INTERVIEW: What We’re Doing To Issue Driver’s Licence Within 48 Hours – FRSC Corps Marshal

“I want to assure Nigerians that we are not happy with the difficulty they are passing through in getting this driver’s licence.”

The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Shehu Mohammed, recently spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on the corps’ challenges with providing driving licences to Nigerians in the last year and the plan to commence a contactless driver’s licence registration with a 48-hour issuance window.

Mr Mohammed also spoke on why the corps wants its personnel to carry arms, violation of traffic laws by governors, ministers, lawmakers and other government officials, excesses of heavy-duty trucks, issuance of number plates, and others.

Excerpts:

PT: You’ve been here for one year and three months now. We know it’s quite a tough job, but how has it been for you so far?

Mohammed: When I came on board as corps marshal, FRSC was already a technology-driven organisation with so many innovations, both in the operation and also in the products that we have, both the driver’s licence and the number plate.

But I felt, if you are in a system as a leader, the thing you can do is to improve and leave a legacy that people will say, ‘during his short time, not long time, even short time, these are the impacts he made.’ So, when I came on board, I came with just six strategies.

One is to rejig and reposition our operation, that is, enforcement. One good thing about FRSC is that it’s one of the few agencies, globally, not even in Nigeria or Africa, that combine legislation, policy and policing. Most road traffic agencies or safety agencies only do legislation and policy.

You find out that the policing, that is the enforcement aspect, is being done by the police or other security agencies, but not by them. But we are lucky that we combine all three – the legislation, the policy, and the enforcement.

So, my first is to see how we can rejig and transform because our job is to reduce road traffic crashes. And the only way we can do that is if, after the decision and strategy we adopted, we must also enforce because there is no law and order without enforcement.

That’s why one of the first cardinal policies that I brought is how to improve enforcement. And then, if you want to do enforcement, you also look at those who are to enforce, the personnel.

And if you don’t have competent personnel to enforce, then you will never get it right.

The second one is training. How do we train and retrain them to get the best out of them, so that we can actualise all those strategies we put in place?

Then, the third one that I also looked at is partnership and collaboration. Road Safety Corps has an agenda, and it’s about collaboration because it’s a holistic input. And it’s also something that you have to collaborate and partner with others to be able to do because it’s about everybody, not just us, enforcing it. The motorists, individuals, and families need to come together.

So, our third strategy is how do we bring partners, how do we collaborate? And that’s why we expose ourselves to seminars, conferences, globally and learn from how some communities can also come together and fine-tune how they can advocate about road safety.

The fourth one is digital transformation. As I told you, I already met FRSC as a technology-driven organisation.

So, I have to also improve on what I saw.

Part of what we did was to bring the FRSC mobile app.

So, we initiated the FRSC mobile app, and the essence is to get closer to the citizens, to the motorists, to everyone, so that they can relate with us seamlessly. And then, they can also report our activities.

Part of the functionality of that mobile app is that you can even view what we are doing on the road online, in real-time, and then report to us for us to act on the behaviour of our personnel who are working, who are enforcing on the road.

It can also tell you where we have this black spot, potholes along the road, so that it can guide you for some kilometres ahead, and you are approaching a pothole, so that you are careful.

It will also tell you that this driver is going beyond the 80 kilometres that is outside town, on the expressway or highway, or beyond 30 kilometres within the build-up area, so that you can caution the driver that, ‘you are moving beyond the stipulated speed limit, and it is going to be very dangerous to us, to all of us.’

So, those are some of the functionalities. And then, you can also relate with FRSC on our product driver, licence check driver, licence check number plate, or whatever. So, those are some of the functions of that app.

We also improve the body camera that we are using. That body camera is the one that our operatives are using on the road.

As they are working, we are viewing what they are doing, online, in real-time, in our control room here at the headquarters. So, we added more, and then we will also improve the software that we are using. So, those are the things that we added to the digital transformation.

And we are also going ahead with the driver’s licence.

We are introducing contactless biometric technology, whereby, even if there is no internet on our facilities, we will also be able to capture all the features that we require to issue a driver’s licence.

