The Nation Newspaper

Category: Transportation

Towards a gridlock-free Lagos

How can Lagos State tackle its traffic gridlock? It is through the strenghtening of other modes of transportation, say experts at the state’s maiden transportation summit. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE reports.

When he likened transportation in cities to blood flowing in human veins and how a person (or the city) dies when blood stops flowing, Dr George Banjo, a United Nations (UN) technocrat, drew, perhaps, the most telling analogy of how traffic congestion has become Lagos city’s headache.

Banjo, the lead speaker at the summit, noted that Lagos being the country’s commercial nerve centre is suffering from the repercussions of its economic successes and the result of unfocused land use approvals.

To him, to get out of the woods, the government must redress the imbalance in the supply and demand chain in transportation infrastructure.

Reeling off statistics, Banjo said from 7.7 million in 1995, Lagos’ population has now hit 21 million, making it the 11th megacity in the world according to the United Nation’s latest ranking.

The state risks a lock down, if something is not done about urban renewal development, Banjo added.

He said though Lagos does not come near some other advanced cities in the world with high motorised density, its concentration on road transportation, has continued to worsen traffic congestion because its infrastructure can no longer support the population.

Admitting the abandonment of the state which used to be the federal capital until the late 80s, Banjo said until the movement in 1991, the government invested in road infrastructure in Lagos, the last being the Third Mainland Bridge.

Though building new roads is attractive, he said, it would merely open other axis of traffic congestion, rather than abate it.

He advocated effective land use, with appropriate provisions made by large volume users for the traffic their activities would generate.

Banjo challenged Governor Akinwumi Ambode to lead the crusade for a massive land use reform to ensure effective utilisation of public infrastructure by all.

He urged the governor to lead the crusade for the reversal of approvals for land not used for the overriding public interests for which they were acquired, rather than allowing them to be used for private interests.

According to him, while it is too early to pick holes in the governor’s transportation policy, anything short of intermodal public transportation, aimed at encouraging more people to drop their cars for a convenient, safe, reliable and affordable means of transportation will continue to fail.

He said: “Anything short of promoting public transportation in order to encourage more marginal car users to drop their cars and patronise public transportation, with a view to relieving the roads and encouraging a cleaner environment would continue to fail or result in traffic congestion.”

Banjo harped on the need for the state to embark on an intensive lobbying of the Federal Government to ensure its involvement in the provision of workable transportation modes.

The Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC), Boboye Oyeyemi, called for the strict enforcement of the state’s Traffic Law to generate more revenue for the government through ticketing of offenders.

He said he has approved unrestricted access of the state to the FRSC’s National Drivers Database, to ensure that no driver escapes sanction after being convicted of a traffic infraction.

Oyeyemi, who observed that 90 percent of transportation operations in the country are by road with Lagos accounting for over 80 percent, praised the state for the giant strides it has taken, such as a robust data base of professional drivers, a Drivers Institute and a rounded Traffic Law. He noted that what remains is the will to enforce the law.

He wondered what over 4,240 trucks, most of which are over 30 years and not road worthy, are doing on Lagos roads, adding that with strict enforcement, the roads would be sanitised and reckless drivers kept at bay.

Oyeyemi said if Mexico City could be generating $500 million from fines yearly, Lagos State could explore ticketing as a major revenue source.

This, he added, can be better cemented with the building of a strong synergy and promotion of knowledge sharing among agencies involved in traffic control to ensure that all of them work to remove bottlenecks to the free flow of traffic.

Oyeyemi called for the adoption of the Nigeria Road Safety Strategy (NRSS), which canvassed the promotion of public sector transportation, installation of IP cameras on some strategic roads and at intersections and the introduction of automated taxi services to reduce traffic on the roads.

The General Manager, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Bashir Braimoh, said the state is moving towards voluntary compliance of traffic regulation because it is more cost effective and civilised.

Braimoh said, it could be cumbersome, painful, stressful and frustrating with only 2,400 officers, managing traffic on 117 federal roads, 328 state roads and 6, 415 local government roads.

He called on motorists to obey the “sleeping LASTMA” (road signages, markings, and traffic signal lights), even when officers are not on ground for ease of movement and traffic flow.

Within the last three months, the agency, he said, had carried out “Operation Sand Storm,” where his men raided all traffic violators, to show those who were criticising the agency that it could still bite, while only recently, it commenced “Operation Open Heart,” in which the agency took safe driving advocacy and traffic regulation compliance to churches and mosques.

Braimah said since he resumed office, he had never received any calls from National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) or Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) chairman, pleading on behalf of any of their members, while tons of such solicitous calls have been coming from private vehicle owners and from “their friends in government.”

The Ministry of Transportation’s Director, Transport Policy, Strategy and Coordination, Taiwo Salam, said available data showed that as at 1951, Lagos population was 28,000 and the only bridge at the time, Carter Bridge, was built in 1961. By 1963, the population had jumped to 380,000 and by the time Eko Bridge was added in 1975, the population had hit 1.7 million. In 1995, when the Third Mainland Bridge was constructed, the population had hit 7.7 million.

He said planning was done not taking the people’s needs into consideration even in citing public infrastructure in the state.

Salam said it was a misnomer that transportation infrastructure, such as roads, bus stops, jetties, and bus shelters, were built without the passengers in mind, contrary to global best practices that place the passenger in the centre of transportation planning.

He challenged the government to change the focus by providing safe, efficient, affordable and reliable infrastructure and transportation rolling stock, adding that if these could be provided, the pressure on roads, occasioned by private vehicles would reduce.

Former Transportation Commissioner Prof. Bamidele Badejo urged the government to work at improving the functionality of existing roads, adding that most of the roads have outlived their usefulness and “can no longer respond to current vehicular pressure.”

Badejo, a transportation demographer and former dean of Social Sciences at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, however, noted that traffic congestion being one of the signs of a thriving economy cannot be completely eradicated but abated.

“Let me comfort you, Mr. Governor, that you cannot win the war against traffic congestion. In fact, it is one of the indices of a thriving economy. So, more advanced economies have not succeeded in eradicating it. You can only abate it, and that is where you must play your part in making sure that all modes of transportation work as they provide virile alternatives for the people,” Badejo said.

LASTMA’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Chris Olakpe, wanted the government to go on the offensive against the touts and all characters parading the motor parks and garages. He said the preponderant use of hard and narcotic drugs would reduce substantially and this would manifest in more sanity on the roads.

Former Dean of the School of Transportation Lagos State University (LASU), Dr Ba Wahala, called for the establishment of the Traffic Flow Project Agency (TFPA), an intervention agency under the governor’s office, that would be directly answerable to the governor and would be monitoring transportation needs, policies and programmes of the government.

Prof Olumide Olusanya and Dr Biodun Otunola Managing Director of Planet Projects Limited, spoke on the upgrading of junctions and road expansions said more expansion and better land use would have a multiplier effect on the capacity of the roads to cope with the pressure of modern society.

