the public could volunteer information on such banks with evidence.
He said his office has put in place measures to check the menace of fake driver’s licence and some other related vehicular records that would enhance safety on the roads and security of the vehicles.
But Sunday Trust gathered that such rules are mostly obeyed in the breach. And what matters most is payment of necessary charges, send in your photograph and just wait for delivery. Our checks also revealed that VIOs do not insist on testing the applicant if only he can pay the necessary charges for the clearance form.