AMAECHI: Politicians should be embarrassed, penalized when they break traffic laws
During the 10th anniversary of the KRSD Trust Fund which was established in honour of Kwapda’as Rangna’an Samson Dongban who was killed in a road traffic accident in Jos on the 23rd of September 2011 at the age of 32, had notable guests to celebrate a decade of a prospering campaign for better road usage.
The occasion which took place at Radio house Abuja on the 23rd of September had keynote speakers who gave their sentiments on the issue of the Incidences of road crashes on Nigerian highways and how it is indeed a concern for the entire nation and the world at large. The minister of Rt. Hon Chibuike Amaechi moved the occasion by giving exceptional approaches on how to handle individuals who try to play God above the law, he was quoted when asked about improving the compliance of Nigerians towards taking their safety on the road the minister responded by saying.
“There is a consequence for every action, I give you an example, when we were governors there are two things Fashola said to us and everybody behaved, if you don’t go back and bring down your zone offices or rebuke them or renovate them, I will take over, we took it seriously because there was a consequence. As a politician, if told we will go for one week jail then road safety will be taken seriously because there is a consequence. When in a convoyed as politicians and “they” try to escape traffic the citizens see this and disobey traffic by following behind these convoyed but if they are embarrassed and stopped, they will learn.
I say criminalize traffic offence, just take 6 years we shall criminalize every traffic offence, see what happens in those 6 years. When we get used to obeying the law after those 6 years then we can have all the international regulations. We can go to a governor’s home where he can direct the members of the house of assembly to pass those laws that can be criminalized like it was said if you commit a traffic offence you should be taken to the psychiatric hospital.
The emphasis of the supervision of road safety lies on the ministry of transportation and its vital growth, speed should that goes beyond 30km per hour and eventually kills someone should be charged for mass murder and as a minister, I won’t adhere to that because there is no consequence. When it comes to road safety there is confusion on who is responsible, who should be indicated and this will not be happening if road safety laws are passed and adhered to. The first to do is organize road safety provisions as law, advocating properly the ministry of transportation. We have clearly defined our national approach to crash reduction through Federal Government approval of the Nigerian Road Safety Strategy 11 2021-2030 in alignment with international trends, standards and practices. it is in the recognition of these remarkable gains that Nigeria sits at the UN Road Safety Trust Fund representing Africa”.
He concluded by saying “I must commend the Hon. Justice Monica Dongban -Mensem for choosing this indelible medium to immortalize the memory of the painful death of a promising son in a road crash and for the sacrifice of constantly seeking to draw public attention to the need to imbibe good road safety culture. Let me also use this opportunity to enjoin road users to obey traffic Laws and Regulations. I wish to assure Nigerians that the Federal Government will continue to ensure that our roads are safe for travels”.