Why we’re in motorists black-book ―VIO

THE Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) at the weekend, said it has continued to be in motorists black book due to its unwavering enforcement activities.

It said motorists have repeatedly display hostility towards its officers despite the important role it plays in ensuring road traffic safety in the society.

Assistant Chief Road Traffic Officer and Head of  Planning Research Statistics, Mr Durojaiye Babawale gave the hint at a day training organized by Bloomberg Business School for school bus drivers in Abuja.

According to him, most motorists prefer to engage in sharp practices which also include plying roads with vehicles that do not meet up the standards of the VIO.

He stressed that this has continued to endanger lives and also one of the major causes of road crashes in the country.

His words: “Naturally, human beings prefer to do the easy thing and not the right thing. If you see a driver that sees a VIO officer and runs, it means something is wrong, it is either the papers are not complete or the vehicle is not in good condition and these things are all about safety and there is a limit to our level of compromise. Saying motorists prefer road safety to VIO to me is sentiment because road safety also deals with road traffic safety so most of the times, they don’t compromise.

“It is about life, if it is about documents alone we can look away but if it is about vehicle parts or tyre or condition of a vehicle, we cannot compromise on that. There are some things about policies and implementation, there is a bridge between the two, without enforcement, policies will not be implemented. And that is why you see enforcement officers on the roads and people run away.”

Babawale who also spoke on the theme: “Enhancing Professional Competence of School Bus Drivers, emphasized the need for professionalism on the part of school bus drivers.

While describing them as a key figure in their place of primary assignment, he said they are the first and last contact with children during school days.

To this end, he urged them to conduct themselves in the appropriate manner to command the desired respect from members of the public.

He also added that: “The problem with school bus drivers is an environmental thing, it has to do with how we perceive ourselves. People see drivers as the bottom part of the ladder thing but we have forgotten that they are the ones taking care of our children. They are the first contact. The chunk of the problem they face is how people perceive them which you cannot control.”

Earlier, Managing Director (MD), Bloomberg Business School, Mrs Nina Adetona explained that the training was organized to build the capacity of school bus drivers in the FCT.

According to her, the training became imperative to correct some misconducts often recorded on the part of drivers and the need to enlighten them on professionalism in the course of discharging their duties.

“The training is about bringing enhancement and capacity building for school bus driver and making them know their values in the school. The lives of these children are entrusted to their care, carefulness is very important so we thought of doing this training for them to get quality training especially when it comes to transporting these children.

“I notice some of these school bus drivers lack the professional etiquettes. So this is about appealing to their conscience to do the right thing, this is the first training the turn out is encouraging but it could have been better because a lot of efforts were made to reach out to private school owners in the FCT to release their drivers to come for this training.”

She noted that the training will be held once in every academic session and later introduced to other States in the federation.

“There will be subsequent training like this because we are looking at having such training like this once in an academic session so that these drivers can keep developing themselves. We are starting with the FCT for now and subsequently in other States,” she added.