UNMINDFUL of public concerns, the Federal Road Safety Commission and some state governments remain resolute in implementing the controversial National Uniform Licensing Scheme. Existing vehicle number plates, some of which were issued barely months ago, are now to be mandatorily replaced by the owners at a cost of N10, 000 each. For a new number plate, a vehicle owner has to pay N15, 000. Also, a new national drivers licence comes into use in replacement of the existing one, which will cease to be a valid document from August 31, 2012. It attracts a flat rate of N6,000.Outside the FRSC, which is handling the design and production of the number plates and licences, and state governments, who are also beneficiaries of the extortionate fees, the scheme enjoys little acceptance among citizens. FRSC Corps Marshal and Chief Executive, Mr. Osita Chidoka, has been very unconvincing in his arguments that the scheme would restore order and sanity in the nations motor vehicle administration scheme, eliminate faking of vehicle number plates, and ensure standardisation of the drivers licence.In apparent response to the mass rejection of the scheme and the hollowness of the views canvassed by the FRSC and some state governments, the House of Representatives has asked the FRSC to suspend implementation of the policy and await the outcome of an investigation by a standing committee of the House. But, a day after that resolution, the FRSC declared in a statement that the August 31, 2012 deadline for the replacement of existing number plates and licences remained unchanged and that there was no special rate for persons whose current licences would not have expired by that date. The intransigence was echoed by the Lagos State Government, which directed vehicle owners to obtain the new number plates and licences within the stipulated period, asserting that the resolution of the House of Representatives was not binding on it.Though the FRSC claims that the ultimate aim of the project is to enhance national security, there are reasons to doubt its efficacy, given the growing sophistication of criminals globally. With the advent of both number plate theft and cloning, has the FRSC thought of what criminals could do with stolen number plates' Or what does it cost an armed robber, a kidnapper or a terrorist, armed with just a screwdriver, to steal as many number plates as he wishes, affix them to his own vehicles and commit crimes'Where national security is taken seriously, and not as another source of revenue generation, the innovations that are being introduced include vehicle identity recognition and a more secure fixing of number plates. For instance, VIR, a new device in Israel, has the capacity to recognise a car model, vehicle body, plate colour and special icons on the plate itself, such as handicap, country or state name. The vehicle logo, colour and country or state name recognition capabilities of the device, according to security experts, greatly enhance and improve verification and classification of the vehicle and help check correlation between the car type, registration number, and data stored on police and security agencies databases, allowing an immediate alert when a suspicious vehicle passes through the system. Painfully, there seems to be so very little substantive difference between the features of the new number plates and drivers licences and those of the existing ones.The FRSC urgently needs to take stock of its operational goals and the appalling statistics on road traffic accidents around the country, and juxtapose these with its statutory mandate, as set out in the FRSC CAP 141 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990 as amended, and the FRSC (Establishment) Act, 2007. It is not just that there are more accidents in Nigeria than in other parts of the world, the accidents have become more deadly. According to the commission, about 4, 120 persons lost their lives while 20, 975 others were seriously injured in fatal accidents that involved 11, 031 vehicles across the nation in 2009. It also recorded 11, 341 accidents with total number of deaths put at 6, 661 and 27, 980 injured in 2008. FRSC confirmed that 472 persons died in 500 road accidents in different parts of the country in December 2010 alone. Recently, Chidoka himself cited figures that rank Nigerias roads as the second most dangerous in the world.But if the FRSC and Lagos State Government must carry on with this ill-conceived licensing scheme, let them restrict it to new registrations and save vehicle owners the additional financial burden and man-hour loss implied by the new policy. New number plates for vehicles in use imply fresh (and multiple) inscriptions of registration numbers on windscreens, windows, and door handles - features that could easily expose motorists to unwarranted questioning and harassment by policemen and vehicle inspection officers at road blocks for no other purpose than extortion.For an enhanced national security, what is required is a national crime information centre, serving as an electronic clearing house of crime data that can be tapped into by every criminal justice agency nationwide. And definitely, this is not the purview of a road safety agency.The World Health Organisation Global Status Report on Road Safety says that there is a growing body of sound scientific evidence on the steps to improve road safety. The FRSC should devise a means of enhancing its efficiency in road safety management and channel its operational requirements to the appropriate authorities in Abuja for necessary action. WHO has predicted that road traffic injuries worldwide will rise to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030. What is the plan of the FRSC to avert this gloomy prediction coming to pass in the country' It has been shown that effective enforcement of legislation is critical in reducing drunk-driving and excessive speed, the two main causes of fatal road crashes.This is something that should interest the FRSC. Revenue generation should never be a primary motivation for a service organisation whose primary mandate is to drastically reduce deaths on the roads.
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