We also want to reduce the issuance period from three months to most likely – we are looking at even 48 hours now.

By the time we really start this, we are looking at September, the first or second week of September, to deploy these facilities for driver’s licences.

PT: Thank God, you mentioned driver’s licence because there have been complaints about it, especially since late last year. People who applied and even did the capturing are not issued a driver’s licence early. What’s going on exactly?

Mohammed: In the driver’s licence scheme, we have what we call the front end, where we interface with the applicant. That is the capture, the biometric. That is the front end. We have the back end, which is the software aspect, where it will process, produce the licence before bringing it back to you, and issue it to the applicant.

So, we have technical partners who are technically overseeing those aspects.

So, the technical partners have some technical challenges that led to the partners’ inability to get those materials to continue to produce. That’s just part of it. But others are well beyond our control.

I think, for them (our partners) to be doing this thing for 15 years, they should be able to have a grip – a grip of whatever they want to do to make it better.

So, we keep on having issues with them, and we keep on writing to them, calling them for meetings, before we were able to settle on this biometric that we are going to do, the contactless biometric technology that we are going to develop.

PT: So, what assurance would you give Nigerians about this driver’s licence issue

Mohammed: I want to assure Nigerians that we are not happy with the difficulty they are going through in getting this driver’s licence.

And we want to assure them that we have a valid discussion with our partners, and that we have now been able to agree on how to improve this thing.

And that, very soon, we are bringing a contactless biometric technology whereby even when they go for capture and there’s no internet, they can still have it done for them to be able to get their licence.

We are looking at September. We are starting in September, but it will take a little, maybe one or two months, before we can cover the whole country.

I want to assure them that those who are coming for renewal or a fresh licence, once they meet all the requirements, we are looking at maybe two to three days, or less than that. We are looking at 48 hours to be able to issue a driver’s licence in future.

PT: There’s still the issue of power supply. For instance, every time people go to your office in Zone 7, they keep asking them to come back because of the power supply. What is the problem?

Mohammed: Well, the issue of power supply came to me just recently, when I visited that place, and I saw the place wasn’t looking too good for me. In fact, I just signed the papers for the person to start the renovation of that place. And I also directed that they should be giving them diesel weekly, which would be able to power the generator.

But then, with this bio-contact barometer, even if there is no light… it will only require light just to make the environment conducive. But for the functionality of the equipment, even if there is no light, they can function. And that’s why we said we no longer require any internet because it’s just like your phone.

You can just pick the data, the thumbprint of the applicant, and everything about him will come because we are now synchronised with the National Identification Number (NIN).

The data integration directive of the president has put us into one pocket. The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the National Identity Management Commission and the National Population Commission (NPC), are all in one pocket now.

So, with NIN now, we can get so much information on individuals without necessarily inviting the person to come for capturing. So, with that now, I think we should be able to reduce the time.

PT: One other issue is the number plates. It has also been a challenge. People apply for number plates, and sometimes it takes up to eight months before they get them. What is the challenge, sir?

Mohammed: Well, I think the issue is almost the same because as they are picking the remittance, the revenue from the driver’s licence, they also pick the revenue from the number plates.

And you know, the number plate has even more components.

The aluminium sheets are all imported; we don’t get them here. So, the funding to buy those materials also became an issue.

But as it is today, except if you’re applying in Abuja –even in Abuja – it has been reduced; When you go there, you get the number plates.

Outside Abuja, I don’t think we have that issue now. Once you apply, you get it, because all our factories, or rather the plants, are working effectively now. In fact, we just recently did the turnaround maintenance on those plants.

PT: How do you plan to augment your revenue?

Mohammed: Where we are lucky is the fact that the labour cost is being taken care of by the salaries we are receiving from the government. This is because if we were to add the labour cost, we wouldn’t be able to produce any licence.

But because of the fact that the labour cost is being paid by the government, it has drastically reduced the cost of production. So, we are managing because we’re not looking at the relative revenue. We’re looking at those factors that I told you, that is, integrity, uniformity, centralisation, and then the security aspect of it.

