Elizabeth Jayeola, Route Commander and Lagos Public Sector Enlightenment Officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), has expressed concern over reckless driving on improved roads.
Speaking on News Central TV’s Breakfast Extra show on Sunday, Jayeola noted that while people often criticise bad roads, the improved road conditions now lead to an increase in speeding and accidents.
“Our roads are fantastic for now, as against what we used to have back in the years, if you understand what I mean.”
“But what we do not have is the compliance of people to their speeding and their safety on these roads. And that’s what’s causing the accidents,” Jayeola said in response to the subject of growing crisis of road accidents in Nigeria.
She observed that while poor road conditions previously slowed drivers, smoother roads now encourage excessive speeds.
“You know, when the roads are bad, we complain, oh, the roads are bad, but when the roads are good, instead of us to go, you know, on the level that we are supposed to go on, we speed it out. We want to get to where we are going, because the roads are now smooth and, you know, we can easily go now.
“We want to go to where we used to go on 45 minutes. Now we want to apply at five minutes. So, you see where the problem lies,” she explained.
Reckless driving remains a significant issue in Lagos, and Jayeola outlined some of the FRSC’s interventions to address the problem. Public awareness campaigns are being intensified, particularly during the festive “Ember months.”
“Public enlightenment is one of it. If you realise, we’ve done quite a lot of things this “Ember month”. One of them is going to the parks to enlighten people.
“And then the Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed, introduced something beautiful this season. We call it town hall meetings, where we have to talk to people, the stakeholders, the road safety stakeholders, under the same canopy to make sure they understand our message.
“And then we are propagating that the passengers hold the drivers responsible for their reckless driving,” she said.
The FRSC is also encouraging passengers to hold drivers accountable for unsafe driving.
“So it’s not just about drivers, drivers, drivers, as it used to be in those years. Now we are targeting the passengers. Let them speak out. In Yoruba, we say “sorosoke”—speak out— so that they can hold those drivers responsible for their reckless driving,” Jayeola added.
