FRSC Shehu Mohammed: One Year Still Counting
By Abdul Jelil Adebayo
The drums are being rolled out, the sound heard far and near reverberating across the shores and the dance steps aligning with the beats. And smiles on the faces of all as gestures of appreciation filled the atmosphere.
What is the celebration all about, simple, it is one year of active service and transformation going on in the elite FRSC.
The Corps Marshal, Shehu Usman Mohammed, who assumed duties about a year ago, has been forthcoming with innovation that is placing the Corps on a pedestal that the public is now admiring its tremendous improvements in the service delivery.
Need we say that in its three decades of unbroken services to humanity as a lead agency in traffic and safety management, FRSC has recorded tremendous achievements in the area of Traffic Engineering, Road Safety Administration, Traffic Management and Crash reduction.
The statutory functions of the Corps one can recalled include making the highways safe for motorists and other road users as well as checking road worthiness of vehicles, recommending works and infrastructures to eliminate or minimize accidents on the highways, and educating motorists and members of the public on the importance of road discipline on the highways.
In view of the growing need to surmount these visible and invisible challenges, the Corps under the amiable and workaholic Corps Marshal embarked on several reforms which include but not limited to the following: Development of a national road safety strategy roadmap, improved operational efficiency, enhanced regulatory environment, and accelerated response capability to situations that needed immediate actions, amongst others.
To achieve the stated targets, the Corps developed transformational initiatives which are focused on People, Processes and Technology (PPT).
That is why today, not only does its staff pride as the most disciplined, but the Corps stands as the best Information Technology (IT) driven organization in Nigeria with its robust data base and over 95 percentage digitalized administrative and operational procedures.
Shehu Mohammed trajectory as a road safety professional from the day he joined the service of FRSC till date are the very factors that have shaped him as an all-rounder in road safety management and administration with a firm and fair handling of goal-oriented affairs as the Corps Marshal.
On assumption of office, Shehu Mohammed alongside his team of management, designed and implemented programmes of action, as well as a proactive template to advance the growth of the Corps in all ramifications, with the aim of trending down road crashes and fatality rate.
The bedrock of his success is that he’s a team player that carries along his entire management. No wonder they embrace his leadership with full loyalty.
The Corps Marshal made the digitisation of FRSC operations a cardinal part of his policy thrust; as he took the bold step that was the first of its kind since the establishment of the Corps, by appointing a Technical Adviser who mounts the wheels that would eventually bring FRSC to speed in the deployment of information technology in the work place.
He has been able to place round pegs in round holes as the catalyst, the propellant force, as well as the icing on the cake that catapulted the Corps to more enviable heights and achievements in digitisation.
The introduction of Electronic Document Management System (Paperless) in the workplace would surely make FRSC the first Federal Government Agency to go paperless. This initiative, apart from the speed it will bring to the workplace, will also enhance ease of doing business and bring down the cost of governance.
In the same vein, adequate progress is being recorded on the operational front too, he, Shehu Mohammed has gone a step further by initiating and launching the first FRSC Mobile Application, a one-stop shop for all FRSC products and services, for quality service delivery.
The FRSC Mobile App was introduced to generate and analyse real-time data on operations, Traffic Crashes data management, and road conditions, and provide customers with feedback on the Corps’ products.
The introduction of the National Crash Information Recording System portal (NACRIS) is another ground breaking robust data collation initiative that will help in policy formulation, planning, and education. With this portal, Nigerians could easily report cases of crashes from the point of crash.
This initiative will boost data legitimacy and change global perception of FRSC crash data reports for good.
The Corps under his purposeful leadership, has proven to be right on track to allay the menace of road traffic crashes on Nigerian roads and usher in a season where there would be no crashes; where even if crashes will occur, it would not result in the death of any Nigerian.
No wonder it did not take SON much stress to recertify the Corps for the fourth time for ISO compliance organization.
The Corps conducted series of special intervention patrol operations targeted at mitigating incidences of road traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities on Nigerian roads. These interventions include but not limited to the following;
Special Joint Task Force against mix loading of goods, persons and animals by trailers and trucks
Special patrol against overloading of vehicles
Special enforcement against carrying of petroleum products in passenger vehicles
Special operation against tanker crashes
Special enforcement to clampdown on fake number plates.
