State, federal government agencies playing Russian roulette with road users’ lives in Ilorin

BY ADEBAYO ABUBAKAR

One of the most common causes of accidents on Nigerian roads, apart from the deplorable state of the roads, is the ignorance of road users in the areas of traffic rules.

This has caused many avoidable accidents in the recent past. One of such rules is the one that gives the “right of passage” to the traffic on the left-hand side. This normally occurs at roundabouts.

One of the spots that is very notorious for such accidents within Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, is the GSS roundabout, along Zango Road, after the popular Maraba interstate park.

Recently, two accidents occurred at the spot, due to the knowledge gap of motorists involved as to who has the right of passage between the traffic on the left and the one on the right-hand side.

One occurred on Wednesday, 31st of March, this year, involving a Pategi-bound Ford Space-Wagon, fully loaded with passengers, coming from Maraba Park, and a Toyota Camry 98 model coming from Zango, heading towards Fate.

The wagon with a little less than a dozen passengers skidded off the road and got careened as a result of the impact it received from the Camry. No life was lost but some victims sustained serious injuries and had to be rushed to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Òkè-Oyi, for treatment. While those who were lucky not to have sustained serious injuries were left traumatised.

One of the victims, Alarape Jimoh, who spoke with this writer, attributed her escape to divine intervention.

Another such avoidable accident occurred again on Monday, the 5th of July this year.

This time, it involved a Toyota Hilux van driven by one Samuel Adeola of Hill Crest (private) security firm located along Ajase-Ipo Road, Offa Garage Ilorin, and three tricycles operated by one Hafeez Nurudeen and one Hussein Seriki of Gambari area, all of Ilorin.

Two passengers, namely Abubakar Aliyu of Irewolede area and Latifat Kamarudeen of Ganiki area, both of Ilorin, were also involved, according to a statement released by the State’s Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Ajayi Okasanmi, and made available to newsmen.

The accident occurred when the driver of the Hilux van and the tricycles coming from the same direction lost control and collided with two other tricycles which resulted in a serious crash leading to injuries of varying degrees.

Again, at the same spot, this writer narrowly escaped what could have been another ugly story of such an avoidable accident at the same roundabout on Friday, 16th of July, 2021, coming from Zango; heading towards Shoprite.

The traffic from Maraba had been completely halted to give right of way to the one coming from Zango, except for one Toyota Corolla (2010 model), coming from the post office/Maraba axis at a very high speed. It took screaming by onlookers for the driver to know that he ought to stop for the traffic on his left-hand side.

With all these ugly incidents in memory, this writer decided to put a call through to the Kwara State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps FRSC, Sector Commander, Mr. Jonathan Owoade, narrating his ordeal, and to also offer a suggestion that his organisation advises the appropriate authority to construct speed bumps around that area to reduce the speed of the traffic approaching the roundabout, with a view to reducing the rate of accidents at the spot.

But his response to the suggestion of speed bumps was that it is not the responsibility of the FRSC. Rather, it is that of the state’s agency in charge of traffic to advise the state government on where to put speed bumps, he stated. He added that the FRSC only works with whatever template the state government gives them as it affects intracity traffic management.

Undeterred, I decided to put a call across to the chief executive officer, CEO, of the Kwara State Road Traffic Management Authority, KWARTMA, Alhaji Bello Yekeen Babatunde.

Babatunde told me that the state has no jurisdiction over federal roads to such an extent that it begins to construct speed bumps on Trunk-A roads within the state, whether intra or inter-cities.

Still undeterred, I put another call across, this time around, to the Federal Controller of Works in Kwara state, Engineer Atitebi Kunle Wasiu, who the KWARTMA boss described as a very good friend of his. After briefing him, Atitebi told me that, the federal ministry of works and housing does not encourage the construction of speed bumps on such a highway.

When he was reminded that the spot in question is within the metropolis, he said that is the more reason why I should direct my suggestion to the state government, who would, in turn, direct it to the relevant state government agency, for necessary actions.

After this back-and-forth, one is compelled to ask; whose responsibility is it to construct speed bumps on the highway; federal or state, with a view to ensuring the safety of road users?

My worry is this; is this how the federal and Kwara state government agencies are going to be playing the proverbial “Russia Roulette” with the lives of motorists and commuters in the state till we witness another avoidable ugly incident of a road traffic accident?

How did Nigeria arrive at this sorry pass that buck-passing has been elevated to a status of officialdom?

The situation is not too different from what obtains among the military and various paramilitary in the country, which are supposed to operate in synergy in the area of intelligence gathering and sharing. There is no gainsaying that the lack of synergy and buck-passing is what is responsible for the horrible state of our internal security, as we have it today.

I am not sure any of these government agencies were established without the enabling law clearly stating the scope of operation. But what we have today is buck-passing, wherever failure is noticed.

Adebayo Abubakar writes from Ilorin. He can be reached via 08051388285 and [email protected]