Strategic stakeholders in road transport business in the country have given applause to the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi for his doggedness in managing issues of road safety, saying his aggressive campaigns coupled with consultative initiatives have enhanced safety on the nation’s roads. These were the views of the stakeholders who held the regular consultative meeting with the Corps Marshal on the enforcement of speed limiting devices in the country.
According to Bisi Kazeem, Head, Media Relations and Strategy, FRSC the stakeholders were unanimous in their views that the collaborative spirits of the FRSC Boss has contributed to the reduction of friction, built confidence in the relationship and enhanced cordiality between them and the FRSC, noting that such initiatives should be sustained.
In his own remarks at the meeting, Oyeyemi while commending the stakeholders for their renewed zeal in matters of road safety, noted that he decided to seek for their inputs before taking major decisions affecting their operations because, he was interested in building harmony between them and the FRSC. He further stressed that most of the road safety challenges facing the country could be harmoniously tackled if all stakeholders are brought to the same level through consultation.
According to him, since the early part of the year when stakeholders started robbing minds on issues of road safety, there has been noticeable cooperation between the stakeholders, saying that has impacted positively on the safety of the roads. “We have observed that since tanker drivers have started abiding by the minimum safety standards following the deployment of our personnel to the tank farms and the support the operators are extending to our campaigns, crashes involving tankers have been trending down,” he stated.
“I am therefore, looking forward to the time when we would experience a full month without the nation recording a single tanker crash. That was the target set by the tanker drivers at their last Executive meeting in Sokoto, and it is achievable, if they all remain committed to observing safety rules,” he added.
The Corps Marshal further informed the stakeholders that with the appeals they made towards the extension of the enforcement date of the speed limiting devices, President Muhammadu Buhari has graciously approved April 1st, 2016 as the new date for the commencement of enforcement. Accordingly, he urged the stakeholders to reciprocate the presidential gestures by putting their houses in order to make the new enforcement date easily enforceable. “The extension date by the President provides you with ample opportunity to educate your members on the impending enforcement and need for them to get their vehicles installed with the devices before the expiring date to avoid arrest and prosecution when enforcement commences,” Oyeyemi stated.
He expressed optimism in the success of the new date, enjoining all commercial transporters in the country to make effort to install the devices in their vehicle for the general safety on the roads. The Corps Marshal particularly appreciated the Comptroller General of Customs for sending a representative to the meeting, noting that the Customs Boss’ preparedness to collaborate with the FRSC especially in working with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to identify approved vendors for the importation of the devices for hitch-free port operations is most commendable, saying it would yield positive results for the safety campaign.
On the ECOWAS policy on axle load, Oyeyemi noted that work on the implementation of the policy has commenced in earnest with the last stakeholders’ meeting where a decision was taken on the need to sustain the advocacy with the more stakeholders, especially Transport Owners Association of Nigeria who control most of the trailers operating in the country. “The document on the axle load policy was signed by all the 15 member countries of ECOWAS including Nigeria. We must therefore, work hard to ensure that the country does not violate the provisions of the policy,” he stated.
The Corps Marshal reminded the stakeholders on the use of retro-reflective tapes in tankers and trucks for proper visibility of the vehicles especially in the night, saying with such safety measures being observed, crashes involving tankers and trailers would continue to go down. He added that since the deployment of the FRSC personnel to the various tanker farms across the country, 12,000 tankers have been checked for compliance with minimum safety standards and cases of fake and expired drivers’ licences are being addressed through the exercise.
In their different comments, the stakeholders expressed confidence in the leadership style of the Corps Marshal, stating that there has been improved understanding, friendship and greater compliance with safety rules and regulations following his visit to them in their offices early this year. According to them, this has led to a new era of collaboration, consultation and sharing of ideas with the FRSC, resulting in the decreasing level of traffic crashes in the country. While the President of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Alhaji Najeem Usman Yasin commended the Corps Marshal for his untiring efforts at bringing stakeholders together for inputs before major decisions on road safety are taken by the Corps, he gave assurances that he would educate his members on the new date and enjoin them to always abide by traffic rules and regulations.
On his own part, the PTD-.NUPENG Chairman, Salmon Oladiti, while commending President Muhammadu Buahri for the extension of the date of the enforcement of the law on speed limiters to April 1st next year, noted that the decision was a demonstration of the President’s sensitivity to the plight of the people of the country. He therefore, called on all stakeholders to ensure compliance with the requirements to make the roads safer for all. Oladiti however appealed to the Federal Government to embark on massive rehabilitation and reconstruction of the major highways across the country to make them motorable .
In the same vein, the representative of the President of Road Transport Owners Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), Comrade Ugwu Ejiefor, called for urgent repair of some dilapidated roads across the country and canvassed the idea of returning the tollgates on some major roads to support the government in the finance of the cost of road projects. The National President of NARTO, Alhaji Kassim Bataiya in his own remarks, expressed solidarity with the collaborative spirits of Oyeyemi and commended him for his untiring efforts to make the roads safer.
Alhaji Bataiya however observed that more consultations needed to be made before final decision is taken on the issues of axle load enforcement. According to him, with the various categories of articulated vehicles being imported with different number of tyres, there was the need for expertise opinion on the determination of the axle load capacity of a particular vehicle type before determining whether the vehicle carrying certain weight of load is overloaded or not.
He also appealed to the Federal Government to urgently embark on massive repair of the nation’s roads to save the vehicles of the transporters.
Other stakeholders who commended the collaborative initiatives of Oyeyemi’s leadership at the meeting included the representative of the Comptroller General of Customs, the representative of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC as well as the President of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), Ademola Olorunfemi.
The stakeholders’ meeting on use of speed limiting devices comprises strategic stakeholders in road transport business in Nigeria whose activities affect the safety of the nation’s roads. The meeting is being sustained regularly to update all members on major policies affecting safety of vehicles, especially with the introduction of speed limiting devices, following the discovery that speed induced crashes account for about 50.8 percent of the road traffic crashes in the country.
