By Jide Owatunmise
Road Safety is a very critical area that no government in Nigeria has ever paid adequate attention to till date. Over 80 percent of transportation in Nigeria is done by road. It is however unfortunate that the governments at the Federal, State and Local levels have not for once paid serious attention to road safety right from road construction, road furniture, vehicle road worthiness, driver education by driving schools, road traffic enforcement and general road safety administration despite the daily loss of lives and properties on Nigerian roads.
According to global reports affirmed by the United Nations (UN) through the World Health Organisation (WHO), Nigeria is among the 10 countries in the world with the highest rate of road traffic crashes, injuries and deaths. This is disheartening.
Yet, no Nigerian government has taken any serious action to stem this worrisome tide. The number of people killed and maimed by road accidents annually is more than those killed by Boko Haram, bandits and insurgency put together. Yet, billions of dollars and trillions of naira have been expended on the criminal activities that killed less to the neglect of road accidents that killed much more. Both should be given the right attention for speedy and permanent solutions.
The Nigerian government signed more than 5 international conventions on road safety without paying attention to their implementation in the country. The UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011 – 2020) came and passed without Nigeria achieving any of the goals or pillars.
We are already 2 years into the extended UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2021 – 2030) with no sign of commitment from the government. The National Road Safety Advisory Committee (NaRSAC) was set up and I was privileged to be a member of the Technical Working Group. We successfully packaged the Nigeria Road Safety Strategy (2021 – 2030). Some states have launched their State Road Safety Advisory Committee (SaRSAC). Up till now, Nigeria has not achieved 10 percent of the objectives.
May 15 – 21, 2023 is the Global Road Safety Week with the theme: Thinking Mobility with the objective of promoting Walking, Bicycling and Public Transportation. As at today, there is no serious action by the Federal, State and Local governments towards this event which is the launch of the areas of Road Safety on which governments worldwide should focus attention for at least the next 2 years.
The authorities at the Federal, State and Local levels, including the Legislative and Judicial arms, should focus on the following areas:
1. Road Construction – Roads and Road Furniture must be constructed with the safety component well taken care of. Hitherto, this has not been the case as could be clearly seen in the case of the Abuja to Lokoja Road.
Awarding of road construction should not be more of a political statement which will unduly prolong the construction time which has caused so many crashes and loss of lives.
The formula of Governor Wike of Rivers State should be adopted by the Federal, State and Local governments. Governor Wike will not award contracts for roads or bridges when adequate money is not available to fund them. Once he awards a contract, he releases between 75 to 85 percent of the project cost which will be sufficient for the contractor to finish the work. He will supervise and ensure the project is completed within the stipulated period. This is why projects awarded by him were delivered on time with high quality of performance.
The process of awarding the contract should be such that it will not leave the contractor with less money to implement the job thereby doing shoddy or inferior jobs. The process should be corruption – free. When officers of government milk contractors, they will not have quality jobs. The process of delaying the funding of contracts also depletes government funds through frequent cost review of ongoing projects. Many roads were constructed without traffic signs, road marking, and other road furniture thereby making them death traps.
2. Road Users Education – Adequate attention needs to be paid to the provision of quality education to all road users (Drivers, Riders, Pedestrians and others). The Driving Schools charged with the mandate for Road Users Education should be supported by the governments as it obtains in countries like the United Kingdom. All road users must undergo periodic training in accredited Driving Schools as contained in the National Road Traffic Regulations, Resolutions of the National Council of State (2014, 2021 and 2022) and the Nigeria Road Safety Strategy (2021 – 2030).
Road Safety Education should be included in the curriculum of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions with serious and result – oriented support by the governments.
3. Traffic Law Harmonisation and Enforcement – The traffic regulations of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Nigeria Police Act/Federal Highway Act and the various state traffic regulations should be thoroughly harmonised for uncompromised enforcement nationwide.
The use of modern-day technology should be embraced for a more effective and uncompromised environment nationwide. Too many Nigerians are dying daily on the roads. The governments should no longer place revenue above the safety of irreplaceable lives and valuable properties. An end should be put to the recurring quarrels or arguments about which arm of government has the right over the other to control traffic or enforce traffic laws on one road or the other.
4. Roadworthiness of Vehicles – The Federal Government should intensify efforts to disallow vehicles that are not roadworthy from being imported into the country. It is not only rickety vehicles that may not be roadworthy. For example, any new or used car that has red colour as turn indicator or pointer instead of yellow is not roadworthy. Likewise, any car without an airbag, no matter how new, is not roadworthy. There are global road safety standards that must be strictly adhered to. Nigeria is already a signatory to the International Road Safety Conventions.
5. Conventions – The incoming President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should go through all the Road Safety Conventions that Nigerian Governments have signed and work assiduously to implement them to drastically reduce and ultimately end the loss of lives on Nigeria roads.
6. Committee – The President should set up a Committee of Road Safety Stakeholders to critically examine the points I raised in this write-up, and much more, so that objective and result – oriented recommendations can be made available to the President for proactive policies and decisions.
• Owatunmise, roadsafetytrainers@yahoo.com