SAFE CORRIDORS IN NIGERIA- YAYALE LAUDS WORLD BANK 

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed has commended the World Bank for investing on road safety in Nigeria through the Safe Corridors, which is aimed at optimal utilization of human and material resources to stem the tide of road traffic crashes in the Country.

Speaking while receiving the FRSC Corps Marshal and Chief Executive, Osita Chidoka who led a team of World Bank Consultants to his office, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation stated that an institutional framework has already been put in place through the establishment of the Federal Road Safety Commission 22 years ago but was worried that the capacity for optimal performance has been lacking over the years due to obvious human, environmental and mechanical challenges.

Alhaji Yayale was optimistic that the on-going capacity review of road safety management in Nigeria by the World Bank Consultants will no doubt, provide a baseline for a reliable evaluation and recommendations that will engender a realistic legal framework, policy formulation and investment towards safer road use in Nigeria.

While stating that the menace of road crash should attract more attention than HIV/AIDs and Malaria, Yayale Ahmed also urged the Consultants to further look into the area of compliance with traffic rules by road users in order to address this unpleasant trend, adding that the World Bank intervention should transcend national frontiers to adequately ensure sanity on the highways of the West African sub-region.

Speaking earlier, the FRSC Corps Marshal stated that the capacity review is a fallout of an initiative by the Corps in 2008 to attract World Bank funding for road safety and other sub-components such as road markings, signages and effective harness of human and material resources to ensure sanity on our roads.

Also speaking, the leader of the World Bank Consultants, Darren Divall disclosed that the capacity review of road safety management will not only involve interactive session with relevant stakeholders in road safety in Nigeria but will also provide the team with realistic assessment of road conditions, policy formulations and legislations bordering on road safety in order to identify areas of intervention.