Road Safety, Safe Roads in Nigeria.
Safety is commonly referred to as the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury. Everyone wants safety, but this desire is challenged every time we leave our homes for work, exercise, fun, or any reason whatsoever. Keeping safe is a part of growing up as it is inculcated in our learning experiences as we grow, however, we are still at risk of accidents as we only control our decisions, and less on the decision of others.
We would be focused primarily on road safety as this has a critical role to play in determining whether people return home or are taken to the hospital or in case of fatality the morgue. There are majorly 2 ways to view road safety:
a. The users of the roads
b. The road (infrastructure).
The users of the roads are a big determinant of how safe a road is. The lack of concentration or incompetence of a driver puts every road user in jeopardy, hence it is important that every driver of a vehicle has an up-to-date credential and authorization to drive. In Nigeria, there is even a Federal agency that ensures this, also ensuring the driver and his vehicle have all the necessary items such as spare tires, jack, fire extinguisher, and a Caution Sign. They even go as far as ensuring the tires are not expired! Sometimes, the police also join in this task. It appears that everything about road safety is about the drivers and their cars, and less about the roads needing to be safe.
I am not writing about the quality of our roads in Nigeria, as it is visible to all road users to see. There is a clear need to improve the quality of roads we have in the country, as the quality of the road is very important and critical for road safety, even as the drivers remain careful. There are a couple of points I believe are missing in Nigeria, either with new road constructions or renovation. They are road markings and road signs. The cost of installing this would be a small fraction of the cost of constructing the roads, but somehow, we miss out on this important feature. Roads should be marked as construction is ongoing, as long as those roads are open to public use. The road signs and markings are a physical way of the Government actually helping to keep the roads safe, but surprisingly, this is not done.
This brings us back to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), whose mandate is to “eradicate road traffic crashes and to create a safe motoring environment”. They have proven themselves as a bias Regulator, as they are only focused on the drivers and their vehicles and never on the roads and their safety. Reading through the mandate of FRSC, it appeared focused primarily on drivers (the people) and less on the roads (there is a point on clearing obstruction on the highway). Would it be too much to ask that the FRSC periodically rates the roads in Nigeria with respect to how safe they are? Should the FRSC have some responsibilities of providing safety supports like road markings and signing? Is it too much to ask that the FRSC does more than looking out for reckless and careless drivers and focus on trying to really create a safe road?
I understand that the country is under a lot of financial burden, but I am optimistic that the cost of marking our roads is not so huge that we need to raise Sukuk or sell Bonds for. For new roads, it is actually strange that road markings might not in the briefs as a lot of the newly constructed roads do not have roads marked or even older roads routinely remarked. In truth, I am not interested in who does the road markings and signs however, it is important they are done. And the FRSC should do everything possible to provide a safe motoring environment by holding the providers of the road markings and signings account and not only the people.
Olamide Eyinla shares his thoughts from Lagos, Nigeria.