Law can be regulation, decree act or edict. Law is to ensure orderliness an keep the peace of society. Society cannot progress without rules and regulations. So, for a society to work and progress, there must be peace and harmony.

These regulations vary depending on the religion and culture of a particular society. Advocating and following the established social order and the statutes written to enforce such regulations is necessary to each individual, for the progress of the society. Therefore, law breaking is considered an evil act, as such it attracts punishment.

People do whatever they want without considering the consequences. Some violate law because to them, it is only the less privileged that suffer; that is to say if a wealthy man or an influential person violates a law, nothing is done to him, but when a common man violates the same law, even if the punishment is ordinarily light, he would be punished beyond ones imagination.

When we look at violation of traffic laws in many cities/towns of our country, we find that the situation is terrible. People drive recklessly, especially the motorcycle riders. They usually ride on high speed. For instance, if the traffic warden orders them to stop, they do not obey, all they do is to look for another way, no matter how small the space may be to move on.

Our government should do something better on this type of thing. If the relevant government agencies decide to fold their arms and leave offenders, society will continue to behave like this and may be, beyond the current situation.

When one looks at causes of so many accidents that occur as a result of this, one can see that so many lives are lost, property destroyed, people injured daily. Violation of traffic rules results in the congestions on many roads in our towns and cities.

What is amazing is that it is not only the illiterates that are reckless on our ways; even the educated ones behave the same way. Some of our people are ignorant of the traffic rules and regulations yet they ride.

Another issue is that our people are not patient enough to obey traffic rules. All they want is to get what they want at the time they want it. That is why in so many cases you find that people do not do what is expected of them.

In conclusion, government should please intervene in this matter. Let government do more to enlighten the people on the importance of obeying traffic rules and also on the consequences of violating such rules. The people should cooperate with government agencies and acquire the relevant road use knowledge and abide by the rules. Let our people know what is happening in other countries. Let them know how other nationals obey the traffic rules so that there will be change of attitude.

Kano State has started doing about traffic control whereby, lines are drawn on the roads so motorists do not close up to the traffic wardens. The lines indicate where vehicles are supposed to stop. Crossing the lines attracts punishment, so vehicles cannot cross the line unless ordered by the traffic warden to do so. This has helped in curbing traffic rules violation, and also traffic congestion. Other states should borrow a leaf from Kano State and implement such laws.

Umma Dauda, Department of Library and Information Science, Katsina State University, Katsina