In 2024, I gave you my Agenda. I did the same in 2023. In fact, like most Nigerians’ annual ritual, it has become my personal ritual too, to set my agenda for the year to guide my line of thinking as well as my focus in this column. I apologise that this year’s agenda is coming a month late.
But, like the trouble with most of us Nigerians, we rarely follow through with what we call New Year resolution. Personally, I have stopped having one. My only exception is in my dealing with God in setting the tone for the New Year with God of Heaven and the Earth as my anchor and lead.
That, for me, is my best resolution and this is done not just through verbalisation like most of us do, but through fasting which I dread, and praying. Before I bore you stiff, let me confess that although I dread prayers and fasting, it is quite refreshing with health as an oversight benefit. Whenever I am engaged in the exercise, you would probably mistake me for a victim of a war-torn zone.
Let me pause with my pulpit mannerisms on prayer and fasting and congratulate you for crossing over to 2025. As I look back to 2024, I cannot but doff my hat for Baba God, the double breasted one we call, Almighty God for keeping us. I must also salute you for keeping faith with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). For my friends and colleagues who would always call to say, “Your men are harassing me again ooh”, even when your license is expired, I say thank you and well-done for every infraction you violate without thinking of the repercussions of your actions.
Despite the challenges of 2024, it marked a watershed in my life as it drew the curtain on my sojourn in the Federal Road Safety Corps after 28 years of service to the Corps and our beloved fatherland. I am eternally grateful to God for using me for His own in-print through platforms such as “Oga Driver” and the “Celebrity Special Marshal” among other creative platforms.
With all sense of humility, my career was colorful because of the GOD in whom I entrusted the totality of my sojourn in the Corps. I am hopeful that I have been told I am made for more in 2025 and therefore, the year will certainly bring better promises by the tender mercies of God Almighty. Despite exiting the Corps, I am fully committed to that which God has called me to do – saving lives.
I am also confident that the Corps under the current leadership of my friend and boss, Shehu Mohammed, will impact us through effective policing and prompt post-crash response. This is why my first focus, which has already taken shape, is on the trending crashes relating to petrol-laden tankers and the havoc they cause on our roads. If you followed my piece in the last couple of weeks, you would have seen my obsession with the need to re-awaken the consciousness of stakeholders and road users.
This prompted me to run a series on the need for the use of the right terminology. Last week, I served you with a piece titled: “Was that mass fatality another crash”. The piece x-rayed the Niger State crash involving the loaded fuel tanker that fell on the Dikko-Maje Road. Several lives were lost in that avoidable crash. Also, was the case of the crash in Enugu State that claimed 15 lives including a family of six.
You can get the full details of the piece. I also did a piece titled: “Was that fatal crash an accident”. This piece x-rayed the crash that killed nine members of a family while asleep in Okete community in Ohimini local government area of Benue State. There was also a piece captioned, “An Accident Is No Crash”. This piece was the teaser on the need to draw a line between an accident, which is something that could not have been prevented as against a road crash, which is preventable.
How can I miss the real deal which is spee: “Check Your Speed In 2025”, was my curtain raiser. Speed, I told you, is at the core of the traffic injury problem. It influences both crash risk and crash consequences. The physical payout of the road and its surrounding can both encourage and discourage speed.
However, crash risk increases as speed increases, especially at road junctions and while overtaking. A good number of road users are guilty of this even though we would rather blame the other driver for our errors.
For the speed freaks, please note these truths: that the higher the speed of a vehicle, the shorter the time a driver has to stop and avoid a crash. A car travelling at 50km/h will typically require 1.3 metres in which to stop, while a car travelling at 40km/h will stop in less than 8.5 metres. An average increased speed of1km/h is associated with a three percent higher risk of a crash involving an injury.
Travelling at 5km/h above a road speed limit of 65km/h results in an increase in the relative risk of being involved in a casualty crash that is comparable with having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05g/dl. For car occupants in a crash with an impact speed of 80km/h, the likelihood of death is 20 times what it would have been at an impact speed of 30km/h
It is because of the grave risk involved that countries the world over including Nigeria set and post speed limit, because controlling vehicle speed can prevent crashes from occurring and reduce the impact with which they occur, thus lessening the severity of injuries sustained by the victims.
In Nigeria, the maximum speed on the express is 100km/h for private cars and 90km/h for taxis and buses while at built-up areas such as commercial and residential areas, the initial speed of 50km/h had now been reduced to 30km/h.
