Adewale Ogunniran
When Chidoka Osita, Corps Marshall/Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Road Safety Commission, came up with the idea of new number plates and driver’s licence, many didn’t take him serious.
Most Nigerians thought the project would turn out to be another white elephant, like many others that have failed to see the light of day. Like other failed projects, Nigerians thought the money voted for the project would end up in private pockets, but the FRSC project proved them wrong.
Osita went ahead to support his action legally through the FRSC Establishment Act, 2007, enacted by the National Assembly, which states that the FRSC is empowered to make regulations relating to, determining, from time to time, the requirements to be satisfied by an applicant for a driver’s licence, designing and producing drivers’ licence and vehicle number plates to be used by various categories of vehicles and registration, licensing, road worthiness of vehicle, use of expressways use and construction, vehicle highways codes and in general on human, vehicular and environmental factors to make highways safe.
The Federal Road Safety Commission management needs to be commended, rather than condemned, for living up to its responsibilities, unlike in the past when some ministries, parastals, commissions and agencies saddled with such responsibilities misappropriated tax payers money. Nobody has ever accused Chidoka and his team of defrauding or misusing tax payers money, rather the FRSC is trying to increase its revenue generation ability by harnessing all loopholes in the system and turning them into fortune for the whole country.
The FRSC Corps Marshall equally dwelt on security issues, which Nigeria is presently facing. He argued that through the new number plates and driver’s license, the vehicle and owners of the vehicles that are being used for bombing all over the country could be easily traced at the touch of a button.
It is sad that the critics of the new number plates and drivers’ license are not looking at the merits of this laudable project, rather they are looking at the proceeds from the issuance of the new number plates and driver’s license, which FRSC boss put at N192 billion.
Maybe the critics think the money is going into the purse of Chidoka and his team. If they think so it’s greatly unfair to Chidoka, who put in all efforts and intellectual capacity to improve the standard and security of his fellow citizens through the opportunity he was given as head of the commission.
It is even good for Nigerians to criticise or ask questions from the people in positions of authority, like Chidoka, but the criticisms must be constructive rather than malicious and destructive. Many Nigerians are hoping that Senator Dahiru Kuta and the 19 other distinguished members of the upper chamber of the National Assembly who sponsored the motion for the suspension of the new number plates and driver’s license will revisit the issue and look at the advantages of the project to Nigeria, so that the laudable project of the FRSC will not be aborted and the morale will not die in Nigerians who are bubbling with ideas of how to move this great country forward.
Senate President, David Mark, while ruling on the motion, said the new number plates by FRSC was an imposition of additional burden on Nigerians but he failed to see in the burden on Nigerians through the increase in the quarterly allowance of members of the House of Representatives, who now receive N27 million. Before some of these people got to the National Assembly, they could not afford three square meals, but they all now millionaires by virtue of their positions.
The National Assembly needs to stop chasing shadows and face the substance. Or what do we say about Honourable Herman Hembe who requested for N44 million from the Director General of the Security and Exchange Commission, Ms. Oteh Aruna? Is that not a great burden on Nigerians?
Ogunniran, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Lagos.