And that’s why today, if a car is stolen, even police report to us to be able to give them the data and then alert all our formation to say that if somebody goes to register this vehicle, immediately they go, they will now see that, ‘oh, this vehicle is already registered, and this is the number of the person that owns it.’

So, we just put the person on seat and quickly call the police and the person who owns the car, ‘Are you aware, or did you sell this vehicle, that somebody is coming to register?’ If he said no, it was stolen, from there, we now get the person.

Last year, we had 76 stolen vehicles recovered. This year, I think, 38 nationwide. The vehicles were recovered at the point of registration. You know, some will go and dismantle and sell the parts. Those we cannot recover.

But now, we’re also doing something. We are having a handshake with the FBI because they now realise that most of the vehicles stolen from either the UK or Europe are shipped to this country.

So, we’re doing a kind of interface with them so that all those vehicles that are brought here, stolen vehicles, by the time they come for registration, we’ll be able to get those numbers of stolen vehicles and be able to not register, and then inform them to also take action and to also come with us.

PT: Your organisation went to the National Assembly, seeking empowerment of your personnel to carry arms. How far with that move?

Mohammed: In our existing Act, there is a provision for us to bear arms. In fact, if you recollect, some years back, we even had the armoury. We did the training, and most of our staff did the training in Jaji.

I did my own in Keffi. Some did in Lagos, some did in Jos, and others did in Enugu.

So, most of us did the training, and then they even bought the arms, and then we built an armoury in Gwagwalada.

We also employed the services of a retired colonel, thinking that we should be able to start using a squad, because you cannot allow everyone to carry arms. But we can have a squad that can intervene.

When there are issues, those on patrol can call to say, ‘Please, we are in danger, come and rescue us,’ or ‘come and support us.’ It was when former President Muhammadu Buhari came on board that they couldn’t continue with that process.

But this time around, we are still maintaining that we want to continue, we want the squad. And this time around, we’re getting the buy-in of other agencies.

How can a FRSC marshal stop an articulated vehicle –a tanker, a trailer, especially those that are doing mixed loading? You see trucks that have animals, and then maybe even 100 passengers on top. How do you stop those without being armed?

And then you also need to train and retrain because you have to use the psychology of the person who is using an arm. You don’t just give anybody an arm to be on the road.

And that’s why I think the public is really not comfortable with FRSC having to hold arms. So, we’re also careful, and that’s why I say it’s not everyone that’s going to carry arms.

It’s only a detachment, a squad, a well-trained squad that can carry arms and will be intervening in cases where there are issues on the road.

So, as it is today, it has passed all the processes. The House of Representatives has already approved the bill. So, they’re taking it to the Senate for concurrence.

And that’s what we’re waiting for. And then, with the backing we’re getting from our committees… all the committees that are overseeing road safety have assured us that once it gets to them, they will be able to.

It’s not just that. We’re also looking at our welfare. Another thing that you can do to make your staff work for you is to provide good welfare.

Part of that welfare is that if you retire as an assistant corps marshal, deputy corps marshal, you should be able to continue to enjoy your salary for life. Just like what is happening with other agencies.

PT: So, you mean that your officers from assistant corps marshal will enjoy the same benefit that they retire with for life.

Mohammed: It is part of the welfare that was also approved by the House of Representatives.

PT: In your own system, it does appear that when people are hired at the marshal level, they never grow out of it until retirement.

Mohammed: No, we have changed that. We have changed it. In fact, we made it a point that when you’re employed as a secondary school leaver, SSCE, after five years, you are allowed to go for further education. But there’s a process.

You have to apply to be allowed to go for further education. By the time you do that, after the certificate, you bring it, you are qualified for what we call harmonisation.

Just last year, I did about 1,500 harmonisations, bringing the other ranks to officers.

PT: So, you mean now that those who were hired as Inspectors can now grow out of it.

Mohammed: Not that they can, they’ve already grown out of it. We have started it. Last year, when I came, I approved it after a rigorous process. I

t was approved, and then we promoted them to officers. And that leaves us now with a little bit of a gap. You know, as a paramilitary, you are supposed to maintain a four-to-one ratio. Four other ranks, one officer.

But because of this harmonisation now, we have reduced to almost two officers to three other ranks.

