BY FRANCIS IGATA

The proposed plans to upgrade the only Federal Road Safety Corps,FRSC,Academy,nationwide, located at Udi in Enugu State,   may have suffered a set back following decrepit facilities dotting the center situated along old Enugu-Onitsha express road.

Conceived as permanent site of the only FRSC Academy in the country,over seventeen years ago, the Academy is meant for the study of road safety and to uphold the values of global best practice in road safety management and administration.

But Saturday Vanguard’s visit to the Academy which was relocated from its temporary site in Jos,Plateau State showed that apart from the over eight years abandoned Administrative Block that is an eye sore to visitors at the Academy,bushes have covered most the premises seated in a sprawling five-hectare piece of land donated by the Enugu State Government.

The Administrative Block which is about fourty percent completed,it was gathered,was meant to   ease   administrative dealings of the FRSC in a manner that it reduces travel time of files moving from one department to the other. In order words,it was conceived as a one-stop-shop for all administrative matters.

Findings revealed that the Academy which is supposed to license Driving School operators who spring up indiscriminately in all the cities nationwide the Academy has been fraught with pronounced lull in its mandate.  The situation has led many to reckon that the plan to upgrade the only Academy in Nigeria to an African Regional Centre of Road Safety was a political statement.

Also, the Academy,as conceived, would have engaged various state governments,private individuals, commercial fleet operators in the training and re-training of its drivers to check the increasing rate of road accidents . However,this has   suffered setbacks as successive governments had after its commissioning in 2009, abandoned and neglected the completion of the Academy to enable it achieve its full potentials prescribed by the founding fathers.

CLO LAMENTS

Member,Board of Governors,Civil Liberties Organization,CLO,Mr. Danjuma Gambo,said,”the Federal Government hurriedly in its bid to score cheap political point commissioned the Academy when work on some of the facilities were still ongoing. Since then,they abandoned them to rot away.

“A typical example of such facility in the Academy is the administrative block. By the time they come back to complete the work, the cost of its completion would have tripled. The concrete basements which has been exposed to harsh weather conditions and rain must by now, weakened. The wooden scaffles also have become an absolute waste. The block walls in the building which have over time,absolved much rain haven taken over by grasses.

“As it is,the structural defects occasioned by the abandonment will cost huge sums of money that may out weigh the initial cost of erecting the building. Apart from defacing the Academy,the   building has become a safe-haven for reptiles and rodents. This is a typical example of Federal Government’s wasteful ventures.