The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has officially launched its 2025 Ember Months Public Enlightenment and Sensitisation Campaign.
The Corps has issued a strong appeal to motorists, urging them to assume personal responsibility for their safety and to refrain from engaging in distracted driving.
The Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed represented by the Sector Commander, Innocent Etuk, flagged-off the safe driving advocacy in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, southern Nigeria.
Mohammed stated that the corps was committed to ensure safer road use during the high-traffic festive season in the state, which is popularly referred to as ‘Ember Months.’
He further explained that the theme for this year’s campaign, “Take Responsibility for Your Safety: Stop Distracted Driving,” underscored the human factor as a major cause of crashes on Nigerian highways.
The FRSC boss stated that recent statistics from the Corps’ Operation Zero exercise held between December 2024 and January recorded 533 crashes, 432 deaths and 2,070 injuries attributed to driver fatigue, speeding, and disregard for traffic rules.
Emphasising that driver behaviour remained critical to achieve the end of year campaign objective, Mohammed said, “the 2025 end-of-year campaign was deliberately themed to address driver-related offences such as overloading, driving under the influence and use of phones while driving.”
He also said that “the FRSC was strategizing to ensure critical messages reach every commuter especially the intercity transporters including those along the highways, bus terminals and others.”
According to him, to achieve greater impact especially amongst the locals, the corps would deploy personnel and special marshals across major highways and would conduct free vehicle checks, motor park rallies and town halls with transport unions and other critical stakeholders.
The Corps Marshal took the opportunity to highlight the Corps’ recent milestones that were tech-driven, which included an enhanced printing facility with the capacity to produce an average of 15,000 driver’s licenses daily as well as introduce contactless biometric capture with on-the-spot printing to eliminate delays.
He appreciated the Media for the sustained collaboration in promoting road safety awareness and called on all Nigerians to adopt safer road habits as the year draws to a close.
The “Ember Months” campaign featured an interactive question-and-answer session moderated by the sector commander in Cross River State, Innocent Etuk, where issues around enforcement, driver education and vehicle compliance were discussed.