The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has said it needs more volunteers for special marshals to cushion the challenge of inadequate workforce that the Agency is currently combating.

The Sector Public Education Offuicer, Ojodu, Lagos, Mrs. Olabisi Sonusi, made this call at Julie @52, a celebration where the Publisher of Onwheels Magazine, Mrs. Julie Chi-Nwaoha, marked her 52nd birthday by getting 52 people to volunteer and sign up to be part of the FRSC special marshal. 

According to her the FRSC is short staffed hence the need for a special marshal, hence she commended Chi-Nwaoha’s drive in raising 52 volunteers across the nation to register as special marshals.

She however, commended the government’s effort in tackling some of the Commission’s challenges by way of providing some of its equipment like more operational, towing trucks and heavy duty trucks but said there was need for more assistance especially in this era of artificial intelligence to help FRSC transform from manual booking to electronic.

Her words: “For FRSC we want more volunteers because the workforce is not enough and that is why we have the special marshal. We have the celebrity special marshal, we have the road safety club. The road safety club will take them at the nursery, secondary level and also at their NYSC stage. We do not have them at the university level presently because of cultism.

“So if we have more people volunteer to come on board to join us it will make it easier for us and it would also solve some part of the problems that we have.

“I know the government has been trying to get us some of our equipment; like we now have more operational vehicles, towing trucks, even heavy duty trucks that we did not have before but it is still not enough, we are not there yet.

“If the government can still help us bring in new vehicles to off the ones that are already old it will make our work more effective.

“Now that we have artificial intelligence too, FRSC is also moving so that we want to stop the manual booking now to start using electronic systems to make the job much easier. So we are not there yet. We know we can get there, but please we need more people to also help us to get to the desired level that we want.”

Commenting on the Commission’s punitive measures attached to various traffic offences, Sonusi said some of the fines are not punitive enough to retrain people from committing such offences again, giving the instance of N5000 fine as fine for using the phone while driving.

She said FRSC however, has started a collaboration with the Lagos State Government to make sure we have offences and payment guide to deter people from committing traffic offences

“If you look at the fine FRSC has, some people will ask ‘what is the offence?’ Take for instance someone using the phone while driving FRSC’s fine is N5, 000, so such a person will be willing to commit that offence over and over because that amount is not punitive enough for him to want to restrain from committing that offence again.

“But what we do now; thank God for the Lagos State Government, we have the mobile court, we have the magistrate court that tries to help FRSC by presiding over traffic offences and that has helped a lot of ways to deter people from offences because we use the Lagos State fine to determine what that person pays.

“For instance if you used your phone while driving and you pay N20, 000, N30, 000, N50,000 or N80,000 like others, it will pain that person more because with the economic situation in the country now it will have more effect on the pocket than telling somebody to pay N5,000.

“So, we are doing that, we are collaborating with the state to make sure we have offences and payment guides to deter people from committing traffic offences,” she explained.     

A special marshal who is the Deputy Co-coordinator Unit 10, Ojodu, Lagos said what Chi-Nwaoha’s act of persuading 52 people to volunteer for special marshal would go a long way to impact safety.

She said: “What Julie has done today will have a very big impact on safety on our roads. Yes, she has been on it but this is a continuity to add to it; enlightenment campaign now. You can see people who are now trying to volunteer to say that they want to be part of road safety.

She advised people to take safety as a key thing in life, noting that the problem of safety on the road in Nigeria is not the government but the masses. 

She said: “My main advice to people concerning safety on the road is that we should take safety as one of the key things in our lives because we are the problem, not the government. If we do it right, who is the government?

“You and I are the government; when we do it right everything will work out well but when they say do not pass this road and because you feel somebody known in some quarters you don’t obey. You want to disobey the law; you see those in uniform you do not want to obey them.

“We have a lot of issues so I advise them when you see those in uniform please obey, then make sure you have all your vehicle particulars intact. Some will tell you it is the photocopy of my license that I have and I now ask them can you have a photocopy of your car.

“So when you’re going out that thing that is needed and when you present it will make you go you have it with you. You must have the original driver’s license with you, keep the photocopy at home, and put your original license in your purse.

“Most people say they don’t want it to get lost. I say okay if they steal the car, is the license bigger than the car, so why not hold on to your license because that license is your certificate to drive. Anybody can do anything and get a photocopy with all these falsifications that they are doing now.  

Also speaking the elated Celebrant of the day, Chi-Nwaoha, described road safety as everybody’s business and in fact a lifestyle.  

Her words: “Road safety like I’ve always told you is everybody’s business and road safety cannot be left in the hands of the Federal Road Safety officers alone because it is a communal service. That is why I feel like it’s not about a party to mark my birthday, it’s about bringing people that are interested in humanitarian services and volunteering to do the right thing especially on the highway and on the road.

“52 people are having their initiative unveiled today; that is why you see us all stand and across the nation we have 52 altogether. Just imagine if I’m doing 52 volunteers and you decide to take your age and bring people of your age group together and say let’s do this thing again; so I’m talking safety, you’re talking safety, he’s talking safety, the other person is talking safety and you will see that there would be less road safety crime on the road.

“People will not drink and drive; they would be careful when they’re doing anything, they’ll not be with their phones while driving, even students in schools will know that when they close from their schools they will not back traffic; you remember the Agidigbi accident where the articulated vehicle ran into a group of students.

“Yes, we need to speak continually, talk about road safety, it is a business that we all must talk about. You’re going to market, you just have to take a bus or you take transportation, you’re going to ply the road. You’re going to the farm, you’re going to school, you’re going to home, hospital or party you’re going to go through the road. Anywhere you’re going, even the President is on the highway, isn’t it?

“So you cannot run away from the road, so why don’t we have more people interested in saving lives on the highway. Whether you’re a mechanic; just like you saw what happened today. The first responders on a corridor are the people you least expect; traders and mechanics so they must be taught how to handle an incident of this magnitude. Just a simple first aid and the person would be alive, not somebody that had a crash, you surround him and the person says give me water you want to give him water, no.

“So as I celebrate my birthday today I want to use myself as a Launchpad to 52 people to join road safety and contribute their own quota.”

Describing road safety as a lifestyle, Chi-Nwaoha said she had been in it for over a decade, as a passion she developed as a transport presenter on radio and television 27 years ago stressing that she has testimonies to show for safety of lives on the road through her safety practice.

“I’ve been doing road safety for over a decade; I became a celebrity special marshal 13 years ago and you know I started presenting Onwheels on NTA Channel 5 right from the time of OGBC to Lagos Television; that’s about 27 years ago and I have so many testimonies to share.

“Testimonies of safety on the road – testimonies of incidents, testimonies of rescue, testimony of crash. In one of the incidents I was with my Personal Assistant on the way to Ibadan and there was this man sleeping while he was driving, it was an accident waiting to happen.

“He was driving and I was driving. I had to look at him and he had a passenger by his side. We beckoned him and I asked the passenger if he can drive and he said yes then I said why not switch so that he can sleep a bit and they agreed. Sometimes people like this do not agree.

“I have witnessed a man carrying a baby, driving and at the same time making a phone call and the wife was carrying the birthday cake on her lap. So there are so many of them, so many,” she recounted.

“Road safety was a passion that came by covering my bit as a presenter of a transport programme on television and radio. It became stronger and stronger and has now become a lifestyle; road safety is a lifestyle,” Chi-Nwaoha stressed. 

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