by Rachel Ogbu

To end the bloodbath on the nation’s road, the Federal Government has begun the process of planning a new national road safety strategy for the country which would run from 2013 to 2016.

According to reports, this is in agreement with the United Nation’s declaration of 2011 to 2020 a decade of action on road safety.

On Wednesday at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council, FEC meeting, Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, said council members discussed the strategy at the meeting presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo while President Goodluck Jonathan is on an official engagement in Cote D’Ivoire.

Focuses of the document were on training for drivers, establishment of a special fund devoted to road safety and a greater synergy among relevant government agencies that were responsible for ensuring safety on the nation’s roads and Maku  said the Vice President had established an inter-ministerial committee to look at the issues raised and represent the document to FEC in the next six months.

In his address, Maku said:

“Today’s council was almost exclusively devoted to discussions on a new national road safety strategy for Nigeria from 2012 to 2016.

“As you are aware, our country is one country that over the years has worked hard to put in place a national agency for the management control and prevention of road accident.

“We still remain one of the countries in the world with high percentage of accidents and loss of lives and property on our roads.

“Nigeria has over this period since the establishment of the FRSC done a lot of work in establishing systems, departments as well as educating members of the public, undertaking training and enforcing traffic regulations across the country in partnership with state and local governments.

“The FRSC has gone a long way and over the years, particularly in recent years. It has also done a lot of technical works in providing equipment to ensure that ICT is deployed to detect road abuses and also to control traffic across the country to prevent accidents and loss of lives and property.

“It has also along the way tried to make services available in partnership with the Ministry of Health for victims of road accidents by setting up mobile clinics along the highways so that whenever there are accidents, we can have emergency support for the victims before they are referred to regular hospitals.”