The latest figure released by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on the fatalities on the Nigerian roads in 2016 shows an improvement compared to the previous years. This is cheery news. According to the organisation, a total of 7,657 crashes were recorded out of which 4,005 lives were lost, whereas in 2015, a total of 12,077 accidents occurred, leading to the demise of about 5,400 people. The percentage of reduction in crashes is about 35, while that of fatalities stands at about 25.
The above statistics should gladden the hearts of many Nigerians, particularly the road users. The FRSC also deserves kudos for its efforts at reducing carnage on our roads reputed as being the second highest claimer of human lives in the world. Ranked 193 in the world, Nigeria has a death rate of 162 persons per 100,000 population.
This is understandable. According to available records, Nigeria has the largest road network in West Africa and second largest south of the Sahara. Our roads are the busiest in the sub-region, partly owing to the country’s huge population. But they are poorly constructed and maintained.
Although the reduction might be considered as still low, we dare ask: Is Nigeria keying into the United Nations General Assembly’s call for dedicated intervention by government to bring down the (frightening) rise in road traffic accidents by 50 per cent?
However, we think Nigeria still has a very long way to go in achieving the global target. The general belief in some quarters is that the FRSC is succeeding in taming the monster of speed with the implementation of speed limiting machine which came into effect late last year.
In the words of the Corps Marshal of the organisation, Boboye Oyeyemi, “Most of the road crashes are preventable; if we are able to bring down the speed, we will be saving a lot of lives on our highways”.
Although excessive speeding has been identified as the major reason for the carnage on our highways, there are numerous other factors that have transformed them into a network of slaughter slabs. These include other human factors like poor eyesight and/or poor visibility at night, shortsightedness in the daytime, illiteracy (many motor mates still learn driving hanging by the tailboard in a 21st Century Nigeria), ignorance of road signs and regulations, driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, overloading, driving under bad weather conditions, overconfidence and corruption on the highways. Law enforcers demand gratifications from motorists that break the highway rules and regulations.
There are also the mechanical factors such as poor vehicle maintenance, worn-out or substandard tyres, un-roadworthy vehicles, the desire to make more money by making several trips especially during festivities, leading to fatigue.
It is public knowledge that more than 80 per cent of human and freight movements across Nigeria are road dependent. This puts enormous pressure on the roads and motorists. Available statistics also show that over 5,000 tankers are involved in wet cargo haulage ferrying about 150m litres of petroleum products across the country daily. Also, over 2,500 trucks pound the highways daily. Until the total collapse of rail transportation, all heavy cargoes were alien to the highways.
Besides the damage the heavy duty trucks constitute to our major highways, they were also responsible for the death of 1,048 people in 2016 alone, while goods valued at several billions of naira perished. No fewer than 70 personnel of the FRSC and other security agencies operating on the highways were killed too by reckless drivers or those escaping arrest during the period under review.
The role of transportation as a major driver of national economic growth and development cannot be over-emphasised. Much as we appreciate the fact that road infrastructure competes with projects in other sectors and subsectors of the economy for fund, it behooves government to balance and spread investments amidst dwindling resources.
Blueprint acknowledges the current strategic drive by the Buhari administration to revive the rail transportation sector as well as the construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation of some major highways across the federation. The momentum should be sustained.
Be that as it may, we call on the government at all levels to raise the bar in order to lower the rate of automobile accidents on our highways by ensuring synergy among various agencies like the FRSC, the Vehicle Inspectorate Office (VIO) and other relevant agencies.