Otunola said the roads in Lagos are chaotic because they are designed and constructed for vehicular use alone, without any consideration for pedestrians. He said because the passenger is the king in urban migration or transportation planning, there must be deliberate attempts to plan to meet his needs and use.

Director of Public Transportation in LAMATA Femi Dairo, said the government and all its agencies must synergise to ensure appropriate land use. He said most of the issues and challenges the Ministry of Transportation is trying to tackle are foisted by some agencies and ministries which never took into consideration the factors that compromised the most effective use of the land approved for any major commercial or industrial use.

He also called for more investment in road infrastructure, adding that a budgetary allocation of 22.61 percent spent on transportation in a state like Lagos palls into insignificance when compared to huge spending of 59.86 percent of its yearly budget on transportation by the city of London.

Ambode charged participants to come up with practical and innovative solutions that can address current challenges and deliver immediate dividends to the people.

Describing the transportation congestion as a symptom of the state’s success, Ambode said it behoves the government to devise fresh innovations to address age-old problems besetting the state.

He said: “Lagos in many ways is a victim of its own success as many people leave other states to live in Lagos to seek better opportunities. We need to go back to the drawing board and agree on how our transportation sector can be effectively and efficiently operated to support the kind of trade and investment we want to continually attract.

He assured the experts that his government, “has the political will and is ready to take whatever tough decisions you come out with to resolve these challenges and tackling traffic is a good place to start.”

Earlier in his goodwill speech, the Transportation Commissioner, Dr Dayo Mobereola, said the summit was a direct response to traffic congestion faced by Lagosians in recent time. He said the government put the summit together to allow experts’ imputs into transportation policy initiatives of the government to get a lasting solution to the intractable congestion.

He said all the speakers should see themselves as playing a historic role of helping the state chart the way forward for free flowing traffic.

The summit was attended by members of the academia, professionals in the built environment, Ministries of Physical Planning and Urban Development as well as Ministry of Works, while other related agencies of the Ministry of Transportation which presented papers at the summit were the LAGBUS and the Lagos State Waterways Agency (LASWA).

December 1, 2015
Classic buses for classic commuters

LAGOS State Government has taken a major step towards easing commuters’ pains. Last Thursday; it launched 434 air-conditioned buses and inaugurated the expanded Mile 12-Ikorodu Road.

Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State, Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu performed the ceremony.

The buses, tagged BRT Classic or BRT Upgrade, according to the Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Dayo Mobereola, are not owned by the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), or the government, but provided by a private firm on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). The government provided the infrastructure while the private operators brought in the vehicles to run according to LAMATA’s guidelines.

This, he said, is the hallmark of the new thinking and commitment of the government to providing safe, reliable, comfortable and affordable motorised options for discerning Lagosians who love comfort.

The option, according to him, became imperative due to the gridlock over the last decade. He said not only would the government improve its presence in the sector, it would also ensure the reduction of vehicles on the roads, which would in no small measure ensure cleaner air and environmental preservation, because of reduced emission of carbon-monoxide and other green house gasses into the atmosphere.

Mobereola said the new path was conceptualised in 2008, when the government began the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Scheme. He, however, admitted that “along the line we got derailed and lost that essential part of the scheme that would have attracted it to the business class and professional groups. While we concentrated attention on providing service to the masses, artisans and traders who had no opportunity and may not be able to get their own cars, we neglected to serve a critical segment who might have their cars, or have the means to buy, but may have decided against it if government had provided an alternative that is comfortable, reliable and efficient”.

He said the result was the huge deluge of private vehicles, hundreds of which are added daily by those who have the capacity to acquire private vehicles. Mobereola said the government was determined to make motorised transportation the hub of mass transit in the state, while the waterways and the light rail would be introduced to add to public transportation alternatives for residents of the state.

The BRT, which was introduced on March 17, 2008, on the Ikorodu-CMS route, Mobereola said, has to date carried no fewer than 350 million passengers, and these ones on the daily basis, will carry almost 450,000 passengers.

According to the commissioner, the new thinking is that a city with 22 million people, 60 percent of who must move from one point to the other needs efficient, reliable, accessible and safe transportation system.

Assuring Lagosians of government’s commitment, he said the Ambode administration will in the coming months flood the state with modern and comfortable BRTs adding: “this is just an example of what we planned for Lagos State”.

Transportation experts agreed no less with Mobereola, they argued that if traffic gridlocks could be felt in developed economies of the world with advanced and fully integrated modes of transportation, Lagos with wholesale reliance on the oldest mode of transportation should be expected to worsen in the next decade if government refuses to deepen its involvement and provide leadership in the sector.

Speaking on the road,the commissioner praised the people for their understanding and forbearance all through the planning and execution of the newly expanded road that now has the BRT road at the median, adding that 10 stakeholders’ fora in all were held, all to ensure the buys-in of residents.

“Managing the people while construction was going on simultaneously was a great challenge. We learnt from the mistakes of the past – mostly operational.

“We had 10 stakeholders’ fora, three before the construction work started and seven during the project. We were engaging the people at every stage and they were guiding us. It was close project that involved the community because we needed their buy-in for us to succeed.

He said the project will improve the traffic situation along that corridor. As more people enter the BRT buses, the road will be freer; we are also doing the engineering on the road, especially at the junctions to increase the capacity of the road and make the way big enough to accommodate more traffic.

He said the N30 billion project which was financed by the French Development Agency (AFD), the World Bank and the state government, would enhance the mobility of the people and reduce travel time between CMS and Ikorodu by 60 percent, reducing a journey which presently takes an average of two and half hours to 45 minutes. He said the BRT will give priority to public transport, which is a mass carrier for a lot of people.

Majority Leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly representing Ikorodu Constituency 1, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade said the project will add value to the area.He, therefore, challenged the people to maintain the project to encourage the government.

The Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Kabir Sotobi, praised the government for the success of the project and called for the execution of the Ipakodo jetty, which he said would further boost the transportation initiative of the government.

Representative of Mr Yemi Adeola, the Managing Director of Sterling Bank Plc, (the financier of the buses), Mr Lanre Adesanya thanked the state government for giving the bank the opportunity to partner in making life better for the people of the state. He said the project would benefit no fewer than 4000 families directly and provide jobs for thousands more who would work as ticketers, vendors, mechanics, even as he said the bank has reduced the prevalence of cash in the system.

November 17, 2015
NGO, FRSC to join forces for safer roads

A strategic partnership aimed at making the roads safer for motorists and others during the “Ember months” has taken off.

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and BeWise Community Empowerment initiative (BCEI), a non-governmental organisation, will work on the project.

BCEI convener, Mrs Susan Chisom, said her organisation would campaign against indiscriminate disposal of trash on the roads by motorists.

The group, she said, has adopted a slogan: “Don’t be a killer,” to make many road users aware of how their actions, taken most times unconsciously, may lead to accident and eventual deformation or death of victims.

