Emeka Ibemere
Do you know
that you can obtain your driver’s licence without tears any longer? This is
what the Federal Road Safety Corps and CLEEN Foundation are working
effortlessly to make sure that access to obtaining driver’s licence would no
longer be a problem as they work to eliminate the bottlenecks that stifled the
process.
Last week in
Lagos State, the Sector Command, CLEEN Foundation, Journalists and members of
the National Youth Service Commission, NYSC, took to the streets in Lagos State
on sensitisation and awareness campaign to educate Nigerians and Lagos State
residents on the application procedures for obtaining and renewal of drivers
licence.
The rally-
like event took off at the Ojota Toll Gate office of the FRSC, at 9am Thursday,
18 December, 2014, was equally observed throughout the country. The motor-Cade tour
of duty campaign went through Ojodu to Ojota and to the Alausa axis of Ikeja to
Agidingbi before berthing at the FRSC Headquarters at Ojodu Berger area of
Lagos State, where the sector commander addressed journalists.
Addressing
journalists after the sensitisation and awareness tour, Godwin Ogagaoghene,
Assistant Corps Marshal, Zonal Commanding Officer of the Federal Road Safety
Corps, Lagos State explained that the campaign was to create awareness and
sensitise the populace on what FRSC is doing to ease the tension arising from
procedures in obtaining driver’s licence. On touting issue that has brought bad
image to the FRSC, Ogagaoghene stated touting at the road safety, is being
treated with every sense of seriousness, adding that the issue of touting is
being eradicated.
“We must say
that we are doing everything possible within our power to see that it’s
eradicated entirely. We have arrested some, and we caught some and handed them
over to the police for prosecution”, he added.
“People say
some of our staffs are involved; we have also put machinery in motion to ensure
that any staff seen getting himself or herself in touting, will be dismissed
from the Corps”.
Speaking on
the duration for obtaining driver’s licence, Assistant Corps Marshal further
stated that the Corps are bringing the duration of obtaining driver’s licence
down and because of that the Corps have opened more driver’s licence centres,
in Lagos State, he said they have more centres now than before and they have
started sensitising people about the existence of these new centres.
“We have
also made jingles on radio and televisions to tell people the new driver’s
centres and we are telling people to go to these new ones. Before, the old ones
we have are always crowded because there was where many people go and the
numbers are so high, and that is why we have delays and backlog. So, now that
the centres have been distributed, people can now go to these new places to
ease the backlog and delays”.
Ogagaoghene
assured Nigerians that with the system on grounds now that Nigerians can obtain
their driver’s licence within 30 to 60 days. “The time is coming down and you
get your driver’s licence within a month or two”, he promised.
On those who
obtain driver’s licence without proper training, he said that the Corps is also
on the spot assessment and checks.
“Our men can
dictate if your licence is genuine or not on the spot check, if your licence is
not genuine, they take you to police station for prosecution. The process of
obtaining new drivers licence is getting easy and shorter and when people know
that they won’t be wasting more time there, they will be patronising it than
going for the fake ones.
In another
development, he explained that the Corps had put machinery on ground to have
free-accident yuletide.
According to
him, “We have a meeting where we talk to our stakeholders, they need to come
together to make sure that Lagos-Ibadan road is reduced of crash this period,
that meeting was fruitful and we are still meeting to find tune our agreement
to make sure that our roads are accident free this yuletide”, he added.
“We want to
say that within this end of the year, we are giving our words that people will
not sleep on the road as it has always been; we usually have deadlocks on the
road. This period will be seamless period, when people get to their
destinations without hitches”.
Raphael Mba,
a staff of CLEEN Foundation and the coordinator of the campaign for proper
procedures for obtaining driver’s licence disclosed that he was happy the way
the event went, because according to him, many Nigerians, especially the Lagos
State residents can now know the process of obtaining their licences without
going through touts and scammers at the FRSC, premises.
Mba explained
that their involvement in the campaign was to let the FRSC, to know as well
that to have touts at their premises was wrong and if the touts are hired to
collect money on their behalf, that it’s equally very wrong. He stated that the
campaign is an ongoing thing.
“We are ready to partner with them and the partnership
has extent it can go but we are already out in this campaign to make sure that
things work. First of all, we have identified corruption which has a link to
the delay Nigerians are experiencing in obtaining their drivers licence. If the
system is working well, you know that these delays cannot be entertained by
Nigerians”, he claimed.
“We believe
that with this campaign, we are going to make sure that Nigerians doesn’t
experience delay again in obtaining their licences and renewing it, earlier
than expected. We want to set an example and the best way to set an example is
to get someone caught in the act, if the person is a tout, we get police to
arrest him and prosecute the person and if the person is an official of the Corps,
we will make sure that the Corps punished the staff with the official
guidelines for punishment of offenders”.
Mba said the
Foundation doesn’t believe that the touting issue was the handiwork of the FRSC
officials but believed that with the recent campaign, that the organisations
have started and that things would begin to work.
“What we are
doing today is sensitisation programme of drivers licence on how Nigerians can
obtain their licences without being duped by touts, because we discovered that
a lot of wrong things have been going on in FRSC, and Nigerians reported to us
about what they are going through in obtaining their licences from FRSC, so
what we did today, was to partner with FRSC, to sensitise them on how best they
can go about it”, Mba disclosed.
“We listed out the procedures on what they
should do and warned them not to pay to anybody whether in uniform or not. We
are telling them to pay at the designated banks provided by the authority”.
According to
him, the event was to inform Nigerians the best way they could obtain driver’s
licence, to avoid being victims of dupes. “We have been receiving complaints
from Nigerians telling us the delays, and extortions.
What motivated CLEEN Foundation to partner with
FRSC, was that one of our mission was to fight against corruption at all
levels, so by going into this campaign, we tend to remove the obstacles in
obtaining licences which have been made difficult by touts.
We want to tell Nigerians that the best way to
get their driver’s licence or renewal of them is to go to the FRSC, by getting
the right procedures and get their driver’s licence”.
Mba revealed
that 70 years old persons and above are not qualified for driver’s licence
because age was no longer on their side, and that FRSC was trying to reduce the road carnage
rate in Nigeria, which has been up and down and as ‘Ember Months’ are around,
it was expected that accident rate is to go high”.
Mba,
however, listed the requirements for procuring driver’s licence as 18 years as
required minimum age and that maximum is 70 years. The procedures also include
driving school certificate from an FRSC accredited driving school and medical
certificate from approved government hospital.
According to
Mba, the person must obtain VIO test certificate and submit application form
online and pay through the designated banks. It also include going for physical
and biometric capture at FRSC driver’s licence centre.
He said with these, the person can collect his
or her temporary licence and after successful biometric investigation,
permanent driver’s licence is issued. Since the emergence of the new driver’s
licence, Nigerians have been going through pains to obtain and renew their
driver’s document due to the influence of touts at the FRSC
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