PREAMBLE

The traffic situation before the establishment of the Federal Road Safety Commission in Nigeria could best be described as chaotic, unpredictable and indeed dangerous as it was characterized by unprecedented wave of road traffic accidents with attendant colossal human and material losses. Within this era, public awareness and interest in Road Safety was minimal. There was uncoordinated and haphazard licensing of drivers and vehicles as well as absence of good driving culture. Deliberate policies and concerted effort at enforcing regulations was lacking. Quantitatively, road traffic accidents fatality index as at 1987 was 302 at 16 death per 1,000 vehicles.

As a specific response to the Road Safety question, the then Federal Military Government established the Federal Road Safety Commission in 1988 vide Decree 45 of 1988 as amended by Decree 35 of 1992 (FRSC Act Cap 141, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990). The critical mandate of the Commission was accident prevention and loss reduction on all public roads across the country. This paper, is an attempt to x-ray the activities of the Commission vis-a-vis its corporate mandate after 18 years of existence.

HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE OF FRSC

As stated earlier, prior to the establishment of the Federal Road Safety Commission in 1988, there was no concrete and sustained policy action to address the Road Safety question. Earlier attempts in this direction were limited to discrete and isolated attempts by some States of the Federation and individuals.

Notable was the effort of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) between 1960 – 1965; the efforts of the Nigerian Army in the training of its Officers and men on Road Safety in the early 70’s. (The Nigerian Army started the First Public Road Safety Campaign in 1972 when it initiated an annual Road Safety Week).

The first deliberate policy on road safety was the creation in 1974 of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) by the then Military Government. The impact of the Commission was however, not sustained. In 1977, the Military Administration in Oyo State established the Oyo State Road Safety Corps which made some local significant improvement in Road Safety and road discipline in the State. This lasted till 1983 when it was disbanded by the Federal Government.

With the continued dangerous trend of road traffic accidents in Nigeria which placed it as one of the most road traffic accident (RTA) prone countries worldwide (only second to Ethiopia), the Nigerian Government saw the need to establish the present Federal Road Safety Commission in 1988 to address the Road Safety crisis in Nigeria. See Table 1 showing the pre-FRSC road traffic accident (RTA) situation in Nigeria.

Road Traffic Accident Situation before the creation
of Federal Road Safety Commission in 1988

*Sources: Fed Ministry of Works & Housing; and Nigerian Police Force Headquarters, Lagos.
*Extract from a paper: The Road Traffic Accident problem in Nigeria and National Awareness by Dr Femi Sumaila, Dept of Geo & Planning Unijos, 1992. Presented at the National Workshop on Road Safety in Nigeria.