FRSC at 30: Challenges and way forward

Time waits for no one. The journey of a hundred of miles starts with the first step. The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) clocked 30 on February 18. It has survived many ups and downs. Excerpt from part one under Establishment, foundations and power of the Federal Road Safety Commission under section 7 (1) sub-head states that: “There shall be a Director of the Corps who shall be appointed by the President/ Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and who shall be a person possessing sound knowledge of and ability in the organization and administration of road traffic and road safety matters. The Director shall be the Chief Executive of the corps and shall be exclusively responsible for the execution of the policies and decisions of the commission and for earring into effect the day to day activities of the corps.”

As a result of this power, Section 12(1) was resurrected and introduced into the decree on ranking structure of members of the Road Safety Corps. It states: “That members of the corps shall bear such ranks and designation as may be assigned to them by the Commission within the following grades that is (a) Routes commanders (b) Vehicle Inspection Marshal.” However, the first Chief Executive on his own created two cadet commander cadres and marshal cadres. This step has been an unsolved problem for the corps. Marshal Officers on grade level 09 to 14 are regarded as subordinate to officers of the commander cadre on level 08 even with the same qualification or in some cases less qualification. This issue at times causes inferiority complex among the officers. Successive chief executives of the corps could not deny awareness of the problem but they tended to set it aside because of its cumbersome legal procedures. The fact is that when the government of Major Gen. David Medaiyese Jemibewom muted the idea and the establishment of the Oyo State Road Safety Corps in 1977 upon which the foundation of the FRSC was laid, the idea was clear and the success of the Oyo State Road Safety Corps in the war against unwanted destruction of lives and properties on the highway in the state gave birth to similar forces in other states like Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Bendel, Anambra and Kaduna.

Despite the resurrection of the archaic and obnoxious colonial Federal Highway Act 1971 Federal Highways (Declaration) order 1977 by then Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Umaru Omolowo on Friday, February 18, 1982, road safety activities were brought back to the national scale by the Babangida administration on February 18, 1988. It is not in doubt that since 1988, the organisation has succeeded in drastically reducing the menace of motor vehicle accidents on the highways. Accidents dropped from 25,792.to 7,509, representing 67 per cent reduction in 1990. Whereas during the existence of the National Road Safety Commission under the “ambit” of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in 1976, a total of 40,881 cases of road accidents were recorded with 6,761 person killed, 28,155 injured and a total casualty of 34,916 according to NPF data.During the period, Nigeria was described as the most dangerous country in terms of road hazards as contained in the African Technical Review of same year.

By now, the FRSC’s success story is well known beyond the shores of Nigeria. Many African countries have signalled their desire to request the FRSC to understudy the possibility of establishing road safety activities in their countries while Nigeria also has technical cooperation with Germany, India and Belgium on road safety matters. It will be recalled that on August 2, 1994, heads of state and governments of the Economic Community of West African States decided on the formation of the organisation of “EC9W, as road safety campaign” which would promote and carry out public education on good road culture throughout the West African sub-region every year. From this decision, it is clear that the incident of road mishap in the country and the ECOWAS sub-region remains intolerably high and a matter of concern to ECOWAS Heads of State.

Therefore, kudos must be given to all those who contributed in no small measure for these achievements by the FRSC, beginning from Major ROA Salawu, Director, Road Safety Corps of Oyo State whose proposal and recommendation was accepted by the Jemibewon government of Oyo State which gave birth to the first ever Oyo road safety experiment. Mention must be made of Professor Wole Soyinka, the first Executive Chairman of the FRSC. We also have the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the corps; a former Special Marshal and Technical consultant, Dr. Olu Agunloye; Admiral Tunde Aduwo, General Haldu Anthony Hananiya, Alhaji Wakibe, Alhaji Danyaro Ali, Yakassal. Mr. Osita Chidoka and currently Dr. Yemi Oyeyemi and those who formed the nucleus strength of the FRSC.

The Sunday Times publication of September 11, 1994 had the banner headline “Road Safety Corps may be scrapped”. In the publication, it was the recommendation of the constitutional conference committee on Law, Order and National Security headed by Major Gen. Bagudu Mamman (retd) that the FRSC be scrapped or be brought under the supervision of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), which was a pointer to the fact that some in the Federal Government had bad blood with the FRSC. However, on Wednesday, December 2, 1998 on the occasion of ECOWAS road safety campaign held at the new Parade Ground, Abuja, then Rear Admiral Mike Akhigbe disclosed that it had been decided by the Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar government that the FRSC should be merged with the police. But the government restated its commitment to the rule of law by complying with a court order restraining the implementation of the directive until final determination or disposal of the civil case. The importance of the corps to the electorate and the country in general cannot be overemphasised and in fact the greatest assets of any nation is the quality and size of its manpower.

• Bakare is a veteran journalist

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