That’s why we apply for recruitment, so that we can recruit more from that rank to be able to still maintain that gap.

As it is now, you see that in some places we have even more officers than the marshals. It’s not a healthy situation for us. We are supposed to have more marshals than officers because the marshals that normally serve the corps they called them foot soldiers.

PT: Before I leave this issue of arms that you’ve been pushing for. What are the casualties of your officers like on the road?

Mohammed: As of last year, I think there were 200 dead. People who were knocked down. About 240 plus last year.

PT: Do you mean last year alone?

Mohammed: No. From inception. I’m talking about the death, the fatality, not the injuries. Some deliberately. Some would say today, I want to just kill an FRSC.

But then we’re also looking at our own mode of operation. That’s why this time around, we started with the workshop for the team leaders, that is, those who lead those patrols to put sense into them, to change their culture so that they become more civil to the motorists.

This is because sometimes it’s when you don’t treat them in a civil manner that they tend to also be frustrated and react. Some are deliberate, and some are because of substance abuse.

PT: Will you ever be able to hold motorists accountable for either taking drugs and driving or drinking and driving? If you are on patrol, do you have the facility and the capacity to know that this driver is drunk?

Mohammed: Yes, we have the capacity because we have the alcoholizer. In fact, we are even using the one that has evidence because there are some that, after some time, the evidence will go. But we have the one that will print the time, the location, and everything about the level of alcohol in the person that we tested. But it’s very expensive.

PT: So, you don’t have enough.

Mohammed: We don’t have enough, honestly. But that’s part of the collaboration I do with the global partnership to see that they support us with those alcoholizers that are evidence-based. This is because when they take you to court, you have to prove that this person was intoxicated. That’s why we have to get the evidence-based one.

PT: If the driver is driving out of a motor park, do you have a plan to test them as they drive out?

Mohammed: We just sampled them because, as it is today, we just have about 28,000 staff strength. And we cannot be everywhere.

In fact, today, before I came to the office, I called my Sector Commander to tell him to go and arrange a meeting with the transport union and invite the press, both electronic and print media, to cover everything so that you have an agreement with them.

I noticed that at all the traffic points that I stopped, they didn’t stop. Those commercial vehicles don’t stop for traffic lights. So, it’s like in Abuja, they don’t obey traffic lights. So, I felt, let’s get them and talk to them because we are not everywhere.

I started counting the number of traffic points that I passed, and how many personnel am I going to put? The only thing we can do for now is to let the public know that we’re making efforts.

Let them capture them. Let them say by themselves that we are the leaders of these commercial taxis that are not obeying the traffic law, and that we agreed to talk to them.

I said they should invite the FCT officials to be there, the Transport Mandate secretary, and the Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) to be with them so that there is a holistic agreement that they are no longer going to disobey traffic.

PT: On the traffic law violation. In Lagos, when you violate traffic laws, CCTV captures your vehicle, and then they will send an email to you and the file. Are you also thinking about this?

Mohammed: This is part of the collaboration we want to do with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Why Lagos is being done is because the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) is under the Lagos State. So LASTMA and Lagos state are the same thing. So, it’s easier for Lagos to do for LASTMA.

We are federal, and the federal government cannot afford to do this everywhere. The only thing we can do is to collaborate and partner with FCT.

And that’s what we intend to do now, to partner with FCT for the minister to provide all those cameras. It is easier for Lagos to have cameras and be able to have surveillance and maintenance. Here, because of the vast nature of the FCT, anything you put and if you don’t guard it, they remove it just like they are removing all the streetlights. I think you can see it everywhere.

They cut it to bring it down to remove. So, it’s happening everywhere.

They even remove the manhole covers. And that is part of the complaint made by FCT because we also complain about the signage that they are building good roads, but there are no signs to say you should drive at a speed limit. All those things are aluminium.

By the time they are put, those scavengers will come and remove them. There are so many challenges that we need to have synergy.

PT: You were talking about motorists and engaging motorists. But what about VIPs? I see a lot of VIPs, especially in Abuja. They don’t respect traffic rules and traffic lights. Senators, governors, and ministers, when they come to Abuja, they have no respect for traffic rules. Is there nothing that your organisation can do to check that, even as an example to the rest of us?

