ओं क्रेश HELMETS

ON CRASH HELMETS

Some days back I was waiting for a taxi around the Abuloma axis of Port Harcourt, Rivers State when I saw a man driving a car with a Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) sticker “Regular Marshal” making a call with his cell phone but before I can get the car licence number the man, who was driving like maniac, had zoomed past.

Making calls while driving is a common sight on Nigerian roads and has unofficially becomes an acceptable norm. If one may ask what is the big deal about a man driving a car and answering his cell phone? It is this “busy body” job called journalism, simple, that makes me to worry myself over things that do not directly affect me. Who gave me power to monitor those who are making calls while driving? But my attraction was that FRSC sticker which gave the impression that the driver may be a corps marshal or the car belongs to a corps marshal, who is suppose to know better and to practice what he and his organization preach. Maybe, this is the reason why the law banning making calls while driving cannot be enforce as those who are suppose to enforce it are also guilty of the same offence.

This reminds me; today is precisely 16 days since the law that everyone riding a motorcycle, passenger inclusive, must wear a crash helmet. But the law seems not to have come into effect in places like Uyo and other parts of Akwa Ibom state and Aba in Abia State. Cyclists and their passengers in these areas are seen riding their motorcycles without helmets. It is either they are ignorant of the law or they do not believe any one can arrest them for deciding not to take safety precaution against injury to their heads in an event of an accident? Their reasoning maybe, if they want to commit suicide is it anybody’s business whether they live or die? Also, they may argue that it is their lives and they are free to live it the way they like, so they can choose to be alive or die. Or maybe they are copying law enforcement agents in these areas who ride motorcycles without helmets.

Even in Calabar, Cross River state where the wearing of helmets when riding commercial motorcycles has been in existence for the past two years, security agents are seen riding bikes without crash helmets. If one may ask are the skulls of soldiers, policemen, traffic wardens, Civil Defence Corps insulated from injury in event of an accident? Does a security agent have a moral right to arrest someone who is riding a bike without a helmet when as at the time of the arrest the security agent maybe riding a motorcycle and may carry a colleague or two and none of them is wearing a helmet? I have watched several times, in Calabar, as policemen and civil defence corps on motorbikes without helmets arresting okada riders whose passengers have no helmet. I have also watched with disbelief how a member of the civil defence, carrying two of his colleagues arrested an okada rider for carrying two passengers, the same offence he committed. One must go to equity with clean hands. Does the uniform exonerate certain people from certain laws?

Heads of security agencies should educate their staff on the need to obey the laws that they are expected to enforced. Security agencies should evolve some internal mechanism of checks and balance to ensure compliance. I would suggest an “Operation Wear Your Helmet” in all military and para-military formations. Anyone, whether staff or visitor, riding a motorcycle into or out of a military barracks, police station or other security establishment and facilities must put an helmet before entry or exit.

The problem with Nigeria is not lack of law but implementation or enforcement of laws. Nigeria may be regarded as one of the countries in the world that can boast of good laws in its statute book but the issue of compliance, implementation and enforcement has been our greatest undoing; and at times it seems we have no law. We are so lawless that no one would believe we have law or law enforcement agencies. We break laws with impunity and at times with glee on our faces. One’s ability to break the law without caring a hoot is applauded and you are regarded as being smart. Law abiding citizens are seen as weak and foolish. Nigerians are very law-abiding people but they break laws when they see their leaders and those who are suppose to enforce the law live contrary to the dictates of the law.

In Port Harcourt, since the helmet law came into effect, security agents are seen riding motorcycles without helmets. Anyway, with the ban on commercial motorcycles, even those who have private bikes are afraid of riding on the streets for the fear of being labeled an Okada rider. There are very few civilians riding motorcycles in the garden City despite the current transportation problems facing the residents as a result of the ban on okada. The few taxis and buses in the city cannot cope with the number of commuters.

My view is that no security agent has right to arrest a civilian riding a motorcycle without helmet when he cannot arrest a soldier, a mobile policemen, a FRSC staff, a civil defence corps, Immigration or Customs Officer guilty of same offence. We should strive to maintain the standard as a country; it should be the same law for all Nigerians no matter one’s status, career or profession. If I may ask, who is going to enforce the law on helmet, is it the FRSC, the police or Civil Defence; or all of them working in collaboration? If it is FRSC then the law is as good a failure as the commission has far less staff to cover the entire country? If the Police and Civil Defence Corps are involved in the enforcement of the law then a fresh avenue for extortion has been opened for corrupt officials working in these agencies, going by their current activities. We should not make fools of ourselves and country, we should always make laws that we are willing and committed to enforce.