She said: “We are saying to all road users, whether you are a motorist, or pedestrian that you should not be part of the problems. Don’t drop or litter the roads with things that could be injurious to other road users. Throwing things such as banana peels, water sachet, plastic pet bottle of drinks, out of the car windows, could be injurious to someone else, who might be coming behind or an unsuspecting pedestrian, leading to injuries, accident and even death.”

Mrs. Chisom said it was curious that rather than use trash bins sold to commercial vehicles, motorists and passengers dispose refuse on the road, constituting not only a threat to the safety of others, but environmental menace -blocking of drainage – which causes flooding.

The Head, Public Education and Enlightenment of the FRSC, Mrs Olabisi Sonusi, who led FRSC officials on the road show, said the corporation was happy to partner with the group to make the roads safer.

Sonusi said the indiscriminate throwing of waste and litters not only constitute an environmental nuisance, but is a causative agent of accidents on the roads. She praised the group for coming up with the initiative, which would not only address a major source of accidents, but ultimately help in sanitising the environment and beautify the nation.

According to her, educating motorists and members of the public on the importance of keeping the roads safe and litter-free is a task for all Nigerians.

BCEI’s media coordinator, Mr Nelson Ubong, said the road show would soon be taken to all motor parks and public places in Lagos State, Abuja and other parts of the country.

Ubong said the need for attitudinal change among motoring public could not have come at a better time when Nigeria has started experiencing change in all areas of her national life.

“One of the ways we would completely erase our profile as the dirtiest nation on earth lies in keying strongly into the campaign of the Bewise inititiave. This is a campaign, which is aimed at not only addressing how we manage our waste, but also at ensuring the safety of lives of all road users,” Ubong said.

He praised Mrs Chisom for coming up with the initiative, which he said would re-orientate Nigerians and contribute to the safety of lives on our roads.

Ubong called on well meaning Nigerians, especially strategic development partners and the media, to help the group by supporting the initiative.

November 17, 2015
Is this rail’s magic pill?

A bill for a law repealing the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) Act has scaled second reading at the Senate. Is the proposed law the cure for NRC’s problems, asks ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE.

That the ailing Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) needs more than the injection of funds is not in doubt. The major task is making it to function optimally. The railway has lost its glory; it used to be Africa’s first train system. Now, it seems to be the most inefficient, with rusty rolling stocks.

Its history can be traced to 1898. That was when the first rail road was constructed by the British colonial government and the steam engine, locomotive, began operation.

On October 3, 1912, the Lagos Government Railway and the Baro-Kano Railway were amalgamated, giving rise to the nationwide rail service under the name – Government Department of Railways. The name stuck until 1955, when it was changed to the Nigeria Railway Corporation, when the Act setting it up as a service oriented agency was passed.

The rail network reached its peak performance in 1964, shortly after independence in 1960. Thereafter, it entered a long season of decline because of mis-management and non-maintenance of its rail and locomotive assets.

In 1988, the corporation declared bankruptcy and rail traffic stopped for six months, after which it resumed skeletally, where the tracks were serviceable. By 2002, passenger traffic was stopped altogether to allow for rehabilitation of the rail road network. In 2005, after several re-organisations, passenger transport was reintroduced and in December 2012, regular scheduled passenger service was restored on the Lagos to Kano route.

By 2006, with foreign assistance, fresh contracts were signed to restore worn out rail lines and add new rolling stocks.

At the height of its glory, the NRC was the highest employer of labour. It provided jobs for over 45,000 Nigerians between 1954 and 1975, all of whom were disengaged leaving it with a workers’ strength of over 6,000. Also, no new wagons has been bought since 1993, and some wagons date back to 1948. Poor track condition has also affected its efficiency, limiting train speed to 35 km/h.

All of these have left the NRC incapable of delivering on its mandate of being the backbone of the mass transit initiative of the government.

However, since 2006, there has been consistent effort by successive governments to rebuild the 1,067 mm (3ft, 6ins) network known as the narrow gauge to globally-accepted standard.

With the challenge of huge capital outlay of the ambitious project came the need to tinker with the old operational Act, which stakeholders believed has outlived its usefulness.

Old Act, old trouble

When the Act was put together, the colonial powers devolved the right to fund, operate, expand, and invest on the railway on the central government. The Act, which was cited as Cap No 129 of the LFN 2004, gave exclusive legislative right on the railways to the Federal Government. What this means is that the running, administration and the funding of the corporation, including the approval of rights to run other rail systems on its corridors, must be approved by the corporation.

This law put paid to moves in the past to have other players invest in the rail sector. Besides private sector operators who were barred, state governments and their agencies were barred from investing in the sector.

Between 2002 and 2006, the South-west governments, using the Oodua Investments as a special purpose vehicle, had proposed to have a regional train service linking all its member-states’ capitals. The idea suffered a still birth. Several other moves suffered similar fate in the past.

Attempts were made during the period to have the laws amended, but the then government would have none of it. It preferred to have an exclusive control of the corporation.

It was not long, thereafter, that the Federal Government realised it could no longer fund the corporation. To give birth to a rail system that would operate at par with others across the world requires fresh funds.

In 2010, the Federal Government put together a 25-year strategic transportation master plan that intended to make the railway the fulcrum of the transportation system, a development that would require the private sector to fund the railway to jumpstart its efficiency.

In 2013, a strategic summit was convened at Abuja, where local, foreign investors and major private sector players were sold the idea of a new and emerging Nigeria Railway Corporation that would be shorn of the old capricious Act that had held it down for over a century.

At the summit, the NRC Managing Director, Mr Adeseyi Sijuwade, said the private investor funding was the new vista of hope for the corporation because the Federal Government could no longer provide the huge capital outlay needed to achieve a globally fitting rail system for Nigeria. He said the railway of the future would be run on standard gauge that would offer fast, easy, affordable and efficient service to all. He said the last administration presented the bill for the repeal of the old Act to the National Assembly. The bill passed the first reading at the seventh assembly last year. It also passed the second reading last Tuesday

New wine

If finally passed, the new law will remove all restrictions that had held down the railway and hampered its efficiency. With the law, a new, modern rail system comparable to what obtains anywhere in the world would not only be a pipe dream but an achievable feat.

Titled: “A Bill for an Act to repeal the Nigerian Railway Corporation Act, Cap N129, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and to enact the Nigerian Railway Bill, 2015 to Provide for the regulation of the Railway Sector in Nigeria,” the bill sponsored by Senator Andy Uba, (Anambra State), seek to revolutionise the Nigerian Railway system for an enhanced transportation though the creation of appropriate regulatory agencies that will make it comply with international best practices.

Uba said the new law will create an enabling environment for the railway sector to boost the transportation sector of the economy.

Lamenting the long years of neglect of the rail sector in Nigeria, and noting that the consequences the neglect have manifested in the bad road network across the country, worsened by the heavy duty trucks that plies them, Uba expressed sadness that there had been little or no investments made on the Nigerian rail sector from the mid 1980s when the Nigerian Railway Corporation declared bankruptcy, until recently, through the efforts made by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to him, the revival of the rail sector in Nigeria will come about through the provision of rail service component to overhaul the business of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, to drive it towards efficiency.

