- FRSC should not punish innocent vehicle owners for its own inefficiency
Nigerian car owners have Mr. Chinwike Chamberlain Ezebube to thank for having the courage and confidence in the judiciary to sue the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) for impounding his vehicle, claiming he was driving with a faded number plate. Nigerian vehicle registration plates in current use were introduced in 1992 and revised in 2011. Curiously, most of the lettering on the plates have faded too soon over the years.
This is the kind of experience you have in a country where the people rarely question agencies and ministries of government for shoddy jobs; they rather resign to fate and complain to each other in frustration. Normally, for cases concerning transportation and ancillary issues, the National Assembly committees on transport ought to exercise oversight duties on the ministry and agencies in that sector. Sadly, not a lot of effort is put into the oversight duties by the legislators. If the reverse was the case, Mr. Ezebube might have had no need to take the FRSC to court, because the situation might have been addressed earlier.
The fading of the number plates has had most people complaining in silence because it costs pretty much to acquire one. Ironically, the FRSC, which, unfortunately, is the issuing agency of the number plates, has turned around to arrest car owners and their drivers, and in most cases have forced them to pay fines in addition to the embarrassment, delays and the financial implications of being so apprehended.
As the local parlance often goes, ‘every day for the thief, one day for the owner’, the FRSC’s impounding of Mr. Ezebube’s vehicle with the claim that his number plate had faded became the albatross of its indiscretion. He had, through his lawyer, U.G.Nwokedi, on February 13, 2024, asked a Lagos High Court to determine the following: “Whether the defendant, pursuant to Section 5 (g) and Section 10 (3)(f) of the Federal Road Safety Commission Act 2007 being the sole designer and producer of vehicle number plates in Nigeria, is not absolutely responsible for the quality and durability of the vehicle number plates as are produced by it?
In his judgment, Justice Aluko gave an order restricting the commission “from declaring it an offence to drive with a faded vehicle number plate. “By way of conclusion, I hold the view that the defendant cannot criminalise the use of a faded vehicle number plate, and has no power to impose a fine on the plaintiff for using a faded vehicle number plate, or impound the plaintiff’s vehicle on such grounds without the order of a court of competent jurisdiction”.
This judgment comes as a huge relief to car owners and even ordinary commuters who are sometimes delayed on transit because the FRSC officials had impounded a vehicle they were being transported in.
The judgment makes a lot of sense. If the FRSC solely produces the number plates, why should the car owners be punished for their low quality?
Beyond this judgment, however, it would be interesting to get answers from the agency. Nigerians had been using the old number plates that had no issues with fading out of the letters or numbers. Other countries whose vehicles are often imported into the country as used vehicles have number plates still as good as new, even when the vehicles themselves are old and worn out. Why would the FRSC be penalising poor Nigerians for their own failure to produce number plates of international standards?
The FRSC is not alone in these crassly tacky official failures. ln many cases, most government agencies do or supervise the production of low quality government infrastructure and services that impact on the welfare of the people and no one ever gets fired or punished for such low quality jobs. Somehow, it does appear that the only thing seen as criminal action is just financial corruption. Official negligence is not always punished so as to deter others.
This court judgment is good and in a way justifies the citizens’ confidence in seeking redress in court.
We however feel that the FRSC ought to be made to pay for damages in that instance to the plaintiff, given the ordeal commuters have gone through with them over what is officially their own fault. Government agencies and ministries must be held accountable through the weight of the law. That, to us, is the only way to have a functional society.
We equally applaud the courage of the plaintiff in approaching the judiciary in a country where there seems to be a total loss of faith in it. It spells hope that the court did not fail him too.
