Nigeria Recieves Global Accolades On Road Safety As FRSC Holds 7th Annual Lecture
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LAGOS AUGUST 25TH (NEWSRANGERS)-As the Federal Road Safety Corps held its 7th annual lectures series on Thursday, members of the international community have rated Nigeria among countries with robust road safety strategic agenda, with calls on other nations to emulate it.
This was the main focus of this year’s annual lecture delivered by the United Nations Secretary General’s Envoy on Road Safety, Jean Todt, who was the Guest Speaker at the FRSC 7th annual lecture series held at the Banquet hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to the Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, in the lecture, titled: “Achieving the Goals of the UN Decade of Action For Road Safety in Africa,” Todt stated that in his past meetings with Presidents of other African countries, one of the issues that had continued to top his discussions with them was the need for them to promote issues of road safety in their countries.
This, he said, was because of the debilitating effects of road traffic crashes on the social and economic well being of the people of the African continent.
He however expressed happiness that Nigeria is not only operating a road safety lead agency, but has been at the forefront of campaigns for safer road environment within the West African sub-region and African continent at large.
The UN Envoy described the situation of road traffic crashes in Africa as very disturbing and called on governments of the region to devote more resources in tackling the menace.
He stressed that if Nigeria could sustain its commitment to road safety through increased investment in the campaign, the country stands the chance of attaining the target set by the United Nations in its Decade of Action of Action For Road Safety: 2011-2020.
Todt said: “Nigeria is doing well in road safety agenda in Africa, and it should sustain its investment for the effects to become manifest.”
Speaking on the importance of road transportation in Nigeria, the UN Envoy declared that for a nation whose citizens depend largely on road for their transportation needs, the only way to contain the menace of road traffic crashes was for the government to ensure that it invests adequately in road safety, adding that the nation must do more to move road safety agenda forward through various means including legislation and public awareness creation.
He also called on the Nigerian government to do more in streamlining its data collation system to make it align with that of the World Bank for a harmonious data from the country.
“Nigeria could serve as an example for other nations through credible data management; but this cannot be achieved without some level of investments in data processing and cost,” he stated.
Furthermore, Todt disclosed that as part of the commitment of the United Nations to tackling the issues of financing road safety programmes, a special road safety fund is being conceived by the UN General Assembly.
He called on the Nigerian government to support the initiative to make it a success and create a situation where accessibility to safe and affordable road infrastructure could reach majority of the people by 2030.
In addition, he called on the people to support road safety activities as a national agenda, noting that road safety is an all inclusive programme.
In his address, the Special Guest of Honour and Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who was represented at the occasion by the Minister of State for Works, Power and Housing, Alhaji Suleiman Hassan, congratulated the leadership of the FRSC for the success it has achieved through the FRSC annual lecture series, which serves as an avenue for creating public awareness on issues of road safety in the country.
According to Osinbajo, the vision behind the establishment of the FRSC as Nigeria’s lead agency for road safety management and administration 29 years ago, has been vindicated, adding that the menace of road traffic crashes remains a source of concern not only to the country but most developing economies of the world and attracting the attention of the UN General Assembly.
The Vice President disclosed that at the First Global Conference on Road Safety held in Moscow, Russia in 2009, member states of the UN agreed on the need to dedicate the next decade to road safety with focus on campaigns against the menace of road traffic crashes and massive participation of governments, non-governmental organisations, communities, religious and traditional institutions as well as the media on how to contain the menace.
“The declaration of 2011-2020 as Decade of Action for Road Safety by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, was therefore, the most audacious demonstration of the commitment of the world body to tackling the challenges which road traffic crashes pose to mankind,” he stated.
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Posted by News Rangers
on Aug 25 2017. Filed under State.
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