By Sani Abdullahi

With the establishment of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, on February 18, 1988 by the Federal Government of Nigeria as the lead agency for road safety management and traffic administration, Nigeria pioneered the lead agency initiative in Africa, which was later adopted as the panacea for addressing the menace of road traffic crashes devastating human and economic resources in most developing economies. Built on the values of alternative security strategy, the implementation of the FRSC mandates has always, therefore, been hinged on education, public enlightenment, subtle force and aggressive enforcement in ensuring safer road environment in the country.

Accordingly, education has always played significant role in ensuring sanity on the chaotic driving culture that characterises the nation’s highways. Further to this, capacity development of the staff and conduct of research on the causes and methods of preventing road traffic crashes have remained critical to the successes recorded by the FRSC in its 30 years of existence.

In the efforts to carry out its statutory responsibilities of crash prevention and ensuring efficient and effective post crash care, successive managements of the Corps had continued to strive to build on the successes of the predecessors. But it was not until 2006 that the formal institution for training and research targeted at manpower and capacity building for road safety interventions for Nigeria and the entire West African sub-region. The vision was to create a regional Academy with robust capacity to meet the training and research needs of the West African sub-region in the development of enduring platforms for road safety management and traffic administration in the country.

Established as “FRSC Academy” in 2006, the institution was originally located at the Rock Haven Jos, Plateau State before it was moved to its permanent site at Udi, Enugu State in March, 2014 with provision for Staff College courses in addition to its primary mandate. The Academy has six schools for developing the intellectual, physical and mental capabilities of its students. These are: the School of Professional Studies; School of General Studies; School of Regimental and Physical Studies; School of Policy, Research and Statistics and School of Legal Studies as well as School of Information and Communication Technology. It also has a consultancy and partnership, which designs and runs specialised courses for road traffic agencies and corporate organisations.

So far, it has trained a total of 1,010 traffic management officers from three states of Anambra, Enugu and Abia. And as part of its manpower development programmes, it equally conducted a six month training programme under the World Bank sponsorship for 220 middle cadre officers in 2014. Aside several other training programmes, it has organised workshops for commanding officers and promotion courses for officers within the ranks of assistant route commanders, ARC, and assistant Corps commanders, ACC, preparatory to their promotion examinations.

However, despite all that has been happening at the Academy, which is also known as the regional centre for the study of road safety education in the West African sub-region, it was only on Monday, October 15, 2018 that the institution had the rare opportunity of hosting Mallam Bukhari Bello, the chairman of the FRSC Board, who came in company of Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, the Corps Marshal.

The two leaders were welcomed to the Academy by the commandant, Assistant Corps Marshal Kenneth Nwaegbe, who described the visit as “the first by the new chairman to the institution.” Eager to know the current development status of the Academy, the two leaders were immediately led on facility tour by the commandant who used the opportunity to take them round some completed and ongoing projects.

The first point of their visit was the erosion control site where the site engineer took time to explain the menace of erosion and remediation measures being taken through engineering works to control it from causing any devastation in the institution. Satisfied with the explanations, they were then taken to the Driving Simulation Centre, where new drivers are given practical lessons on how to use both auto and manual driving devices to learn driving techniques.

From there, the visitors headed to the Academy Computer Centre, where the officer in charge of the centre explained how it’s possible for the centre to provide facilities for e-exams for a total of 177 candidates at a time. He further stressed that the computers, which are linked through a sever, were provided with support from the World Bank.

From there, the visitors headed to the temporal and permanent structures of the Academy clinics as well as the hospital and the auditorium, all which were in advanced stages of construction.

It was, indeed, an eye opening visit for the chairman who expressed satisfaction with the facilities he saw on ground and the works going on at some of the project areas. He specially commended the Corps Marshal for demonstrating high commitment to development of the institution.

The visit also afforded the chairman and the Corps Marshal opportunity to address the Assistant Corps Commanders, ACC, who were participating in the promotion course at the Academy preparatory to their promotion examination to the rank of Deputy Corps Commander, DCC.

In his remarks, the Chairman stressed the importance of promotion course and urged the participants to remain committed to their studies, noting that issues of human capacity development are strategic to the reforms being carried out by the Commission to realign the Corps for improved service delivery to members of the public. He further stated that members of the board are aware of the challenges which certain rank brackets face in the promotion exercise and have resolved to use the current exercise to address such gaps frontally.

He added that the promotion process would remain credible and every participant would be given a level playing ground devoid of favouritism and external influence. In the same vein, the Corps Marshal in his address to the participants restated his Management’s commitment to issues of staff capacity development, disclosing that the essence of the promotion course was to review the current assignments of the participants, test their capacity and suitability for elevation to the next rank through open and competitive examination process and ensure that only those that proved capable through excellent performances enjoy the privilege of promotion.

He warned against undermining the virtues of hard work, human capacity development and discipline, assuring however that the integrity of the examination process would not be compromised and the Corps would remain intolerant of corruption and indolence which he warned them to stay clear of.

The commandant of the academy who welcomed the August visitors to the hall, could not hide his excitement at the level of support he had so far received from the Corps Marshal towards the development of the institution. According to him, within the short period of his stay at the Academy, he has been impressed with the special logistics support the institution has attracted from the Corps Marshal, citing specific areas like completion of the ICT block and auditorium, regular support for the maintenance of the vast environment to ensure cleanliness, security and comfort and prompt attention to the ongoing projects to ensure quality works and timely completion.

“The Academy has in the last 16 months been on a journey towards having the status of a degree awarding institution. First was the visit by the National Universities Commission, NUC, for accreditation to inspect the upgrade system, while collaboration with the Federal University of Technology Oweei, FUTO, for post graduate program has reached advanced stages pending activation,” the commandant stated.

From the expressions on the faces of the staff of the Academy as well as the participating staff at the end of the visit, which one staff confided were symphonic of confidence, trust and renewed hope in the system, there’s no doubt that the FRSC Academy Udi is on the move towards its restoration, and everyone is charged up for the positive changes ahead.

*Abdullahi, a chief route commander, is the Media assistant to the Corps Marshal

– Oct. 22, 2018 @ 14:09 GMT