Uba said the old Act is replete with deficiencies, which he stressed have so far jeopardised all efforts to make it work.

He said the proposed repeal of the old Act became necessary because the new law, which would be put in place as replacement, will make the Nigerian transportation sector to be in consonance with international best practices.

New framework

He said: “The new Bill seeks to provide for the appropriate legal framework for the implementation of Government’s reform programme on the railways system, while providing a platform for the introduction of Private Sector Investments and promote competition for the delivery of efficient rail services in Nigeria.

“The new Bill captures a restructured governing board to manage and implement the policies of the Corporation.

“It also invokes changes in the extant law, to now provide for effective Rail Transportation, Infrastructural Development, Railway Concessioning, Implementation of the National Rail Policy, Determination of Public Service Obligations, Effective Passenger Services and the Establishment of a Regulatory Framework for Private Participation, in order to revamp the rail transportation system in Nigeria.”

According to the senator, the Bill if passed into law, it will ensure that the headquarters of the Railway Corporation would be located in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, while it will maintain zonal offices in the six geopolitical zones of the federation.

He said by the provision, the usual complaint of neglect by geopolitical zones would have been taken care of, while also ensuring that the railway system is brought into the Federal Capital Territory and go through all the geopolitical zones of the country.

He said Nigeria has a lot to benefit from the revival of the railway transport system such as cheaper transportation of heavy duty goods, raw materials and farm produce, as well as encouragement of commercial agriculture.

An improved transportation system in Nigeria, he noted, will also boost industrialisation, adding that such will in turn reduce importation of finished goods, while also lowering the cost of living within the country.

Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, while supporting the Bill, urged the Senate to ensure a speedy passage.

Akpabio said there was no better time for such a Bill to be passed into law in Nigeria because of the benefits Nigeria stands to gain from an improved railway system in Nigeria.

October 20, 2015
Lawmaker urges motorists to comply with traffic law

A Member of the Lagos State House of Assembly Segun Olulade has called on motorists to obey traffic law to curb incessant gridlock.

Olulade, who was reacting to complaints of some Lagosians on the persistent traffic jam, said some drivers have become lawless, wrongly taking advantage of the pronouncement by the Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, that the officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) should stop impounding vehicles.

The lawmaker, representing Epe Constituency 2, stated that the governor’s statement was not made to make drivers become disobedient to the traffic law which is still in place.

”Lagosians, especially motorists, commuters and every other road user should understand that the traffic law was passed by the state House of Assembly and was signed into law by the executive arm and this law is still very much in place. To this end, everyone must be civilised and obey the law.

”The governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, in his wisdom, has urged men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority to stop impounding vehicles because he believes so much in doing things in a civilised manner.

”In civilised societies, you will never see traffic officers running after a motorist or jump into someone’s vehicle all because that person committed a traffic offence. That is where Lagos State is going; it shouldn’t be until LASTMA officials entered into our vehicles that we will obey traffic rules.

”All road users should learn to obey traffic rules and be civilised while on the road. The fact that the governor made that pronouncement that no vehicle should be impounded doesn’t mean we should start breaking the laws,” he said.

Olulade, however, urged men of the LASTMA to continue the good works they have been doing by enforcing the law and coordinating movement of vehicles on Lagos roads, just as he appealed to motorists to continue to be orderly and obey traffic officers.

”LASTMA officials and police shouldn’t stop the enforcement of the laws; they should ensure that they use best practices in the discharge of their duties. We should all remember that the government is doing everything to ensure that issue of traffic is addressed, so we must cooperate with government in order to achieve this,” he added.

October 20, 2015
FRSC arrests 1,876 offenders

AT its review of activities during the Sallah celebration, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said 1,876 offenders were arrested on Lagos/Ogun states’ roads.

Their offences ranged from lane violation, speed limit violation, overloading, use of phone while driving and drunk-driving.

Others were dangerous driving, seat belt violation, driving with worn-out tyres and unlatched containers.

FRSC RS.2 Zonal Commander Nseobong Charles Akpabio, who disclosed this at the Zone’s third quarter retreat last Friday, said the enforcement, carried out on 15 roads, saw drivers booked for 2,260 offences.

Speaking on the theme: “Effect of corruption on service delivery,” Akpabio said over 500 Regular and 2500 Special Marshals enforced the rules.

Akpabio said the zone recorded only eight road crashes – one fatal, six serious and one minor during the period.

The zone, he said, is committed to reducing accidents this year. He hailed the officers for their commitment which enabled the zone to achieve the feat.

He urged the officers to be punctual always and committed to their duty without compromise. He asked them to abstain from all forms of indiscipline, bribery and corruption which could tarnish the image of the Corps.

Akpabio, however, warned members of the public against inducing officers, adding that it is worrisome that some offer the officers bribe in the office. He said anyone caught offering its men bribe would be prosecuted with the officer and may have his or her vehicle impounded.

He appealed to motorists, who had completed their biometric capturing, to revisit the Drivers’ Licence Centres within the zone for the collection of their licences. He said over 15,000 drivers’ licence are ready for the owners to collect.

The zone also rewarded 285 officers for effective performance and rejection of bribes while on patrol.

He said the awards were given to the officers, who on various days, time and dates, rejected bribes from individuals and motorists.

Akpabio said the officers, instead of collecting the bribe, booked the motorists, describing their actions as a welcome development that would uplift the image of the Corps.

He urged the officers to continue to shun corruption, saying, the Corps have zero tolerance for bribery and corruption.

“Anyone officers caught would have his or her appointment terminated,” he added.

The guest speaker, Arinze Felix Echeta, a lawyer, appealed to the officers, public office holders and Nigerians to change their mindsets on bribery and corruption, noting that, they ruin the country.

He said it was no longer news that Nigeria is corrupt and that service delivery has been sacrificed on the altar of corruption. According to him, it will be better for Nigerians to wake up from their apathy and start preaching vigorously for an attitudinal change.

He praised the FRSC for its zero tolerance on corruption and commended the Zone for the initiative of not just hunting down ‘bad eggs’ among the officers, but rewarding those who remain committed to the ideals and the dreams of the founding fathers of the Corps.

Echeta said such positive measures would no doubt encourage the recipients of such rewards and reinforce their readiness to do more and motivate the unfortunate ones to redouble their efforts for greater attainment.

He urged the officers to abstain from any impossible circumstances that could confront and force them to be apathetic and want to get even with the society, probably by resorting to self-helps such as ‘obtaining by false pretence (419), armed robbery, kidnapping and kindred vices, thereby multiplying the degree of social perversion that had deformed our society.

The Ota Unit Command’s Deputy Route Commander, Mr Lawal Abdul Wasiu Ayinla, who spoke on behalf of the recipients, praised the Corps for rewarding the officers after their much commitment to duty without compromised. This, he said, would redouble their commitment and reinforced their determination to do more.

