Road Safety Or Road Nuisance: The Case of Road Safety Marshals in Yola

By

Ihas Idriess, A.

ihas@bluewin.ch

It’s no longer secret that the Road Safety Corp is the most useless agency to be created by any government in this country; it is an agency whose work you can find in the schedule of duty of the police. When the agency was establish by the past ruler of the country, General Babangida, it was believed then as it is today that it was meant to silenced one vocal human right activist who happen to be its first Oga.

Amongst its functions according to the edict that produce Road Safety Corp was;

1. Traffic law enforcement and patrols on the highways

2. Clearing of obstructions and providing assistance to stranded road users on journeys

3. Aggressive and coordinated public education, awareness and enlightment on friendly use of the roads, by motorist and other road users

4. Rescue operations and providing first aid to crucial accident victims at the road accident clinics and hospitals

5. Data gathering and feedback mechanism.

Armed with the above ethics it was expected that each and every marshal of the corp. has to by all means respect and uphold the ethics.  We all know today that not a single security operatives in this country really perform the function it was made to carry out, for example it is a known fact today that the police are worst than the armed robbers they meant to arrest, because the armed robbers will leave you unscathed when they really get what they want, while reverse is the case when you are unfortunate to find yourself in the hands of the trigger happy killer police, they will kill you whether they get the money or not, in fact you stand better chance of being killed when they actually get money on you.  So, to claim that the Road Safety Marshal do not carry out their constitutional duty is as absurd as telling someone that Obasanjo will hand over to Atiku come 2007.

But, the case of Adamawa State command of the Road Safety is really peculiar and need to talk about, because the command has indeed derailed completely from its original duty not a single ethics do they uphold in Adamawa for they have decided to constitute themselves to nuisance on the dilapidated roads in the state and Yola in particular; they are completely absent on the highways in the state where they are really needed, rather they are more visible within the roads in the state capital extorting money from innocent motorist for all sort of flimsy excuses.  The only offence that the marshals in Yola know in their books is the seat belt violation, which the driver can be made to settle on the spot by paying N500 or be booked to pay N1000. 

Everybody in Yola be on visit or otherwise knows the condition of the roads in the state capital, if other state complain of port holes on their roads, in Adamawa; to say we have port holes on our roads will be the understatement of the millennium because what we have hear is ponds on our road, I don’t drive, but I can say this without fear of contradiction that you can not drive within the state capital Yola and its environs above 30km/h, not because of traffic congestions but because of the ponds, yet, while drivers are busy trying to do their best in saving their cars from plunging into the ponds, the road safety marshals are lucking by the side to arrest any driver over a simple offence as moving on the wrong lane in the process of dodging a pond or seat belt.

Rather than sympathizing with the drivers over the condition of the roads, the Marshals uses the condition of the roads to their advantage as they find the worst spot on the road to make it their checking point, spots like the Bishop Street Junction, Mubi round about, 80unit junction to mentioned but just a few of the killer spots in which unashamedly you find the road safety marshals waiting for their prey.

Though I do not know how they ranked themselves in Road safety, but unlike Police that you hardly see their big officers on some of the stupid patrols, and checking point they mound within the  state capital in the night, in the case of the Road Safety, by their dressing and age you will be able to guess that a marshal is indeed an officer, and in most of the cases you will see them also involved fully in the extortion spree, imagine a road block or checking point at just before Mubi round about a spot after heavy down pour a eight year might drawn if he attempt to cross, or Bishop street or at 80unit junction just before the corner to the VP house, those spots are the worst in the state to drive around and at those area except may be in a four wheel jeep a driver must slow down to not more than 10km/h, yet as I said before shamelessly you see the marshals standing right by the side waiting to stop a driver.

The road safety in Yola is of little or no importance at all, as there is nothing safe in the roads that will require road safety marshals to take care of it, what we expect from the marshals to be doing is to be involved in campaigns that will sensitize the general public on road usage, or even best to be declaring some of these roads unfit for usage, this way may be the government will rise up to their responsibility, but believe me far away from this, the Road Safety Marshals in Yola are having a field day and have choose to constitute themselves as nuisance on our road, but believe me the drivers in Yola are not happy at all and because we are docile for now, does not mean we can not react one day, God save the road safety marshals, the day the people will act in response to the callousness of the marshals, what the starlet driver did to them in their office along Girei road is just a tip of the ice berg . A word they say is enough for the wise.