Writers are sometimes spoilt for choice of what to write about, especially in a country like Nigeria where every day comes with a new issue worthy of discussion.
The last one week has not been any different.
Is it the killing or suicide of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, the unfortunate death of the Army Chief, General Ibrahim Attahiru and ten other soldiers and airmen, in an air crash, and the subsequent “heartless felt condolences” of the defence minister, Bashir Magashi, read from a prepared speech at the funeral of the deceased officers, President Muhammadu Buhari’s absence at the funeral prayers and military funeral for the deceased, his phone call to the late Attahiru’s wife, details of which became a topic of public discourse, the directive to fly flags at half-mast which smacked of an afterthought, coming 48 long hours after the incident, the statement by the attorney general of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, likening itinerant cattle rearing to trading in spare parts, or the declaration by the Presidency that the ban on open cattle grazing by southern governors is attempting to tear Nigeria apart and many more? The list is endless.
This week, I choose to focus on the good roads in Abuja, which are combining with other factors to become a burden and a source of grief for many families.
Let me tell you a story.
Sometime around 2012, I had a neighbour who had just relocated from Port Harcourt, Rivers State to Abuja. One of the things that left the young man enthralled about the capital city was the quality of roads, their width and all.
Every Sunday evening, he’ll get in his car and drive from the Gwarinpa end of the Outer Northern Expressway (ONEX) to AYA, Asokoro, and back, just to have a feel of the 10-lane road.
He owned one of those fast moving trucks and would speed on the road, which he likened to his race track, and jokingly say if there is nothing else to enjoy in Abuja, he will at least enjoy the roads.
He may not alone in this track of reasoning.
There are many more like him for whom the roads in Abuja are a race track. This perhaps explains the number of accidents recorded on the city’s roads daily. Ahmadu Bello Way, one of the longest roads in the Abuja with the most number of junctions, records about the highest number of accidents. Drive on the road stretch early any Saturday morning and you’ll be shocked by the number of accidented vehicles and pieces of broken glass at the accident sites on the road.
Road safety experts say road crashes are caused by either of or a combination of the driver, vehicle, road or mechanical defects but in Abuja, the good state of the roads is highly implicated.
Last week alone, I happened on three fatal accidents on the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Way. And just on Sunday morning, first son of the late Chuba Okadigbo, former Senate President, Pharaoh Okadigbo, lost his life in a crash on the Life Camp/Gwarinpa by-pass.
Like one of the accidents I saw, he drove his vehicle under a stationary truck and died at the scene. It would have been a miracle of monumental proportions if he survived, considering the photographs of the relic of the vehicle that were being circulated on social media.
Cases of cars driving under parked articulated vehicles are becoming quite rampant. Vehicles breakdown and are parked by the road side with no caution sign to notify other vehicles. Some even ply the roads without rear lights and none of the regulatory agencies seem to be doing anything about it. In a few instances, you see that the C-caution sign is kept behind the vehicle but placed so close that one is almost running under the vehicle before they see it.
Some years back, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) launched enforcement of the use of retro-reflective stickers on vehicles under its enabling law, Section 75 of the National Road Traffic Regulations 2004, published in the Official Gazette of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on September 21, 2004, which states that “A motor vehicle other than a two-wheeled motor cycle without a side car shall be equipped with at least two red reflex reflectors other than the triangular form”. It also goes on to prescribe the minimum distances for attaching the reflectors on a vehicle, along with the minimum 150 metres distances from which such reflectors must be visible.
Similarly, on the issue of retro-reflective stickers, the National Road Traffic Regulations 2012 (Gazetted) prescribes red alternating tape with silver, which shall be 101.60mm (4 inches in width) and 305 mm (12 inches) in length and gives specifications that the rear part of the vehicle body should have sticker at both its upper and lower positions and two lengths of reflective tape 250mm minimum at 90 degrees and that the placement of the tape should allow for a space of 200mm at least between the reflective tape positions and mandatory stop light.
Also, in 2018, the Lagos State Police Command launched a joint operation tagged; “Operation Restore Sanity On Lagos Roads/Operation Velvet” in conjunction with other security agencies and the Lagos State government had directed the implementation of the use of 3M retro-reflective tapes with West Africa Road Safety Organisation (WARSO) and standardised C-Caution for vehicles, motorcycles, tricycles, wheelbarrows and carts.
Some people have argued that most vehicles come with reflective points on the rear lights, but this is not the case for a lot of the heavy duty trucks plying our roads, many of them do not have rear lights so the need for the stickers becomes pertinent.
The original stickers, the producers say, reflect from a distance of 300 metres
Another issue is that of speed. Personal safety on the road is first your responsibility as a driver before it is that of other road users. That is why it is often said that you should drive defensively for yourself and others.
The way I see it, for drivers in Abuja, the allure of good roads is too much temptation that they are unable to resist themselves from speeding excessively. You could be driving in the city and a car drives past you with so much speed that it causes your car to vacillate.
Maybe it is about time the issue of installation of speed limiters in vehicles as proposed by the FRSC a few years is revisited. A good idea, the high cost of the device, pegged at N35,000 at the time and the insistence of the Corp on monopolising the sale and installation of the device had caused it to be shot down, following public outcry.
But before then, safety begins with you, so pay attention while driving and may God protect us all.