Mohammed: We did some special patrols, even this year, about four or five times. The special patrol was meant to man all the major traffic lights to get those who are beating traffic, including the VIPs. But the VIPs, some are armed. And most of them have armed policemen who you cannot chase.

But what we do with them is that we write to the minister or the ministry that those VIPs exist, to tell them that on so-so date, time, route, your vehicle or your driver violated the traffic light by beating the traffic light at so-so junction. We are appealing that either you come and pay the fines or you talk to them.

PT: What about the governors who are not based here?

Mohammed: It’s collaboration and partnership. There’s nothing we can do. And that’s why we have to engage various stakeholders. I have engaged some of them, and they will tell you that there’s no security in place when they stop. It’s not really true. There are only a few places. But that’s the answer some of them give – that when you stop in some places, someone can come and attack you.

PT: There is a story we have been following about one of your personnel collecting N100,000 from a motorist through his bank account. We’ve been wondering, what’s going on with that case? Where are you on that matter?

Mohammed: I think, to be fair to FRSC, even before I came on board, we are one of the few organisations that terminate staff appointments. If I give you the statistics of how many staff we terminate, dismiss, on misconduct, patrol misconduct, and some other misbehaviour, you’ll be shocked.

But in this particular case, the process we normally do, once it is reported, first, we will now put a query on the person, and we will now set up what we call the Formal Disciplinary Panel (FDP). After the enquiry, the person will be tried. In fact, in most cases, once we are able to get the person, the first thing we do is to return that money to them. But in this particular case, the person absconded, left his duty, and left his job. So, the first thing we did was declare him AWOL and stop his salary.

We are on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), and we don’t control our salaries. But what we can do is notify the IPPIS office to stop this person’s salary.

So, already the salary has been stopped. So, we expected that after the salary is stopped, the person is supposed to resurface. When he resurfaces, we get back that money from him. If he doesn’t resurface, the process of terminating his appointment begins because after 21 days of AWOL, we put him on desertion.

Desertion is dismissal. And then by dismissal, it means that he cannot get any other public job anywhere in this country. So, we are looking toward that. Some people are saying we can go further to access his account. I think for us to access somebody’s account, we have to write to so many agencies, because it’s personal.

So, there’s no way we can access his account. But we can stop his salary, which we have done. We have what you call the post-service scheme, where every staff member is contributing.

We have that already. So, if he resurfaces after the dismissal and he wants to access that loan, we must take that N100,000 from him. Not only that, even if he’s on loan, we must take all the loans that are associated with him to cover those funds before we now give him whatever is left.

PT: Before he absconded, was it from your custody or before you were able to apprehend him?

Mohammed: Immediately, the thing was announced or rather was published, the person just absconded. He left his duty post completely. So, he left, and virtually there was no way we could locate him.

The army used to follow such people to their houses to speak to them. Now, they are no longer doing that. So, we cannot be able to do that because if you go to their house and some people meet you, or rather have an altercation with you, and they attack you, anything can happen. Even the community can attack you.

We have his fund. We have the post-service scheme fund that he has. So, if it comes to the worst, we can still pay the person back, even with interest. But we have to follow all the legal processes.

PT: But have you engaged with the victim?

Mohammed: I think we did. The intelligence department is doing that right from there in Cross River. They have an interface. it’s a legal issue. It’s not something we just pick up money and give him. We have to establish first that the money is actually in the account, which the boy (personnel) has been trying to avoid. But he is very much aware that they’re on the case.

PT: About heavy-duty trucks. There are usually stories about how they ram into people. I don’t know if there are specific guidelines that you have for heavy-duty trucks, because I know in some states they are not allowed to go into the capital during the day. So, are there specific guidelines that you have for heavy-duty trucks, and can you tell us how the enforcement has been? In addition, recently, Apostle Suleman in Auchi came out openly to say four people were killed in front of his church. I don’t know if you are aware of that.

Mohammed: Very much aware. We have what we call the Road Transport Safety Standardisation Scheme (RTSSS), which covers the regulation and guidelines of all fleet operators, not necessarily trucks. It covers all fleet operators that have more than five vehicles in their fleet.

