Despite the noble mandate of making the nation’s highway safe for motorists and other road users, the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, is gradually metamorphosing into a revenue generating agency and in the process, recklessly endangering the lives of those it is legally established to safeguard and preserve.

Thirty years after the creation of FRSC, the nation’s high ways are still plagued with high rate of road carnage, as well as increased deaths, arising from preventable accidents. Some road users lament.

Giving credence to the foregoing lamentation, the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, while presenting its CCC report for January, signed by its Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, the commission said that 456 people died and 3404 others were injured in 826 accidents recorded nationwide in January.

The report added that the Abuja-Lokoja highway, witnessed the highest number of accidents with 47 cases, Kaduna-Abuja Road, 44 cases; and the Ilesha-Ipetu Ijesa Road in Osun least with five cases.

The report which was silent on mechanism been put in place by the commission to nip this ugly incident in the bud, outlined some of the factor responsible for the increased carnage.

“Speed violation by commercial vehicles remained the highest contributors to road traffic accidents in the country. Out of 948 identified causes of accidents in the month under review, speed violation accounted for 426 cases, representing 44.9 percent, followed by tyre burst with 73 cases or 7.7 percent.

“Others were: dangerous driving, 71 cases representing 7.5 percent; wrongful overtaking, 64 cases or 6.8 percent; and brake failure, 39 cases or 4.1 percent, among others.

Bad road, which is generally believed to be the leading cause of accident on the nation’s highways, is on the ninth position on the chart with 15 cases or 1.6 percent.

A total of 1,285 vehicles were involved in the January accident cases out of which 757 were commercial, representing 58.9 percent.

The other vehicle categories involved were: private, 510 cases or 39.7 percent; government vehicles, 17 cases or 1.3 percent; and diplomatic vehicles, one case representing 0.1 percent.” The report concluded.

Consequently, some stakeholders in the sector said that this indecent episode is against the decade of action the commission signed unto, which states that “The mission of Safe Road in Nigeria is to reduce road crash deaths and injuries by 50 percent by 2020.”

This United Nation’s Decade of Action for Road Safety signed unto by Nigeria through Federal Road Safety Commission is premised on promoting safety on the nation’s roads.

This is in addition to its core mandate of making the highway safe for motorists and other road users; recommending works and devices designed to eliminate or minimise accidents on the highways and advising the Federal and State Governments, including the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, and relevant governmental agencies in the localities where such works and devices are required. Educating motorists and members of the public on the importance of discipline on the highway, preventing or minimising accidents on the highway, clearing obstructions on any part of the highways, designing and producing the driver’s license to be used by various categories of vehicle operators, determining, from time to time, the requirements to be satisfied by an applicant for a driver’s licence, designing and producing vehicle number plates, standardisation of highway traffic codes, giving prompt attention and care to victims of accidents, conducting researches into causes of motor accidents and methods of preventing them and putting into use the result of such researches.

“Determining and enforcing speed limits for all categories of roads and vehicles and controlling the use of speed limiting devices, cooperating with bodies or agencies or groups in road safety activities or in prevention of accidents on the highways, and regulating the use of sirens, flashers and beacon lights on vehicles other than ambulances and vehicles belonging to the Armed Forces, Nigeria Police, Fire Service and other Para-military agencies among many others.”

But is the commission living up to the aforesaid responsibilities to Nigerians? Some road users who speak to Nigerian Pilot on condition of anonymity provide the followings answers to this nagging question.

“The Answer to your question is an emphatic no; FRSC had metamorphosed into a revenue generating agency instead of a safety agency. It no longer care about the safety of road users, its preoccupation now is how it can meet its revenue target. If FRSC official ask you to park your vehicle, you would be rest assured that he/she is coming to issue you a receipt for one infraction or the other, instead of giving an advice or caution. They had drifted completely. They rarely come up with policies or programme that would ensure safety on the nation’s road. If it is not introduction of speed limiter, which is aimed at creating business for the friends and cronies of the Chief Executive, it would be changing of drivers licence aimed at generating revenue for government. Thanks to the parliament that put a stop to some of those anti people’s policies.

“You hear of continual rivalry between FRSC and VIO over issuance of drivers licence and other issues concerning revenue as if they are not agencies of the same government.” They observed.

A passenger, Mr. Chinonso Ebube, said that the highhandedness of officers and men of FRSC on the nation’s roads is becoming worrisome.

He said, “Recently, I was going to work and when the vehicle I boarded got to sharp corner in mararaba, some FRSC official asked the driver to park, and while he was trying to navigate his way, one of them came and opened the door of the passenger seat and I almost fell off from the car if not for the seat belt. How on earth can someone who was trained to save life turn self to an agent of accident and death because of money? It is also common to see them breaking side mirrors of drivers that refuse to obey their arbitrary command. They are also in the habit of pursuing drivers with their Hilux van or power bike, which could cause accident on the road.”

Ebube however, opined that rather than pursue deviant drivers and cause harm to innocent road users in the process, the commission should device other means, like copying the plate number and tracing the owner to answer for his infraction instead of endangering other road users.

“You see them causing artificial traffick jam and terrorising drivers in the early hours of the day because they want to issue receipt to drivers over frivolous infractions so as to meet their daily target. The target of road safety official should be to make the road friendly and safe for users and not revenue generation. If they are now a revenue generating agency, their mandate should be reviewed to reflect that.” Ebube posited.

He also observed that though there is a subsisting ban of park and pay policy in Federal Capital Territory, the FRSC in federal secretariat are busy clamping down vehicles and charging unsuspecting citizens outrageous fees before releasing their vehicles to them.

Ebube added that the federal secretariat had turned into a theatre of drama as scene of drivers who attempts to resist the clamp down and toying away of their vehicle on the guise of wrong packing is common place.

It is however on the premise of this plethora of complaint and lamentation of drivers and road users that one is compelled to appeal to government to investigate this matter with the view to ameliorating the foregoing rascality by officers and men of FRSC. He concluded.

http://nigerianpilot.com/is-frsc-a-safety-or-revenue-generating-agency/

The government have turned virtually all her agencies to revenue generating ventures and yet goes cap in hand to beg for loans.

Imagine JAMB charging as m,uch as N6k for exams that lasts less than 3 hours with one year validity?

Imagine the hospitals, even in emergency will demand payment for card and deposit before attending to patience?

There is truly a plot against the poor!

Nigerian govt and fund raising are like.......!!!