Mr. Osita Chidoka, Corps Marshal
The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr. Osita Chidoka, yesterday said Nigerian roads were the second worst in the world. He said the state of the roads placed the country on the 191st position out of 192 countries whose roads were currently rated based on safety standards.
Chidoka made the disclosure in Abuja during the commission’s third annual lecture series titled: ‘Achieving the Decade of Action on Road Safety 2011-2020.’
The corps marshal stated that the United Nations General Assembly had designated 2011 to 2020 as a decade of action on road safety for dedicated intervention by governments to bring down the estimated rise in deaths from road traffic crashes by 50 per cent.
He said: “Currently in Nigeria road traffic crashes (RTC) data rate is 162 deaths per 100,000 populations.” Chidoka said this called for concerted efforts to ensure that Nigeria improved on its current ranking.
He explained that the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that over 1.3 million people were killed by RTC and 50 million injured on the world’ road annually, adding that over 80 per cent of the figure occurred in developing countries, with Africa having the highest death rate.
WHO, according to him, predicted that if nothing was done by countries to stem the tide, death by RTC would increase by 65 per cent by 2015 to 2020, overtaking malaria and tuberculosis.
He called on government at the various levels to support road safety initiatives that were geared towards saving the lives of the citizens.
He said that was the primary responsibility of any government, and called on the private sector to support government, not only financially but to also share best practices with relevant stakeholders to improve processes.
He said: “We call on all Nigerians to join hands with us to ensure safer roads and fuller lives. Let us commit to the activities of the decade of action.”
In a remark, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said members of the National Assembly had had cause to discuss the current dilapidated state of the roads.
He said: “Obviously, this sordid state of affairs negates safety and puts pressure on agencies responsible for our safety on our roads. I am therefore, most delighted to be part of this occasion aimed at providing the needed platform for cross fertilisation of ideas and proffering solution to this endemic problem.”
Pledging the support of the National assembly towards the implementation of the Decade of Action on Roads towards a 50 per cent reduction in road accidents, he said the first principle was to develop a safe system approach that was able to accommodate human error.
In your own opinion have they lived up to their promises and what is your own opinion?
No comments:
Post a Comment