The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), is doing a lot to raise the safety standards of the highways so as to ensure that road users travel with minimum hassles occasioned by mishaps both accidental and self-inflicted.

One of these measures was the introduction of the biometric driver’s licence with a three-year lifespan. While Nigerians are striving to avail themselves of that document, the FRSC is planning to extend its lifespan to five years. Before then, what we had in circulation were licences with doubtful legality issued by, in some cases, unofficial sources.

That was what made it possible for ‘drivers’ who can barely ignite an engine to acquire ‘licences’ to drive even top government officials as was the case with the late Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr James Ocholi. The consequences are often always tragic.

However, even as we applaud their effort to introduce fool proof licences, we insist that driver’s licence is just one aspect of what it takes to bring sanity to bear on the nation’s highways. We also note that, already, the agency is packing a lot onto its plate.

We are aware of plans to introduce speed limiters and new number plates. Commendable as these are, their implementation is yet to be satisfactorily seen through. Even with genuine driver’s licences in their pockets, most drivers have not quite imbibed the qualities that make a good driver. Some can hardly read road signs where they are available let alone observe them. Recklessness, drunken driving and over speeding are issues that make Nigerian roads some of the most dangerous to ply on. What this demands from the commission is total commitment to the safety of road users beyond just issuing licences to applicants who need them to evade the inconveniences of Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs), the police and even the FRSC itself.

This commitment, in our view, entails a sustained campaign to educate drivers that safety on the highways requires more than possessing a driver’s licence which, in the wrong hand, can become a licence to kill. Other road users have a right to expect to move freely and safely on the highways. On the basis of this right, they demand that the commission adopt a holistic approach to the issue of safety on the roads which must include a proper orientation for its personnel. In all fairness, the commission and its operatives are doing their level best to earn their keep in the prevailing circumstances. But we argue that a lot will be achieved if they choose, one at a time, the policy to implement. At the moment, what we see are carcasses of ill-defined, not well thought out and poorly implemented policies such as the speed limiters and the new licence plates.

We urge the FRSC to enforce licence requirements for motorcycle and tricycle riders who ply the roads based on their own version of traffic laws. All indications point to the fact that most of them are not trained and licenced like the rest of us who daily expose ourselves to their dangerous and reckless manipulation of those machines that, to all intents, have no insurance policy even if it is of a third party. The Commission should, as a matter of urgency bring this set of road users within the law and its regulatory ambit.

Source: leadership

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