October 6, 2015
Railway workers demand ‘friendly’ minister

As Nigerians await the unveiling of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet, Railway workers have asked for a “friendly” technocrat to head the Transportation ministry.

According to them, only a sound professional can drive the transportation sector in a way that will ensure the success of the administration’s agenda.

A statement by the Nigeria Union of Railway (NUR) Workers Secretary-General, Comrade Segun Esan, said the nation needed someone who understands the economic importance and relevance of the railway as the bedrock of mass transportation.

Esan said: “It becomes very necessary to appeal to the President to appoint as minister, a Nigerian and technocrat, who understands the economic importance and relevance of the rail transport system to the development of the nation.”

The NUR chief, who praised the President for marching his promises with actions that would put a stop to corruption, said this is the time to reverse the infrastructural deficiency in the rail transport system.

Esan noted that the Nigerian Railways could still not boast of up to 30 working locomotive engines, the basic minimum to run an effective mass transit train business.

“The Corporation is still grossly deficient of passenger coaches and goods wagons to meet the growing market share available to it,” he said.

He called on the Federal Government to invest all the stolen funds recovered from corrupt government officials in the railway to the wobbling corporation.

Esan urged the government to declare a state of emergency in the transportation sector, calling for a sustainable long-term development plan for the rail system.

He said a robust and effective railway service would reduce the pressure and carnage on the roads, strengthen socio-economic integration and stimulate growth.

He appealed to Buhari to do all in his capacity to turn around the rail sub-sector to justify the support and good wishes given his administration by the workers.

Esan urged the government to reverse the culture of neglect of the industry ny successive government which pushed the corporation backwards.

He said the ongoing rehabilitation and re-equippment, began in 2009, has brought the corporation back to life, adding that more needed to be done to reposition the industry.

October 6, 2015
Tackling perennial gridlock on Lagos roads

For Lagos motorists, only a few unpleasant things can surpass traffic gridlock. In the past few days, the state seems to have been locked in an unending traffic snarl that seems to have defied solution, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

ON getting to Ibadan on Sallah day, the joke by his elder brother and his cousin was not lost on Andrew (not real name), a busy Lagos-based business executive. He had on that day visited his brother in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. Though he left Lagos at 7am, Andrew didn’t get to Ibadan until 7pm. On a normal day, he would have made the 98-kilometre trip in one-and-a-half hours.

After welcoming him, his young cousin said: “I will continue to pray for you.” His elder brother’s verdict was harsher. He said: “You must be ‘mad’ to continue to live in Lagos, the Centre of Excellence.”

His brother and cousin could not fathom why Andrew or anybody would “live” on the road for between five to 12 hours everyday.

For Andrew and other Lagos motorists, the past two weeks have been hell with gridlock across the state, which has become a major headache for Lagos. Many musicians have waxed songs on the stress commuters and motorists pass through in the city. But the gridlock of the past few months has been different; it has simply defied solution.

When Afrobeat icon Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang the song: “When go slow catch you for town… o le make e ni” (When you are caught up in ‘go slow’, you simply cannot make it, or meet your appointment), he put on vinyl the traffic situation of the 70s. But with Lagos population hitting 25 million, of which 80 per cent commute daily, traffic has simply become a monster; unnerving, irritating, annoying and heart-breaking.

Everywhere else has it

Before now, the government’s position tends to support the fact that traffic congestion is an index of economic prosperity. The former Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fashola, while in office, said this much at various fora. For him, the hectic traffic situation is not restricted Lagos; it is the hallmark of modern cities.

From New York to Washington, in the United States, Milan in Italy, Johannesburg in South Africa, Arusha in Tanzania, Accra in Ghana, Yamoussoukro in Cote d’Ivoire and Cotonou in Benin Republic, traffic congestion has taken on worrisome dimensions, exacting a heavy toll not only on the health of the public, but on the economy.

With an auto density of about six million, Lagos, two years ago, claimed it was losing about 23 billion man hours yearly to traffic congestion. This is despite the government’s attempt to revive public transportation with the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit in 2008, which it (government claims carries about seven million passengers yearly), opening more roads to accommodate more vehicles and the tweaking of the designs of some others to reduce traffic and travel time.

Barely two weeks after he was sworn in, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode showed a capacity to tackle the traffic situation, when he visited some of the major flashpoints in the metropolis. He assured that his administration will provide solutions to the traffic snarl in the state.

He noted that the government was concerned about the gridlocks, saying: “You are going to start seeing solutions to the traffic challenges soon.”

The situation in the last few weeks has, however, has made Lagosians to ask how soon the reprieve promised by the governor would come.

Same old problem

Though many would have loved to leave Lagos, the state’s economy is simply irresistible. Lagos is the economy. So, rather than thinning, more people keep trooping in, compounding the economy and making more cumbersome the government’s transportation plan.

Successive governments have resolved the traffic situation with massive road construction and opening up of inner roads.

There was also the adoption of the odd and even numbers system some years back. Under the scheme, vehicles were given specific days to enter Lagos Island. The scheme was discarded with the coming on stream of the Third Mainland Bridge, which made connection with the Island easier.

But the staggering population growth and improved income of many Lagosians soon put paid to the reliefs. To resolve the traffic situation, the government began the remodelling of major roads and streets.

The stress is caused by commercial drivers who refuse to obey traffic rules and regulations. They do not only break the traffic light rule, they also drive against traffic, in what has come to be known in local parlance as “one way driving,” and it is worrisome that the drivers, especially Yellow Bus drivers, have been joined by private vehicle owners, who equally drive against traffic, a development which has made traffic control more cumbersome.

Though Lagos is the smallest land mass area in Nigeria, it is home to 117 federal roads, of 509, 97 kilometres, 3,028 state roads totalling 5, 816.71 kilometres, and 6, 451 local government roads totalling 3, 573.7kilometres. The Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) said the state, which is just 3, 577 square km is home to about 25 percent of the total number of vehicles and drivers in Nigeria. While the national Vehicle per kilometre is about 16, Lagos caters for about 200 vehicles per kilometre.

For experts, the quaking of the roads, which was noticeable in the state in the last few weeks, is a result of the delays at the Nigeria Port at Apapa, quays and the order restricting movement of articulated vehicles. These are part of the externalities the World Bank said constitute about 54.5 percent of causes of traffic congestion in a city like Lagos.

In a seminal paper titled: Evaluating traffic congestion in developing nations, a case study of Nigeria, delivered at the African Forum of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transportation (CILT) at Arusha, Tanzania, the Assistant Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Kayode Olagunju, said the major causes of congestion include lane indiscipline, high traffic density, low road network carrying capacity and poor traffic management.

Other causative factors of congestion, according to him, are poor road support infrastructure, such as lay-bye, low response to removal of broken down and crashed vehicles and poor integration of urban transport planning, among others.

