If you live in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, and plans to visit Nasarawa, Plateau or Benue states, it is the ever busy Abuja/keffi highway you would have to ply.
Traveling on this highway can be so chaotic and unsettling due to various traffic violations one encounters on the way. Aside from the numerous markets and mostly unregulated taxi parks that dot this 60km highway, one feature that stands out is the willingness of drivers in government convoys as well as private vehicles to drive against traffic with no consequences of the law or rebuke by law enforcement agencies. “It is amazing that people openly violate road traffic rules and nothing ever happens to them, the law never take it’s course, ” according to Itakpe Joshua, a resident of Masaka community, one of the many communities the highway traverses. Joshua recalled how a motorcycle driving against traffic hit and seriously injured him some years back and he was left alone to lick his wounds.
Another resident of Abacha road, a street off the highway, Daniel Illoebe, observed that officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps are not serious in the enforcement of traffic rules, which is their core mandate.
For instance, while in the Nigerian highway code, every road user is expected to be disciplined, careful and considerate of other road users, the penalty for road obstruction is just N2000, less than $5 USD. Similarly, route violations is N5000, just about $15 USD.
As lenient as the penalties are, it is all the more ridiculous that the road safety Corps is reluctant to enforce them on this particular highway, despite having multiple offices on this stretch of the road.
A visit to the Federal Road Safety Corps office at the building materials market in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, to get data on convictions of road violators was unsuccessful as officials kept passing me on, citing lack of authority to speak on the issue.
In Nigeria, it is not unusual for officials to decline comment on administrative or governance failure, especially on matters of public interest. Across the country, Lagos/Ibadan highway, Benin/Ore, and Abuja/Kaduna/Kano highways are hotbeds of unchecked traffic violations and unhindered criminality. In very recent years, Nigeria has regrettably seen a spike in road traffic violations, especially vehicle overload, use of mobile phones while driving and all sorts without the government and it’s agencies willing to wield the big stick.
He can be reached at martins.tachio@gmail.com.
Martin Tachio is an Abuja-based journalist and a good governance enthusiast.