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Abdullahi Isa adjusted the helmet on his head for the umpteenth
time. It was his first week at work as a commercial motorcyclist and, besides
struggling with communicating with passengers in English language, he was also
having problems fastening the oversized head gear on his head. Although, he
could not work out how old he is, he said he was sure he was born the year the
late head of state, Sani Abacha, died (that is, 1998). According to him, his
sole purpose of moving to Lagos, where he had been for two months, was to
search for greener pastures.

The rising cases of road accidents in the state, which are
traceable to underage commercial motorcyclists and bus drivers who ply the
roads, have become a cause for concern.

Young and driving

Penultimate Wednesday, a diesel-laden tanker overturned and
exploded into flames on the Liverpool bridge, Apapa. Two occupants, including
the driver were instantly roasted to death.

Although he could not determine the exact age of the tanker
driver, Wale Olayiwola, a fire officer who was at the scene of the inferno,
attributed the cause to the situation where “very young boys” are allowed to
drive tankers and articulated vehicles.

“It is disheartening to see these young and inexperienced boys
driving trailers and tankers. I don’t know who granted them driving licences
that allowed them to drive vehicles loaded with sensitive and highly volatile
products,” said Mr. Olayiwola, the chief fire officer of the Nigeria Ports
Authority.

A public analyst, Gabriel Giwa-Amu, said that it is unreasonable
for an inexperienced person to ply the highways. “But if you say the
youthfulness of the motorist, the driver, or the commercial motorcyclist is an
issue, I will say no. The fact that the man is young does not make it a crime
or improper to ply the road because there is an age limit to which a person can
be said to be allowed to drive,” said Mr. Giwa-Amu, a Lagos-based private legal
practitioner.

Road safety awareness

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), in conjunction with
celebrity special marshals and four nongovernmental organisations had, on
February 20 this year, initiated the child-safety campaign in Lagos State.

“It was because of the concern over the safety of younger people
like that, we call them under aged people who, of course, have a right to ride,
drive or be driven. And the whole essence of that is how do we raise
awareness?” Said Jonas Agwu, the Lagos State Sector Commander of the FRSC.

“What we were trying to emphasise was that the family, religious
organisations and everyone in the society has a responsibility to ensure that
these young people are properly guided.

“Nobody should capitalise on the fact that because you want to
do business, you take a child that is under aged and ask him to do certain
things,” said Mr. Agwu.

According to the National Road Traffic Regulation Act of 2004,
it is illegal for anybody who is under 18 to drive a vehicle or to ride a
motorcycle. But being able to determine the age of a driver or motorcyclist by
looks seems to be a major challenge for the traffic officials.

“In keeping with that,” Mr. Agwu continued, “we carry out our
enforcements targeting under aged drivers and riders. Of course, we know that
sometimes there are challenges because you cannot determine the age of a person
by merely looking at the person,” said Mr. Agwu.

“In most cases, when we suspect that the person is under 18,
what we do is we impound the vehicle, impound the bike, and insist that the
person should bring proof, so that we have a document that we can use in
determining whether the person who is arrested is truly under age or not before
we go ahead with enforcement.”

Monitoring road users

Mr. Giwa-Amu blamed road accidents on irresponsible road users
and poor monitoring from road monitoring agencies. “The commercial motorcyclists
are the most reckless beings that ever exist. Not because of the area they are
coming from, but because once they are able to step on the clutch and the Okada
moves, they feel that they can ride the Okada anywhere anyhow. But normally,
these people are supposed to be subjected to training and evaluation,” he said.

A major area that needs to be looked into, according to Mr.
Giwa-Amu, is the tendency for drivers to jump into any type of vehicle,
irrespective of the class of vehicle under which their licences were issued.
“If you say you are licenced to drive a lorry, it does not give you the licence
to drive a truck of a higher weight. If you are 18 years old and you are
licenced to drive a car, you are prohibited from driving a truck, especially
one carrying fuel or any inflammable object, because it endangers the public.

“And then there is always this periodic test the vehicle
inspection office is entitled to carry out for a truck driver to ensure that he
is still of that mental competence or ability to drive that truck of that
grade. But all these things have collapsed, once the road safety issues a
licence, it is presumed to be for three or four years, they are not concerned
about your mental stability.” According to Mr. Agwu, the agency comes down hard
on drivers who possess invalid driving licences.

“When we ask do you have a valid driver’s licence? A valid
driver’s licence could be regarded as an ambiguous question in the sense that
you might be thinking that all we are saying is that, do you have a current
licence? But much more than that, we are asking do you have the licence that
truly specifies and gives you the right to ride that thing that you are
moving?” Stressed Mr. Agwu.

He also said that the FRSC has started a programme which
specifies that anybody who is applying for a licence must have attended a valid
and approved driving school.

“As I speak to you now, if you apply for a driver’s license here in Lagos
and you are applying for the first time and you never went to a driving school
approved by the government, you will not be able to pick a driver’s licence.”