Accidents: FRSC urges states to establish traffic management agencies

Mr Boboye Oyeyemi, Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), has urged states yet to establish traffic management agencies to do so to enhance national safety and security.

Oyeyemi made the call at a conference of Heads of State Traffic Management Agencies held in Abuja on Tuesday.

The theme of the conference was “Sustaining Inter-Agency Collaboration toward Improved Road Safety Culture management in Nigeria”.

He said that the positive multiplier effect of such agencies would include enhanced safety and security.

Oyeyemi said that the meeting was an intentional approach toward sustainability in inter-agency relationship in the true value of team spirit approach for the betterment of national development.

The corps marshal, while noting that only 18 states had established the traffic management agencies, said that the corps would synergise with those yet to establish to do so to enhance safer roads.

He said: “The FRSC as the lead agency cannot do it alone. That is why you have the policy evolution encouraging the states to set up the traffic management agencies.

“We look at the United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety 2011-2020. The pillar one of the action is on road safety management which encourages member states to set up the lead agencies on traffic management..

Oyeyemi said that the corps was encouraging states to set up these traffic management agencies due to “the chaotic and worrisome urban traffic”.

He said this would enable the corps to pull out from the state roads and focus more on the federal roads with about 36, 000km of total road network.

“The federal roads are where most of the traffic crashes occur. We will continue to encourage the states.

“It is in the policy document of the Nigerian Road Safety Strategy and we will make sure before the end of next year, almost all the states must have complied,” he said.

According to Oyeyemi, it is not enough to set up the agencies but such agencies have to be well funded.

“And they must be made professional the way FRSC is. That is why we are availing the states of the services of our academy and the training school so that we can all be at par,” he Oyeyemi said.

He also called for synergy between the various management agencies to harmonise operations and the database for the good of the country.

“For the states that have their agencies in place, I also appeal to the respective governors to fund the agencies well so as to ease their achievement of set goals.

“This is important because underfunding will simply result in money down the drain without any meaningful return to the expectant members of the communities.”

He said that Nigeria was the 10th nation globally to endorse all the six UN Conventions on Road Traffic following President Muhammadu Buhari’s assent to the Geneva Convention on Road Signs and Signals in 2018.

Mr Isaac Adetimiro, Deputy General Manager, Lagos State Traffic Management Agency, said that the agency was managing the high level of traffic in the state.

“With the support of the federal and state governments, we are able to manage traffic perfectly in Lagos, especially in Apapa.”

Adetimiro appealed to motorists, especially tanker and truck drivers, to ensure the maintenance of their vehicles to reduce accidents and high volume of traffic on the road.

Retired Col. Abdulkadir Ahmed, the Chief Executive Officer, Kaduna State Traffic Law Enforcement Authority, said that the traffic situation in the state was a little bit difficult because of the influx of commuters.

He, however, said that the government was doing its best on road expansion under the rural renewal project.