On the congestion in the state in recent times, the National Vice Chairman, Lagos Zone of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG), Mr Solomon Kilanko, said his men were not to be blamed for the traffic crisis.

Unfortunate restriction

Describing the traffic in the last two weeks as regrettable, Kilanko said, perhaps, the crisis would have been averted if the state government had taken stakeholders into confidence before announcing its restriction of articulated vehicles.

“The governor’s order presupposes that all our loadings would be done at night and we must also move out of the state same night. If containerised trailers and petroleum tankers load at night, can we all move out before 6am? The government ought to have fine-tuned the gray areas before issuing the directive,” he said.

Listing another challenge before the implementation of the order, Kilanko said the PTD had directed its men to stop moving at night, and monitoring agencies, such as the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the FRSC all monitor our members to ensure they do not flout the directive. All these are because in the past, FRSC usually recorded 90 percent of truck hijacks, between 7pm and 6am.

‘’If we are to go on the roads at night, is the government prepared to give all our members security back up or would they line all the routes with Police or the Army?” he asked.

But the state government last weekend denied culpability in the traffic stress encountered on the road by Lagosians. A source at the Ministry of Transportation (MoT) said the traffic snarl was caused by the strengthening of security precaution at the ports, following fears of bombing and terrorist attacks than from the backlash of its restriction order.

“Our checks revealed that the delay at the ports were as a result of the precautions by security operatives. It would reduce once the overt precaution is relaxed,” the official said.

Hard nut

Though the National President of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), Chief Remi Ogungbemi, admitted that the traffic was caused in part by his men who were protesting the unworkable restriction and the slow activity at the ports at Apapa, he couldn’t say whether it was as a result of new security measures introduced at the ports.

Ogungbemi, however, said traffic jam has eased up considerably since Thursday, following the government rescinding the order, adding that it would be attenuated by yesterday.

He added that his members were caught in the middle of a law restricting them from moving at the day time and failure of all of them to get loaded before dawn to enable them set out of Apapa before the restriction. “So, the vehicles you see lined up on the roads are those that were caught either loading at the ports or trying to enter the port having been called to proceed to the loading point. but were caught by the order and had to stay where they are to prevent arrest.”

Ogungbemi listed some immediate panacea to the Apapa/Tin can gridlock, to include a more orderly movement of trucks into Apapa, which must force all the trucks on all access roads to relocate to their parks/garages, while all independent operators without any garages could in the interim move to the Trade Fair Complex where a park is available.

This, according to him, is pending when work would be completed on the 51 acres park facility provided by the state government at Mile 2.

He added: “This would be in addition to the introduction of the electronic call-up system to permit trucks into the loading points as may be required.”

He tasked the Nigeria Shippers Council, (NDC), the state and the NPA to achieve this in the shortest possible time for the benefit of the motoring public.

Ogungbemi, who praised the government for relaxing the order, said if these could be complemented with a good road network, the fears in the corridors of power that “articulated vehicles are moving caskets” on the roads would be allayed and the state would have a safer road profile.

This would consolidate Olagunju’s recommendations at the Tanzania talkfest where he had, among others, recommended the integration of an enduring urban traffic planning and management strategies, such as effective mass transit, strict land use, effective traffic control and enforcement and the integration of traffic management institutions as well as mechanisms aimed at discouraging excessive car use on the roads.

Olagunju contended that since mobility is crucial to the functionality of the state and its socio-economic well-being, it must be adequately managed and be result-oriented, achieving in the long run less stress and travel time for road users, especially motorists.

Solving Lagos traffic is a hard nut Lagosians want Ambode to crack; he has less than 48 months to do so.

September 29, 2015
Truck drivers: night movement unsafe

To ensure the safety of life and property, Lagos State Government restricted daytime movement of trailers and other articulated vehicles. The operators have risen up against the government, absolving themselves of blame. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE and OLALEKAN AYENI report.

Picture for a minute a container falling from a height. Imagine the fate of whatever it may fall on. This is no fiction. On Ojuelegba bridge, a container, poorly latched to a trailer fell and crushed a Sport Utility Van (SUV) below, going under the bridge, killing the three occupants. It was a depressing sight, which prompted the government to act fast to stem the recklessness of truck, trailer and tanker drivers.

With over 200 deaths recorded in the third quarter of the year, half of which were caused by containerised trucks or petroleum tankers, there perhaps may not be any other nation with such a disturbing accident trend.

To stem the scourge, government restricted daytime movement of articulated vehicle from 6am to 9pm.

Old wine, new bottle

The law itself is not new. It is one of the extant laws of the state. The immediate past administration enforced it somewhat between 2008 and 2009 but soft pedalled on its enforcement in its second term.

The Akinwunmi Ambode administration is dusting up the law to reduce road carnage. Those who flout the law risk the seizure of their vehicles, or the payment of fine, or both.

The government’s determination to enforce the law with the support of the security and road management agencies is unsettling the operators. Rising from the State Security Council meeting, Police Chief Fatai Owoseni said his men would strictly enforce the law.

But Owoseni’s declaration has led to a protest with trailer and tanker drivers embarking on strike action to protest the directive.

Though the petroleum tanker drivers under the aegis of PTD have since returned to work and complying by staying off the road, truck/trailer drivers operating from the ports refused all entreaties to return to work last Friday.

They said they won’t return to work because the restriction has imperilled their lives and the safety of the cargoes they carry.

Their stance is already raising the blood pressure of importers whose goods are being delayed by the impasse.

Pleas and arguments

The operators are calling on the government to rescind its decision. They claimed the order did not consider the security of the drivers and the safety of their cargoes. They alleged that the drivers are attacked at night by armed robbers, and their goods and vehicles stolen.

Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot Owners and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), unit of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), and their counterpart in the containerised business, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), urged the government to reverse the order for the security of their drivers and the products they are conveying across the country.

AMATO’s National President Chief ‘Remi Ogungbemi said the security of the drivers and the products are not guaranteed at night.

The insecurity, Ogungbemi added, is worsened by the deplorable condition of roads across the country, and poor road visibility.

He urged Governor Ambode to consider these factors and rescind the restriction order to enable articulated vehicle drivers like other motorists enjoy their profession like other colleagues at day time and without harm.

The AMATO chief also challenged the Federal Government to encourage operators by facilitating loans for the purpose of purchasing new vehicles instead of importing fairly used.

This, he said, will make the phasing out of aging trucks by the union and the FRSC easy.

The operators also demanded a park for trailers/tankers, adding that this would enable the drivers to rest. Ogungbemi, said stress and fatigue contribute immensely to accidents. “A parking space would among other benefits, guarantee access to the FRSC, Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) and other security agencies to inspect vehicles before allowing them to proceed on their journey,” Ogungbemi said.

PTD National Vice-Chairman Mr Solomon Kilanko, challenged the Lagos State Government to tackle the hoodlums and Area boys scourge before enforcing the order. He said it would amount to double jeopardy if the drivers, who deserves to be protected by the government are exposed to danger from hoodlums who lurk in the dark to attack them and hijack their vehicles.

