Road Safety in Nigeria - Where Lies The Solution?

The recent road traffic accident that killed the National President of Nigeria's largest trade union, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Alhaji Hamman Gidado and his top officials has further exposed Nigeria as among countries with ineffective road traffic safety policy.

For years, prominent Nigerians have fallen victims of road traffic accident with no enforceable policies and regulations to tackle the carnage. Among major cause of road traffic accidents in Nigeria are drunkenness, poor quality drivers, fake and sub-standard spare parts, bad roads and overspeeding.

The law enforcement agencies must deal with these factors, possibly making regulations that will eliminate poor quality drivers from the steering and checking the activities of spare parts dealers who import cheap, fake and sub-standard motor vehicle spare parts and sell to innocent motorists.

The Federal Road Safety Commission and their counterparts should establish speed checkpoints on highways and major roads where speed control violators can be apprehended and prosecuted. There is urgent need that penalties for road safety violators should be reviewed to include a life ban for any driver  guilty of fatal accident that involve life. The administration of motor vehicle in States should be vigorously implemented.

The President and Commander-In-Chief, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr GoodLuck Jonathan should commence a process of holding State Governors responsible for road accidents that occur in their States as most of the Governors are negligent of their constitutional roles to establish and equip their State Road Traffic Agencies to compliment efforts in road safety.

According to recorded reports from Federal Road Safety Commission, Nigeria lost 316,000 precious lives of its citizens from 1960 todate (Only reported cases are recorded) to road traffic accidents which is quite alarming. As Nigeria was celebrating its 50 years aniversary, many more were killed.

While we console the families of the injured and dead victims of road traffic accidents in Nigeria, we call on the Federal and State Government to observe National morning on the 21st of November 2010 being the World Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims.

We say No to avoidable and Preventable Road Traffic Accident

Prince Fidelis Nnadi is the Executive Director
Accident Prevention and Resccue Initiative - Abuja Nigeria