Why FRSC gives commercial buses ‘preferential treatment’ on Federal roads
When the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) was formed in 1988, the Federal Government aimed to put some sanity into the use of vehicle on its roads.
The FRSC was tasked to make the highways safe for motorists and other road users by eliminating or minimising accidents on the highways, as well as to check and educate motorists on what makes their vehicles road worthy.
Among the FRSC’s statutory functions are: to regulate the use of seat belts and other safety devices; to determine and enforce speed limits for all categories of roads and vehicles; to maintain and verify the validity period for drivers’ licences; and to regulate the use of mobile phones by motorists.
The commission has since been discharging its duties and has become some sort of nightmare for motorists who are found flouting its regulations. So much so, that there was a general clamour by the public to get the operatives off some state roads.
But, there is a class of motorists who appear to have it easy… the commercial bus drivers.
Newsroom observed that operatives of the commission tend to mostly ignore the commercial buses on Lagos roads during their regular checks, while private car owners and duty vehicles on Federal roads are never so ‘lucky’.
A commercial bus driver told Newsroom on Friday that he worries less about leaving his vehicle particulars at home when he sets out for the day’s work, as he is not scared of the repercussions.
“I don’t have much to worry about regarding that (FRSC checks),” he said. “They hardly have our time. Only the police stop us to collect bribe.”
Newsroom, however, reliably gathers that a sizable number of the bus drivers violate the regulations of the commission. The driver, simply known to our correspondent as Baba Kudi, confirms this.
“How many commercial bus drivers have valid driver’s license or complete particulars?” the driver, who mostly plies the Iyana-Ipaja to Ikotun route, asked rhetorically.
“I don’t underestimate them when I have to make inter-state journeys though,” he added. “They mostly stop buses making such journeys, so I’m always extra cautious.”
On the FRSC website, the penalty for a driver who doesn’t possess a valid driver’s license is a N10,000 fine. A commercial bus driver makes just about this on daily trips.
When we reached out to one of the commission’s officials, he just about confirmed the driver’s claims.
“On a good day, the FRSC law did not stipulate that only specific vehicles can be stopped. The law states that all vehicles can be stopped,” the official from Epe division, who chose not to be named, told us.
“They (the officials) can only use their discretion on the vehicles they want to stop, but they can stop commercial buses. There are specific particulars the buses are supposed to have.”
Although the official acknowledged that “most of the commercial buses are guilty of offences”, he said that operatives of the commission mostly choose to ignore them “because they believe they can go to their park and arrest them”.
Commercial bus drivers in Lagos State are some of the most lawless individuals on the roads, and they, with the confidence that they can get away with just about anything, continue to get easy passes from law enforcement.
Newsroom has not been able to get comments on the issue from the FRSC headquarters in Abuja at the time of this report.
