Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo says synergy between the Federal, States and Local Governments is necessary for increased safety on roads.
Professor Osinbajo stated this on Tuesday when he received a team on courtesy visit in commemoration of the Global Road Safety Week.
According to him, the synergies between the Federal, State and Local Governments as well as Ministries are important since most of the roads in Nigeria belong to the states.
He said; “Many of our streets belong to states and local governments and of course the local governments.
“So, there is absolutely no way we can talk about road safety in any sensible way without bringing in the states and local governments.
“I think those synergies are important, and I’m sure also that you are walking with the ministries of health and transport in the states of the federation.”
Road infrastructure
The Vice President said that the improvement of road infrastructure is one of the important programmes of the Nigerian government towards ensuring safer roads in Nigeria.
” What the Nigerian government is trying to do is first, to encourage states to do not just their roads but federal roads, where they can because, as you know, federal roads are practically in all the states.
“With this administration, the President was able to open up the states for states to do federal roads and be compensated for where they have sought appropriate permissions in order to do those roads.
“But that’s not just all. The Nigerian government has also introduced tax credits to enable private sector individuals who want to invest in road construction to do so and then get tax rebates for the sums of money that they may have invested in building those roads.
“This has accounted for a number of the major roads we have like the Bonny-Bodo Bridge is done under this tax credit scheme.
“Even the Apapa-Oworonshoki Expressway in Lagos is also done under the tax credit scheme,” Professor Osinbajo explained.
30km/hour limit
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health, Dr. Adeleke Mamora, who led the team, said the campaign for 30km/hour in urban areas would improve safety and reduce road crashes.
Dr Mamora, said; “As you can see, 30km per hour, love it; that is let’s build ourselves up as not to exceed that speed limit particularly in the built-up areas—around schools and of course, high-density areas.
“Because it has been established that the higher the speed, the higher the outcomes in terms of road crashes; so we are saying people should go slowly when they are in high-built areas.
“It should be obvious that when you have road crashes, the victims end up in hospitals with disabilities; some, deaths, and of course, all these people will be taken to the hospitals first.
“In order for us to eliminate the burden, let’s focus on prevention; which in itself is part and parcel of managing the health of human beings as well.”
Speed violations
The Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi said that 50% of fatalities on roads result from speed violations, which he described as the major challenge on Nigerian roads.
He said the major focus of the global body on road safety was to promote the need for people to be more safety conscious in reducing speed.
“I have seen that a lot of young ones are being killed in urban areas; hence the need to compel member bodies to make sure that the maximum speed limit in urban areas is 30km/hour.
“And we happy for the vice president for spear-heading this as the chairman of the National Road Safety Advisory Council.
“So the same thing is going on in other parts of the country; it is promoting the need in urban areas to cut down the speed maximum of 30km/hour and we believe we will be able to achieve this with the cooperation of all the road users,” he stated.
Campaign benefits
Country Director and Focal Person for UN Decade of Action on Road and Injury Prevention for Nigeria, Dr. Sydney Ibeanusi, who was also in the team, said that the 30km/hour speed limit in urban areas would save lives, reduce the number persons injured in road crashes.
He said; “If you hit a child at 30km/h the chances of dying is less than 1%; if you hit him at 60km/h, the chances increase to 30%. So you see that.
“In the long-term, there is huge economic impact; we lose between 3 to 5% of our GDP annually from road crashes.
“That translates to 6 to 9 trillion naira every year. So, the long term impact is huge. Most developed countries have realized that and have taken up road safety measures as a major economic investment. And they are reaping the benefits today.”
Dr Ibeanusi called for concerted effort of all those who use the roads to enable Nigeria achieve the set target of reducing death and fatality by 50%, by the year 2030.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
