By DCC Sani Abdullahi
There’s no nation that would remain unconcerned in the face of over 4,000 of its citizens being killed every year due to road traffic crashes as Nigeria was suffering before the establishment of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in 1988 as the lead agency to reverse the trends. That was what the Federal Government of Nigeria did with the establishment of the Corps which was charged with the sole responsibility of tackling the menace of road traffic crashes using all tools of modern education. It’s an assignment that the FRSC has carried out so beautifully that it has continued to enjoy the goodwill of the people of Nigeria and successive administrations in the country.
FRSC, as some analysts have rightly observed, represents the ideals of alternative security strategy with its civil approach to issues of law enforcement and service delivery to humanity. Unlike other regimental organisations operating in the country, FRSC gives impetus to civility through the promotion of education, enlightenment and selfless service. According to the Nobel Laurette, Professor Wole Soyinka, who was the founding Chairman of the FRSC Board, the organisation operates on the principles of self awareness by which “motorists obey the Marshals not out of fear of arms they carry, but out of their conviction of the rightness of the actions of the marshals.”
To this end, FRSC not only develops necessary tools for education and effective information dissemination, it ensures that motorists share responsibility for making roads safer through strategic engagements. That’s why till today , civility remains the defining character of the personnel of the FRSC in alignment with the soft approach to issues of security as promoted by proponents of alternative security strategy.
Here, one must give kudos to the founding fathers of the FRSC for the robustness of their vision. By conceiving FRSC not just as a law enforcement agency but a “preventive medicine” as Professor Soyinka put it, the organisation was designed in such a way that it’s stocked with specialised personnel who are civil enough to be trusted with rescue of road traffic crash victims, and strong enough to be feared by recalcitrant drivers who are deterred from committing traffic offences for the fear of the sanctions that could be imposed on them.
And after 37 years of successfully operating on the nation’s highways, carrying out its mandates without the use of arms, every stakeholder within and outside the country including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Bank has agreed that the ideals of a road safety lead agency which Nigeria pioneered in Africa through the establishment of the FRSC is what all the developing nations challenged by the menace of road traffic crashes require to imitate. Moreover, with the global attention being diverted towards embracing the alternative security strategy as evident in the frantic search for solutions to the ravaging diseases, the ideas of security, warfare and defence has ultimately been altered and, every nation would now be made to realise, like FRSC did long ago, that civility and not militarism is the way to go in achieving national stability and development.
The FRSC personnel, in carrying out their statutory responsibilities have always imbibed the ideas that serving humanity through selfless service delivery, prompt response to road and other emergencies and creating safer road environment through education and aggressive enforcement remains the goals that they must strive to achieve everyday as they wear their uniforms.
,,, Abdullahi is at the FRSC National Headquarters Abuja
