Why Senate Should Not Endorse Use Of Firearms By FRSC

 By Joseph Ikpea Igiagbe 

I write as a true Nigerian to make an appeal to our collective sense of national responsibility towards getting rid of official and illegal small weapons and light ammunition in our society. I particularly want to appeal to all the Distinguished Senators of the Federal Republic to treat this matter with the urgency that it deserves. 

I will like to state that there is no contesting the fact that the amount of ammunition and weapons in the hands of legal and legitimate security agencies as well as private individuals, let alone the ones in the hands of non-state actors, is a soft threat to our national security and it is becoming very worrisome, thus demanding a concerted effort at retrieving same as well as demilitarising our society. 

While, as a people, we look up to government’s actions at mopping up of such ammunition in the possession of non-state actors which has constituted a threat to our national security, so whatever call from whatever quarter for legitimate proliferation of arms may not be in our national interest. This may have accounted for the reason for Nigerians of my school of thought to strongly oppose a legislation empowering the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, to begin to carry arms. We view, with every sense of responsibility, the recent call by some few individuals and a prominent social activist Senator Shehu Sani for the use of fire arm by the FRSC to which we beg to defer. 

 I wish to use this opportunity to call on the Senate President, Distinguished Senators, the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives to disregard the call for the use of fire arm by the Federal Road Safety Corps, because it is basically baseless and will offer no benefits to the country. Legalising firearms for another agency, like the FRSC, that is supposed to be civil and operate in a civilised environment will amount to further militarlising the polity. What Nigeria and Nigerians need is not an increase in the number of armed agencies, rather it is a reorientation of nationals to operate civilised manner with one another. The fact that we have lost our value orientation does not mean we should now subject ourselves to further proliferation of light and small arms weapons in Nigeria. 

Nigerians are looking up to the National Assembly to help fashion out as well as support genuine quest for good governance that would allow Nigerians to live peacefully with one another. Existing security agencies should be empowered and supported with relevant laws and oversight that would make them to function optimally. What motorists and commuters are subjected to in the hands of gun-brandishing security officers is better imagined. Legalising arms for the FRSC will be one aggression too many. It is unfortunate that most of us don’t use the roads to know what our drivers are going through in the hands of government agencies. 

The primary aim of FRSC is to lecture road users on significant road signs and driving techniques that would enable them avoid having accidents. If their quest to carry fire arms is for them to generate revenue for the Federal government, then, they should first of all declare the revenue they have generated for the past four years till now for the public to see and access their financial viability. Nigerian road users have suffered tremendously in the hands of various government agencies on manning the roads, as well as officials of the FRSC. Any further call, agitation or lobbying for the corps officials to carry firearms is a total war against innocent road users. 

Most of us who use the road often do see how frequently road safety officials  fight with market women and drivers publicly because of money. So, if for any reason they are allowed to carry firearms then that would lead to further increase in such fracas and even possible death of road users. Basically, the earlier their duties of providing basic knowledge to drivers and providing hand books of various signs to avoid accident on the road, the better for all.

The handbooks they produce should be sold to road users in a mandatory and affordable amount; after all, they are not self-sustaining. Beyond carrying arms, the FRSC should design training and re-training programmes, quarterly or twice a year for the general road users as well company drivers, and make regular training mandatory. This will help them to generate funds for the government, except the drive to carry firearms is for other purposes which may be self-driven and should be discouraged in totality. 

It is obvious that most of the drivers do not even have basic knowledge of road signs and proper road usage ethics to identify when to stop when they are at junctions or T-Junctions. Some drivers don’t even know the appropriate lanes and how to even interpret traffic light signals. These are some of the things Road Safety officers should concern themselves with rather than lobbying to carry firearms.

Rather than lobbying for license to carry fire arms, the FRSC should lobby to partner with FERMA to draw urgent attention to our bad roads in other to provide palliative measure on bad spots and so save lives as well as goods of road users which are a part of the economic growth to the society. It is no longer news that our national economy has been grossly affected by several bad roads across the country. The FRSC should assist in most of the affected of these bad roads.

FRSC should also team up with other government agencies to help control traffic, ease road congestion, provide first aid to accident victims, among other things, that would be appreciated instead of lobbying to carry arms. I will rather suggest that the FRSC should lobby the Federal Government to create a maintenance unit in the organisation to enable it carry out actions that will save lives as well as goods and services.

*Hon(Dr.) Igiagbe, an APC Chieftain and governorship aspirant, wrote from Esan land, Edo State