In addition to that, through tactical operations, the Corps Operatives arrested 538,398 number of traffic offenders for committing a total of 587,607 traffic Offences.
The Corps also conducted rescue operations for 7,872 road traffic crashes that occurred across the country. During the rescue, 4,378 victims were killed while 25,127 were rescued with injuries as 27,597 were rescued without injuries from the crashes that involved a total of 57,102 people.
However we must not forget to eulogize the role of the vibrant public education Office, that has projected the activities of the Corps and Corps Marshal to the public like never before in the last one year.
The diversion from the traditional motor park rallies to concentrate on the Commuters sensitization could have been major part of the success of reducing road traffic crashes by 10 % in 2024. And effective use of the social media handles and national traffic radio to attract the attention of the motoring public.
Development of an Application called FRSC App. This App is a one-stop shop for all FRSC products and services. The Application is expected to boost data collation, provide critical information, enables timely decision making and swift action towards emergency rescue services. Apart from assessing all services and products of the Corps at ease, the App has the capacity to grant easy access to listen to the National Traffic Radio 107.1 FM for real time traffic update, national drivers license portal, number plates verifications, detect potholes, alert drivers on speed violation, as well as remind drivers and vehicle owners on the expiration date of their tyres.
Other areas of interest are the revamp of National Drivers License (NDL) production which had earlier encountered technical glitches that affected the smooth production of the NDL. Within the last 11 months, over 800,000 licenses have been produced and dispatched to various states. They comprise of 2,543 Commercial Drivers Licenses, 56 Diplomatic Drivers Licenses, 42,019 Graduated Drivers Licenses, 6,684 Motorcycle Drivers License, 433,722 Private Drivers Licenses, and 21,976 Senior Drivers Licenses.
This milestone has quelled the rising level of grievances and agitation from applicants who were affected by the system glitch.
The Corps within the period under consideration recovered a total of 72 stolen vehicles in the category of 4 Toyota Highlander, 1 Toyota Lexus, 21 Toyota Corolla, 17 Toyota Camry, 6 Toyota Sienna, 6 Lexus 350, 3 Lexus ES350, 1 Toyota Hilux, 1 Toyota RAV4, 1 Toyota Celica, 1 Toyota Venza, 1Suzuki Bus, 1 Honda Pilot, 1 Honda Ace, 2 Honda Accord, 1 Daihatsu, 1 M/Benz Car, 1 Man Truck, 1 Pontiac Vibe and 2 Qlink Motorcycle were recovered at the point of registration through the National Vehicle Identification Scheme Portal.
Issues of training and retraining of close to 3,000 personnel for better service delivery in the last one year can not go without mention.
Meanwhile, a total of 740,073 number plates for all categories of vehicles have been produced, of that number 361,246 have been registered and uploaded into the database. The state with the highest number of plates produced is Lagos with a total of 201,539, out of which 95,393 were successfully registered; followed by FCT with about 117,277 with a total of 70,255 uploaded into the National Vehicle Identification Scheme portal. While Zamfara had the least number plates produced with a total of 1,672.
In the same vein, a total of 2,396 number plates were produced for Federal Ministries/ Agencies and Parastatals as against 899 produced for MDAs in the states.
Under the period under review, the Corps recorded a total of 32 attacks on its operatives with 19 injured, 1 kidnapped, 4 knocked down on patrol, 3 mob attacks, 1 armed attack, 1 assault, 2 harassment by other security agencies and 1 killed.
The various attacks justified why the Corps Marshal is so passionate on the need for the operatives to bear arms to protect their personnel and sensitive infrastructures.
Operation “karara” was put in place to deal with light violations infractions within FCT where hundreds of offenders were arrested.
With these laudable achievements within just 365 days as the main pilot, the FRSC under the focused leadership of Shehu Mohammed has a good story to tell about road safety management.
Abdul wrote in from Abuja via abduljelil2001@gmail.com
