FRSC@35: How we succeeded in traffic management- Kazzem

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has recorded tremendous achievements in the area of traffic engineering, road safety administration, traffic management, rescue operation, changing bad road use behaviour and crash reduction.

The Corps Public Education Officer (CPEO), Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM) Bisi Kazeem, said this in a statement in Abuja.

Kazeem said that the road traffic management agency achieved the glorious feat, through a chain of pragmatic leadership.

This, he said, included sagacity of different generations of management, ingenuity of its policy formulators and the dexterity of the handlers of policy implementation.

According to him, these leaders have entrenched within the Corps, a wealthy culture of professionalism and excellence in service delivery.

“This is what has positioned it as the lead agency in road safety management and traffic administration.

“Also, with a passionate and enduring commitment to creating a safer motoring environment that is unequalled in the African sub-region.

“This unquenchable commitment asserts undue pressure on the Corps; thereby propelling it to more than ever before, continue to strengthen its strategies, programmes, knowledge and processes.

“This has enabled the agency to surmount all challenges militating against effective and efficient administration of safety in Nigeria,” he said.

Kazeem stressed that Nigeria was one of the few African countries that has leveraged on some road safety principles and have recorded remarkable progress in road safety administration and management despite a ‘gloomy’ beginning.

He said that the road safety situation in Nigeria was so deplorable that the World Health Organisation (WHO) once described the country as ‘worst in the world to travel on’ only next to Ethiopia.

He also said that the narrative changed through government’s efforts by establishing FRSC as the lead agency to guarantee safety on every centimetre of Nigeria’s expansive road network of 204,000km.

“This establishment was done ten years prior to United Nations recommendation for all member states to establish agencies directly situated under the central government for ease of unfettered operation.

‘FRSC has brought down annual record of crashes from over 40,000 crashes per year to below 5,000 at the moment.

“This began on 18 February, 1988, when the Corps commenced full operational activities geared towards eradicating road traffic crashes,” he said.

The Spokesman said that the Corps was and would always remain the frontline agency in traffic regulations in Nigeria.

He emphasised that FRSC had grown to become a reference point in excellent service delivery in Nigeria; benchmark for road safety management and administration in Africa and an example of global best practices in its operations.

This, he said, was through unprecedented innovations in information and communication technology and effective operational tools.

Kazeem commended the current leadership of FRSC, headed by Dauda Biu, for taking a bold steps towards the development of a vigorous framework for enhancing safe motoring environment in Nigeria.

He said that the strategic initiative had been the bedrock for the new innovations that have become ostensible in road safety administration and traffic Management in broad-spectrum.

“The laid foundation is premised on the resolve to place great attention to all the administrative variables that could enhance productivity, effectiveness and efficiency in the work process,” he said.

Kazeem assured the public that the Corps had put in place an unambiguous vision and mission projections designed to guide its affairs on short, medium and long term endeavours.