He said: “Bad roads and threats of attacks at night make the new directive more harmful than helpful to drivers.”

MOMAN Executive Secretary, Mr Obafemi Olawore, said major marketers would strengthen the training and retraining of their drivers on safety standards as part of measures to reduce incessant accidents.

Expressing worry over the spate of accidents, Olawore pledged the association’s readiness to improve the checking of both mechanical and human factors of their members right from the loading point to complement the efforts of the FRSC.

The Secretary, Depot Owners Association of Nigeria (DOAN), Dr Mark Anamali, said the association would ensure that rickety vehicles are phased out of the roads before the end of the year.

A medical doctor, Ibiyemi Olusoji, said the order restricting movement of articulated drivers to night travels would cause more harm than good as fatigued drivers on long distance trips are most likely to fall asleep on the wheels and crash the vehicle.

“Ordinarily the night is designed for sleeping. A driver who is banned from moving at daytime and did not rest till he begins his trip at night, won’t be able to get to Ibadan, Oyo State, before fatigue will set in and this could cause accident,” Olusoji said.

A safety expert and founder of Safety Without Borders (SWB), a non-government organisation, Mr Patrick Adenusi, said the order banning road movement by truckers is wrong headed.

According to him, the order has inadvertently isolated the truck drivers as the cause of accidents.

For him, as part of investigations meant to curtail accidents, truck drivers rather than being vilified, ought to be questioned on the challenges they coped with before the accident occured.

Listing the Area Boys as “a major unidentified agent” of road accidents, Adenusi, painting a scenario said: “These boys would swoop on a truck driver and demanded to be paid, as if such fees are sacrosanct. If the driver refused, these boys would go behind the driver and remove the air hose, which controls the braking system and if this happens, the driver in trying to avoid being attacked by the boys, would accelerate and if he got to a point where he might need to apply the brake and it fails, an accident results.

“Most times, we do not talk to the truck drivers. We need to talk to them, we need to know, as only this would indicate our readiness to stop accidents.”

Adenusi equally advocated for aggressive driving education among Nigerians.

Describing Nigerian drivers as “one of the most unruly around the world,”Adenusi said statistics has shown that over 90 per cent of Nigerian drivers are “grossly indisciplined.”

In Nigeria, less than 10 per cent of drivers stay on their lanes and this has been identified as a major cause of accident.

“Imagine a reckless driver swerving in front of a trailer loaded with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), or a fully loaded containerised trailer, any attempt to avoid such sudden swerve could spell disaster but that carnage could have been avoided, if every driver had been fully sensitised about responsible driving.

“It is standard global practice, when you are on a single lane, you remain on your lane, if you are going on two lanes, you stay on the second lane and if you are travelling on the three-lane road, you stay on the third lane, but here, you see drivers move indiscriminately without any regard to lane discipline,” he said.

Blame should also go to the truck owners, many of who left their vehicles unmaintained. “It is left to imagination what can begin to happen if the state government fully implements this law, with over 60 percent of all articulated vehicles on our roads lacking headlight and virtually all roads in the state poorly lighted by street light.”

Restriction, no solution

Adenusi and other experts believed that the restriction is not what the state and indeed the country needs to get out of the woods in terms of crashes of articulated vehicles.

Citing other parts of the world where all manners of vehicles were allowed to make use of the road at all times, the SWB chief said the law could be contested as it precludes the right of some certain group of people who are professionals in their own right to safety, a right, which the government duly owes them as citizens.

“If we say trucks can’t move on Lagos roads at daytime, what happens to those trucks carrying sands to and from the Eko Atlantic City, most of which plies Western Avenue at daytime?”

“Let government tackle the menace called Area boys, and you are likely to see a dramatic reduction in the rate of accidents especially ones involving articulated vehicles,” he said.

Adenusi called for the declaration of emergency on the state of road network in the country. If the road network is fitted with adequate infrastructure, there would be a reduction in accidents.

He urged the government to revisit the truck road – Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, saying most drivers take alternative roads like the Western Avenue because the truck road is bad. If this road which had collapsed is fixed, it would reduce the stress on alternative routes and this would result in a reduction in accidents, he added.

September 22, 2015
Ember months: Mixed expectations as FRSC begins speed limiter enforcement

As the enforcement of the speed limiter policy by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) begins today, stakeholders believe the success of this initiative to reduce accident rate lies in the hands of the safety regulator as unavailability of the device and soft enforcement might be the killing punch, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

For the nation’s chief road safety officer Boboye Oyeyemi, the ‘Ember months promise to be the most remarkable in the nation’s history.

Going by his prognosis, it might witness the least accident rate record in the nation’s entire history. This, he hoped to achieve by the enforcement of the speed limiter, a device governing speed rate of reckless drivers, a novelty which he said, has come to stay in Nigeria.

From this morning, FRSC is expected to roll out a massive enforcement on all roads across the country, to begin the first phase enforcement of the installation of the device meant to reduce the number of deaths as a result of reckless driving.

Since he assumed duties, Oyeyemi has left no one in doubt of his commitment to the achievements of the United Nations decade of action and the Accra, Ghana declaration to reduce Road Traffic Crashes (RTC), and deaths on the nation’s roads significantly by 2020. At several fora, he has enunciated strategic action plans to change the nation’s road profile known to the United Nations as the fourth most unsafe in the world.

One of the strategies being deployed by the Oyeyemi-led Road Safety Corps (FRSC) was the introduction of a speed limiting device to check reckless driving, a major cause of accidents on the nation’s network of death trap roads.

Should it succeed, Oyeyemi would have scored a bull’s eye on a scourge that has taken an incurable tone, defying successive initiatives. And to ensure its success, the take-off of its enforcement had to be moved from June 1, earlier this year, to September.

At a forum recently, the Corps Marshall said going by the worrisome trend of accidents on the nation’s roads, there is no going back on the enforcement of the device.

He said: “Eighty per cent of crashes and accidents last year were caused by over-speeding and attendant loss of control by drivers. Research has shown that at a speed of 100 km per hour, a vehicle is moving at 28 metres per second, this reduces as the speed increases and we must not forget that the total width of our roads is 12 metres. If any driver driving at a very high speed suddenly encounters a challenge on the road, his instinct would be to swerve, but such act is inhibited by the narrow width he had to contend with, this would lead to loss of control, making the last obvious option inevitable. It is much easier to control the wheel if the driver is able to control his speed than when he is over-speeding and that is why we believed that with the coming of the device, the commission would be able to checkmate drivers’ recklessness, and non-compliance to speed control regulation.”

How prepared are we?

Though its enforcement was expected to have begun in June, its postponement has become a blessing in disguise. This is because the political heat at the time took its toll on the importation of the device in such a scale that could ensure its market availability, and the seeming tardiness of the enforcers in handling the device.

