By Adekunle Adekoya

THURSDAY December 22, 2022 was a black day in Lagos. So also were May 11, 2022; September 19, 2021; November 10, 2021; and August 21, 2020, to mention a few that could be easily recalled. What blackened these days were the tragedies that occurred — containers falling off trucks onto other vehicles, causing losses of lives that are clearly avoidable.

Penultimate Thursday was especially blackened by the fact that it occurred during the Yuletide period, a time when there is an uptick in vehicular and pedestrian traffic as people hustled and bustled about making purchases for the festive season.

That day, a truck carrying a 40-foot container hit the median of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, inward Apapa, at the ever-busy Cele Bus-Stop. The container fell off the flat pallet of the truck, landing on three vehicles nearby on the next lane. The driver of a commercial bus, the type called Danfo, was killed in the accident. Of course, the accident triggered a gridlock in which fellow compatriots suffered for hours. 

From the dates mentioned above, it would not be the first time that containers will be falling off trucks in Nigeria. I am also doubly sure that it will not be the last time, unless there is a radical,  enduring shift in the management of public affairs, and that is not about to happen overnight.

Why and how do these things happen? Why would a sane human being (an assumption?) drive a truck with a container unlatched, or merely secured with ropes, and given the quality of our roads, hope that it would remain laden till he gets to his destination? Again, why would anyone with the slightest idea of what is proper and what is not drive a vehicle with faulty brakes, knowingly?

But we are not all sane, apparently. Also, not all of us have a sense of propriety about doing things that might affect the well-being of others. Again, common sense is not a flower that grows in everyone’s garden. It is generally assumed that in any collective, most members will generally comply with rules and regulations laid down for the benefit of the whole.

But there is always that small number, a minority, whose conduct will infringe the laws. It is for these people that we have the law enforcement agencies — the Police, in the main, before sophistication in criminality and differentiation in anti-social proclivities gave rise to other types of specialist policing organisations, such as anti-narcotics agencies and intelligence organisations.

To curb, minimise, and arrest anti-social activities on our roads and in the transport system, we have the Motor Traffic Division, MTD, of the Nigeria Police Force, Highway Patrol of the same Police, the Vehicle Inspection Services, VIS, and since the Babangida administration, the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC.

Various state governments have since added theirs to the number of organisations charged with maintaining order on our roads. The most visible examples are LASTMA in Lagos State, TRACE in Ogun State, and EDSTMA in Edo State. Despite these, the regulations we have in our statute books remain largely un-enforced.

In our towns and cities, commercial vehicles run daily, carrying fellow compatriots from one point to another, with doors that are not closed, without pointers, and with conductors hanging on the doorways or on the tailboards. Clearly, compliance with safety regulations by commercial transporters is almost NIL. 

But if these people will not obey the laws, why do we have the Police? Why do we have FRSC? Okay, our laws created them. Have they abdicated? Why have these organisations refused to fulfil their mandates as specified by their enabling laws? The FRSC, as from September every year, launches the “Ember Months Campaigns”.

To what effect, if articulated trucks without brakes ply our roads? Why do flat-pallet trucks carry unlatched containers? Why do some of them latch their containers with ropes or other binders that cannot secure a container if there is impact? Why do many of these trucks install lights that are used mainly to blind oncoming road users? Why do our law enforcement agencies look on while motorcyclists install horns of the type used by trains?

Why do all these infractions against the law go unpunished? Are men of the Police, FRSC, VIS afraid of these miscreants or they are in cahoots with them? Their inaction, or abdication of their responsibilities is costing us too much in terms of lives and limbs, and overall cost to the economy. This must stop; we can’t continue like this! 

There was also, this month, the case of a woman crushed to death in her car by a train in Abuja. From a where I stand, that was a senseless and avoidable accident. Isn’t the place where the accident occurred supposed to be a level crossing? The fact that trains have been missing in our transportation mix for a long time does not mean we should do stupid things, one of which is some people not doing their work!

I am saying it again — if people in the MDAs apply just 50 per cent of their energy and intellect to their duties, this country will run better, and less of us will die in avoidable circumstances. I call on the Police, the FRSC, VIS, and other services to retake safety on our roads as priority. Happy New Year!