So, with that, we train them, we train the drivers. We have three things that guide that policy. We have the driver’s safety, we have the vehicle safety, and the operator safety. So, these three are the guiding principles that cover this scheme to operate.

And as of today, we have arrangements with some of the fleet operators, like the trucks, especially the wet cargo, where our men are stationed in most of the other refineries or loading centres, whereby our men used to check the functionality of the vehicle, the mechanical aspects of the vehicle, the driver, and then the load, the safe-to-load process of the content they picked before they move onto the road.

That we have been doing, and there’s that kind of arrangement with them, even the Dangote refinery. We have to check these trucks.

But we have issues with trucks that are owned individually because one person with one truck might not necessarily come into this scheme. This is because the scheme covers five trucks or five vehicles in a fleet. But we’re trying to see how we can bring them because they’re under one union, under the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO).

So, they’re part of our coverage, even the individuals. But it’s always difficult to regulate an individual. It’s easier to regulate a group.

That is the challenge we’re facing. But we’re also reviewing all these processes and this regulation that we have to also include those individuals to be in one group, in one form, so that we can be able to articulate our enforcement.

For the Auchi issue, the report was that it was a Dangote truck. But in fact, at a point, we even had a partnership, a collaboration, to mediate on the issue.

The National Association of Polytechnic Students wanted to start the protest from that Monday to Wednesday.

We heard about it, and I quickly called the president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and persuaded them not to go into this and that we’re open to partnership and dialogue.

Let them come in. So, they suspended it, and agreed that they’ll come in. We also invited the Dangote truck.

But from the preliminary report that we received, it wasn’t really Dangote that initiated the cause of the crash. It was either BUA or another truck that came and hit the Dangote truck and pushed the Dangote truck to the level of the crash.

I discussed with the NANS president and some of the members what they are looking at, even when they come, is to have a kind of compensation to take care of those victims.

We’ve been taking them abroad for treatment and some other things, and we agreed that the transport office of Dangote is coming for a meeting. And then the NANS president, with some of his members, including the polytechnic unions, is also coming – because they’re under the umbrella of NANS – for a meeting so that we can resolve the issue.

There are three main causes of road crashes: the man, who is the driver, the vehicle, and mechanical issues. Sometimes it’s a tyre burst. If you are using an inferior tyre or substandard tyre, or a spare tyre, then the other one is the environment. Rain, the condition of the road or anything that has to do with the environment, is also likely the cause of the crash.

We have sent our men to do the crash investigation. We always do crash investigations and tell the agencies that are responsible to take action.

There are places where we need to do these speed bumps to reduce the speed of those cars that are coming here. There are places where we also kind of expand the road. And there are places where we have to do a zebra crossing. But even the zebra crossing people do not obey.

In fact, let me tell you that our staff lost two of his family members this year at the point of a zebra crossing. One driver -I think it’s a mechanic who was doing tests – came and just crushed them, and they all died.

We have been doing public education for over 30 years. But today, whenever I meet people outside, they’ll say, FRSC, are you really doing public education? Are you doing sensitisation? But we have been doing this. I don’t know, is it because Nigeria is wide? Is it because people now resort only to social media? Many people don’t even watch TV.

Even when you do a programme on TV, they don’t watch. They only listen to the news. They don’t have time to listen to other programmes. We’ve been doing programmes on TV.
For the past few months, I’ve been doing programmes twice a week in Hausa, on all the federal radio and the Northern radio stations. Yet, people who are not listening will tell you that you are not doing anything. That is the challenge.

PT: We want to ask about the Central Motor Registry (CMR). It appears there is an overlap between you and the police. What exactly do the police handle, and what do you handle? And have both agencies been able to harmonise this? Also, you’ve talked about roads being a major cause of accidents. Has there been a partnership between, maybe your agency and FERMA, in terms of road design or maintenance and rehabilitation?

Mohammed: Before I go to motor registry, let me start with the arrangement with the agencies that are responsible for either building or repairing roads. As I speak to you, I’m a board member of the Federal Roads Management Agency (FERMA) by virtue of my position. And on a monthly basis, our report is sent to all our stakeholders.