The deadline’s shift, therefore, it was learnt, enabled the product to be more readily available in the market, give opportunity to more technicians to learn the installation and avail appropriate training of corps’ officers on the “complicated” device as well as other packages such as the speed guns and the alcoholisers being introduced into the mix to curtail tragic accidents by the Corps.

While the speed gun is meant to help detect speed violators, which may be further corroborated by the speed limiter that is expected to come with a speed recorder device, the alcoholiser, a breath analyser, is meant to detect drunken drivers for the purpose of pulling them off the road before they cause any accident on the road.

Though the country subscribes to globally accepted regulations guiding permissible speed levels on all classes of roads, their breaches, in part by drivers and poor enforcement of sanctions by road safety officials have led to worrisome colossal losses to human lives and property, slurring the nation’s roads as one of the worst in the world.

Though the Corps had been silent, in the run down to the anticipated enforcement, with checks made during the week drawing blank about strategies being put in place to make the roads safe, Oyeyemi before now left no one in doubt that the agency would not contemplate any other shift.

For him, simultaneous enforcement must begin with commercial vehicles, trucks and tankers across the country today. Going by the flurry of activities organised before now, the FRSC could boldly attest to its readiness, as it has galvanised at different fora the support of critical stakeholders and indications are that all critical road operators are on the same page with the agency to rid the roads of the menace, fast becoming the highest killer agent.

Between June and now, the FRSC had taken the campaign to the door of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), National Association of Transport Owners (NATO), the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) unit of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) as well as independent trucks and fleet operators to join it in the move to make the roads safe for all.

Defending why the agency singles out the commercial vehicles as the first to be tackled, Oyeyemi said with a mini-commercial bus carrying a minimum of 10 passengers, and a midi and maxi buses going for between 24 and 47, no doubt, more casualties are being recorded daily by commercial operators than a driver crashing his vehicle.

Compliance assessment

An assessment of the readiness of all stakeholders for the take-off of the limiter enforcement showed that many more commercial vehicles, especially the fleet operators and trucks have complied and had the device installed on their vehicles. Big operators, such as the Ekene Dili Chukwu, The Young, ABC Transport, Cross Country, the BRT and its franchise operators, among others, have had their fleet installed with the device in compliance with the directive.

Similar compliance are also being recorded from the PTD, which not only corralled all its members to imbibe the right road attitude while on the wheel, but has gone a step further by making its membership data available to the FRSC with an affirmation that any driver caught after the deadline driving any tanker without the limiter should be meted with appropriate sanctions.

But one of the operators, Mr. Abdul Bamgbopa, insisted that the compliance is too far in-between, compared to anticipated compliance rate when the enforcement was shifted in June.

Asked to give a rating to the level of compliance as the country prepares for a new phase in safe driving, Bamgbopa, Managing Director of Sattrak Telematics, a speed limiter pioneer and the agency’s first major collaborator, told The Nation that the rate is still low.

“Most of the commercial vehicle operators are kind of sizing up the air to see if the FRSC will be able to enforce the initiative or not. Of course, this trend is typical of any deadline based action particularly coming from a government agency,” Bamgbopa said.

He, however, said even if the operators had wanted to fully comply, there would have been a sharp crisis in the supply curve. “The Speed Limiting Devices (SLD) is yet to be widely available in the market largely because FRSC and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) are yet to conclude their certification processes for companies intending to engage in the SLD business.

Then he gave the punch which might define the agency’s success: “Without appropriate and uncompromising enforcement by the FRSC, demand will continue to be soft and far in-between.”

Bamgbopa is not alone in conjecturing a low success rate in event of poor implementation and the seeming unprepared supply architecture.

Similar fear were expressed by a safety expert and activist Mr Patrick Adenusi, who said the agency has the onus of proof to convince Nigerians of their commitment to the mouthing of a reduction to accident rate in the country.

Though admitting the presence of some bottlenecks still in the processes, especially the impediments laid out by the tardiness in certification of the companies registered to run the business, he however warned the FRSC against contemplating another post-ponement which could deal a devastating blow on the initiative.

Adenusi said: “Just as the Corps Marshall has declared, I am expecting to see the FRSC roll out men nationwide to begin the enforcement. All FRSC commands should wake up to ensure that compliance is pursued with vigour as this is the only thing that could prove to Nigerians that the agency is determined to ensure that its commitment to accident reduction goes beyond sloganeering, so that by the time we are entering into December, there would have been concrete demonstration of effects of the efficacy of the speed limiter in preventing crashes. I think all Nigerians would want to see how far this new device can go in reducing fatalities on our roads and what or how to deal with the remaining percentage if there are across the country.”

For Adenusi, founder and Executive Director of Safety Without Borders (SWB) a non-government organisation (NGO), the agency and SON should not make the process of accreditation difficult unnecessarily or skewed it against any operator, but ensure an open field for all serious investors.

He said the enforcement, regardless of the status or the immediate challenges, would determine how far the initiative would go among Nigerians, adding that all eyes are on the agency to either succeed with the limiter or be dammed. Enforcement need to be total and must be sustained, he insisted.

No excuses

Adenusi and other experts contend that no excuse is tenable for the retention of the status quo that sees all manners of driving and all shades of recklessness on the nation’s roads.

According to him, cost should not be an issue for speed limiter enforcement. “No cost,” he said, “is too high to be equated to the life that might be lost due to overspeeding or as a result of the recklessness of any driver and the untold hardship that could cause to the relations of victims.”

Citing the accident involving a 16- passenger bus on the Ondo Ore road last week, Adenusi said the accident which left all occupants of the vehicle dead is another indication that the country might indeed be getting late to put appropriate regulations in place to check reckless driving and avoidable carnage on the roads.

“The drivers of some of these small buses are notoriously reckless. You see them overtake in bends, slopes, steep and other very dangerous terrains with scant regard to the lives they carry in their vehicles. The war against defaulters of this device must be carried to the door of the companies who own these buses and the owners should be prosecuted for non-installation of the device and any loss of lives recorded by his vehicle, while any driver caught driving such vehicle must equally be sanctioned and prosecuted for failing to comply with the regulation,” he added.

Conclusion

Adenusi said appropriate safety gospel must begin to be preached, that the anti-speed device is introduced to enhance road safety, increase value for fleet owners and operators and contribute to the reduction in human and material losses arising from accidents.

Quoting the European Commission, Sattrak Marketing Director Adeyinka Aderemi listed the speed regulator’s many advantages to include; lower fuel consumption by about 30 per cent, lower maintenance costs (tyres, brakes, engine) and reduced insurance premiums as a result of reduction in rate of crashes.

Other benefits are reduction of high speed accidents, less chance of expensively trained staff being lost through accidents and the reduction of vehicle downtime for unscheduled repairs, etc.

Adeyinka said the only adverse effect of the device is that the higher the tampering with the device after installation, the lower its speed reduction.

He urged the vehicle owners to ensure the speed limiting devices is bought from the approved and authorised company from the NCC to avoid imitation.

September 1, 2015