Daily Trust Editorial of November 21, 2024
In what looks like another move to militarise governance in Nigeria, the House of Representatives has passed for second reading a bill that will see personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to carry arms in the discharge of their duties.
The bill will seek to amend the Federal Road Safety Act (2007) for the creation of a Special Armed Squad in the Corps.
The bill is being sponsored by Rep. Abiodun Derin Adesida and Olaide Lateef Mohammed, who said that it would protect the corps’ personnel while confronting criminals in the cause of carrying out their duties.
The Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Mr Shehu Mohammed, in a television interview, explained that the squad would be used to protect its assets.
Given the state of insecurity in the country, it is understandable to support the arming of road safety personnel who patrol our roads to ensure adherence to traffic regulations.
However, we at Daily Trust believe that it is also dangerous to continue to arm all personnel engaged with law enforcement. Presently, there are more than 10 of such organisations whose personnel are empowered to carry arms while on duty. Unfortunately, this has only gone to cause more problems to the country than solve such. We have had many incidents of innocent citizens being killed or maimed through accidental discharge by personnel of such organisations while on duty. In some instances, some personnel shoot at their victims at the slightest presumed provocation.
This is because many of the personnel carrying such arms are not fully trained in handling arms and many use them to intimidate innocent citizens. We have had cases where policemen on patrol shoot drivers following minor misunderstanding. It will be sad if we further aggravate the situation instead of minimising it by adding the number of gun-wielding officials.
There is also the risk of further increasing the number of arms in the country and handing them over to some unscrupulous officers who use them illegally. Just a few weeks ago, the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, lamented that a sizable number of illicit arms being used to commit crimes in the country belonged to the government.
He said during the destruction of illicit arms organised by the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, such arms were being transferred to non-state actors, including terrorists and bandits by security agents.
This apparently shows the situation needs to be controlled by minimising the number of people carrying arms rather than aggravating it by a new legislation authorising FRSC personnel to carry arms.
Daily Trust believes that in this age where technology is being deployed to all facets of our lives, the FRSC should rather be empowered to deploy more technology in the discharge of its duties. We have seen in other climes where such is deployed to curb over-speeding and other road infractions with greater effects.
Many countries are also using technology to reduce personal contacts in order to minimise the chances of their officers being compromised.
Thus, we expect the FRSC to think more of deploying technology in their operations rather than putting them and fellow Nigerians in harm’s way.
We believe even before achieving that, the corps should devise other means of nipping the problem in the bud by deploying officers to motor parks and other take-off points to identify drivers and vehicles that should not even be allowed to start a journey instead of waiting for them on the roads. This will not only ensure the safety of their personnel, but will also help in identifying vehicles that are not roadworthy and unqualified drivers before they embark on a journey.
There is also an urgent need for the Corps to intensify its enlightenment campaign programme to make both drivers and passengers more aware of traffic rules. If Nigerians appreciate the necessity to adhere to road traffic rules, whether as drivers or passengers, we will have fewer road accidents in the country.
Traffic regulations are better adhered to through enlightenment campaigns to create awareness of the dangers of non-adherence instead of coercion and imposition of fines.
We advise the FRSC to put more efforts in bringing all stakeholders to appreciate its mandate and key into such efforts to ensure safety on our roads. It can extend this to our schools to inculcate this spirit in our younger ones.
Arming FRSC personnel is not the way to go in this era of technology, and in the spirit of creating a civil society and strengthening our democracy.