In fact, let me tell you why Raji Fashola, the former minister of works, was interested and passionate about road safety. Fashola, when he was governor, was chasing road safety in Lagos. But when he became minister of works and started seeing our report on a weekly, monthly basis, he became interested. He even wrote a book. He used all our statistics. Fashola was even the one going to do as a facilitator on road safety.

But being a member of FERMA, whenever I go to that meeting, I used to emphasise and re-emphasise that this is the thing that we need to do. But as an agency, we always send our report to almost ten locations – FERMA, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Transport, Vice President’s Office, SGF Office. It’s our mandate to continue to inform them where roads need rehabilitation, where roads need signage. So, we continue to do that, and we are doing it.

As for the motor registry, the police also have the right to have that because it’s still in the Police Act. But as of today, we own the data. And that is why, whatever they want to do, they must consult the FRSC, even though we’re having some handshake with them.

And that’s why today they now say that people should go and redo it for them to be able to get that. Even if people go back to do it, they will not have the same adequate data that we have because for years we have had this data. What they require from us is to continue to collaborate so that we can have a handshake and integrate into our database.

If they need any information concerning the motor registry, they can have it online from us. If we need anything from them, we can also have it from their own data. That’s how it’s supposed to be, and that’s the collaboration that we’re looking forward to.

PT: But what is going on now is duplication, and it’s bringing untold hardship on people. You already have the data. You collect this data regularly. People renew their licences. People also renew their vehicle licences regularly. So, is there anything this commission is doing to persuade the police to rethink this approach to gathering data?

Mohammed: We are in contact with them. We are communicating with them. At one point, they were stronger than the FRSC in terms of agency because they were the ones who even gave birth to the FRSC. We have an excellent relationship with the Inspector General (IG) of the Police. He was the first person who made a courtesy call to me when I was the Assistant Corps Marshal in charge of Zone 7, Abuja. He was also the AIG Abuja. So, he came to me, unknown to us that one day he’s going to be IG and I’m going to be corps marshal.

PT: Going into the duplications, is the Motor Registry in the FRSC Act and in the Police Act?

Mohammed: Yes. They did not repeal the Act, the 1965 Traffic Act. The traffic Act of the police is still there. They didn’t repeal it.

PT: How about tinted permit. Is it in the FRSC Act?

Mohammed: No, it’s the police. Yes, we made input, but it’s the police. It’s more about security than safety. So, it’s the police that handle those.

I got some calls that people are using it for a lot of criminality. So, I called the IG and emphasised the fact that we should come together. I can just be beside him while he makes the pronouncement that people should not be using this tinted without permission.

PT: Will you say that since you came, accidents have reduced on our roads? Or that motorists are now more aware of the safety precautions they need to take as they use roads across the country?

Mohammed: Well, I would say that crashes have reduced. But the fatality, the death, the injury, increased slightly. This is because one fatal crash will result in so many fatalities. Like, even recently, when it happened in Lapai, just one crash around 4 a.m., 22 people died. Just one crash! The same thing happened in the Kano-Zaria Road last week.

One crash around 3 a.m. occurred, but 12 people died. So those are the issues, those are the challenges. We have less crashes, but more fatalities because they involve multiple passengers in the crash.

We have increased our platform for awareness by introducing the mobile app. We introduced town hall meetings, advocacies in churches and mosques. So, we believe that has increased the awareness of motorists to be law-abiding and then be able to have safer road usage and safer road travels.

That’s what I can say. But our effort is to continue to improve. We are putting strategies to make sure that we improve on both the sensitisation, the public education and advocacy.

Also, we are putting more effort into enforcement, especially as we are approaching the end of the year –the “ember” months. We are looking towards a free crash period during that time.

We are deploying more of our vehicles, more of our personnel, more of our staff to join us. This time around, we are going to be involved more, because I engaged the special marshal on a special project.

They should be able to man them to enlighten the motoring public about the use of that Zebra crossing. So, I engaged a special marshal and gave them this directive that they should improve on that, not just the traffic control.

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