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Road Safety Corps And Seat-Belt Exploitation By Isa Muhammad Inuwa
Ever since the “Road Safety Corps” was founded during the Nigeria’s military regime under General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in late 1980s to date the body which was meant to regulate the activities of road users has been left swinging in the limbo, at the mercy of lack of clear cut directions and responsibilities as far control of driving vehicles are concerned. The dilemma seems to have arisen from the fact that “Road Safety Corps” came just as a child of circumstance, when Babangida’s regime introduced some kind of auxiliary projects without backing thought and thorough objectives. This made “Road Safety Corps” had its functions clashed with that of V.I.Os and at times that of traffic wardens. This particular reality rendered the body look a kind of hybrid which neither belongs to the police nor to the traffic officers, to the extent that at different occasions, the Corps has been merged with the police and at another occasion, separated from the police, while the police themselves look at the Road Corps as alien to their service. The present situation is that the federal Road safety Corps has outlived the regime that founded it, but it is yet to gain its real identity and yet to fix its roots like the rest of federal government bodies. Worse still, road accidents, which the Corps were thought to control and minimize kept rising astronomically year in year out, with the body still in existence and its staff being paid salaries with Nigerians’ tax payers money.
The great irony is that despite the Road Safety Corps, Nigerian roads are no longer safe and they are still unsafe as highway massive accidents and city and town accidents mainly caused by the notorious motorcyclists known as “Achaba” continue to gulf lives of innocent citizens. This particular fact tends to rise the question that what actual purpose is the Road Safety Corps serving? Is it only serving in recording the number death and the related aggregate of death tolls over the years, as they occur on our roads? Please can that be enough?
Possibly and obviously, it is the attempt of proponents and guardians of the Corps in covering its disabilities that the ended up in a camouflage, to introduce and insist on using “Seat-Belt” by motorists, the idea which in my opinion, is wrongly applied. Everyone knows the idea behind using seat-belt, but is it enough to emphasize on using belt by motorists on one hand and ignore the imposition of using helmets by motorcyclist? Or is it due to the fear by the Corps about the uncontrollable and rugged habit of the commercial motorcyclists, the “Okada riders” who would not consent to the idea of using helmets and would end up fighting the road Corps? The result now is that the law seems to be too lopsided and unbalanced, whereby the road Corps take pleasure in molesting the respected, peace-loving and gentle car owners, who would not raise an eyebrow to quarrel with them on the roads, because of their decorum. The respected Nigerians are therefore being harassed and fined for the simple reason they do not, or even forget to use seat belt, all the same, during a township driving,(not even inter sate or highway driving).
Another reason why the road Corps law in despotic, nepotic and selective is that they tend to allow vehicle owners that carry any government sign or ones that look so luxurious and flashy to pass scot-free, for the fear of the possibility of offend a highly connected or highly positioned somebody, which could make them forfeit they work and could fetch them a dismissal. This selective justice with the road gendarmes and the police is even more pronounced in the case of arresting users of the so-called “tinted glass”, i.e., the shady or dark screen glasses on their cars, at which some selected individuals are allowed to use them, while the rest citizens are punishable for doing so.
This writer therefore considers the work by the road Corps for emphasizing on using seat belt in the town and leaving other fundamental issues like using hard drugs by drivers and riders, reckless driving by commercial motorcyclists and more importantly checking the menace of highway driving, their work could seen as highly narrow and naïve. Some people even began to complain that the road Corps were only seeking for dirty money and bribery, by concentrating in the city alone, while it is a fact that highway driving is much more risky and accident prone, as per as car driving is concerned. Those holding this view added that members of the Corps are seen to be more serious and strict while bigger seasonal festivities such as the Xmas and the Eid were approaching, so that they could fill their pockets in readiness for the grand occasions.
Whether the above assumption is true or false, the glaring fact is that the road gendarmes were being used by their superior officers or rather by the higher authorities, in order to further subjugate the common citizen, to demonstrate to him that the power of dealing with common man is still in existence and that he is nothing more than a subject and a commoner.
Whichever is the case, the law of checking “belts” in cars alone is too primitive and selective because even in the cars, it is the driver alone, (according to Kano Corps), that should have his belt on. In this case, passengers are exempted and are regarded as not worthy in terms of possible accidents. Like wise the tricycles lack belts for both the driver and passengers, while in case of commercial buses only the driver could use belt, with the exception of the over-loaded passengers. For the motorcycle riders, helmets were not used, in spite of the numerous accidents they cause daily. All of the above facts and much more, indicate and prove the selectiveness of the road Corps in their law, which fall far behind curbing the recurring accidents and loss of precious lives on our roads.Finally, this leads to exploitation, rather than correction of road users.
ISA MUHAMMAD INUWA, is a journalist in Kano, Nigeria.
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