Terkula Igidi and Mustapha Suleiman
4 January 2009
Safety rules are hardly obeyed and enforced in Nigeria. Ordinarily, nobody should be told to use safety belts when driving, but in Nigeria the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has been battling with motorists to enforce its use.
In so many cities, there are pedestrian bridges but pedestrians hardly use them.
In Abuja, for instance, the pedestrian bridge at Mogadishu barracks is often guarded by soldiers and when one is caught running across the road, instead of using the bridge, one is severely dealt with. Yet pedestrians are seen running across the road when soldiers are not on guard.
So when FRSC made the use of crash helmets by motorcyclists compulsory from 1st January 2009, many wondered if the rule will be effectively obeyed and enforced. Already there were pockets of protests in Kano on the 2nd January, just a day after the rule took effect. In Lagos, by 3rd of January, 1,037 motorcyclists popularly called okada were already arrested for flouting the law.
When Sunday Trust went round Abuja to check the compliance of the okada riders with the rule, it was discovered that the law enforcement agents have drawn battle at their hands. Ibrahim Abubakar is a commercial motorcyclist in Nyanya and he was seen operating without a helmet, even as at the third day the compulsory use of helmets kicked off. He said he was yet to purchase one because it is too expensive.
"The local helmet is sold at N3, 500 while the original one is sold at N5, 000 and there are no passengers these days. If you work tirelessly, you will be able to make N1,000 at the end of the day. But you still have to buy fuel and engine oil, besides feeding your family and paying rent. We are in a very difficult situation, we don't know what to do."
He said more than twenty people were arrested on Friday in his presence at Mopol junction in Nyanya and the only option for some of them who are lucky to have evaded arrest so far was to keep dodging the law enforcement agencies. He lamented that the fine of N3,000 imposed on defaulters is too exorbitant. He said he cannot buy the helmet by force, once the heat becomes too much he would park his bike and look for something else to do and feed his family.
He said if they had a union like the Kano motorcyclists have, they, too, would have protested the exorbitant prices of the helmets, stressing that they were not against the use of the helmet but the prices at which they were sold.
Mohammed Dahiru, too, was seen riding his bike without a helmet but he said he would be buy one as soon as he can afford to pay N3, 500.
Another okada man, Sunday Obaka was seen wearing one but it was the type used by construction workers (industrial element). "The use of helmet is good for okada riders especially in time of accidents it protects the victim's head," he said.
For Ishiaka Iliya, the use of helmets is not for the masses who suffer to get food to eat. Rather, it is a means to exploit them. He lamented the high cost of the helmets and the fine imposed for non-compliance. He said the issue of safety is out of the question. "In case of an accident, if you are going to die, whether you use a helmet or not you will die. Even if your head is not broken, your belly may be cut open or your leg may be broken."
But the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Sector Commander of FRSC, Mr. Nseobong Akpabio said yesterday that it was too early for any reasonable person to assess the compliance level of the compulsory use of helmet. "It is not possible in any part of the world at all for any government agency to attain a 100% compliance level in the first three days of commencement of a programme. What we are saying is that from the 1st of January, if you ride a motorcycle without a crash helmet, you will be arrested and prosecuted. If you carry a passenger that hasn't worn a crash helmet but you have worn, you will still be arrested."
He further stated that FRSC held series of stakeholders meetings before the enforcement of the use of helmet began. "We also carried out rallies in various places involving traditional rulers, community health workers and the various ethnic groups in the FCT to make them aware of the advantages of wearing the helmet and the disadvantages of refusing to wear the crash helmet."
He repudiated insinuations by motorcyclists that enforcement of the use of crash helmets was a punishment and extorting money from them. "It is not the punishment aspect of it; is to safeguard the lives of both the riders and the passengers as well."
He said that about 200 defaulters were arrested on the first day in FCT command to send signals out that it was not a joking matter. He also said the command has received complaints from okada riders and a stakeholders meeting has been convened and the FCT minister has since directed area councils to make the helmets available for sale to the motorcyclists.
"Anybody protesting the use of crash helmet is like somebody protesting to God that he doesnot want to breathe air. If you protest to God that you don't want to breathe air it means you want to die," he added. He explained that the big deal about crash helmet is safety.
"Nobody is praying for any bad thing to happen, but in the event of an accident, the first point of contact is the head, for both riders and passengers, such that if you fall down, that protective device will protect your head from being injured. If there is an accident and you have injury on your hand or leg and even when they are cut off, definitely you can still be alive and you can have artificial hand or leg to use, but when the head is cut off, there is no way you can go and buy artificial head."
He advised that all should embrace the use of crash helmets rather than protest, since there is no culture or religion prohibiting the use of crash helmet. "If anybody protests the use of helmet, he is in a very primitive age," he said.
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