No more enforcement of traffic laws because we’ve monetized safety -Fidelis Nnadi

Barrister (Prince) Fidelis Nnadi is the executive director of Accident Prevention andd Rescue Initiative.In thids interview with Daily Champion, Nnadi talks about the non-governmental organization (NGO)and its impact on the society

What Is Accident Prevention and Rescue Initiative all about?

It is about advocating for safer road users; it is directed towards assuring that government agencies are doing their jobs effectively and those who are engaged in the prevention of lives and property of road users seem to have been doing what they are supposed to do. I’m talking about the gencies like the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the traffic officers (Vehicle Inspection Officers, VIOs). We are one of the leading voices calling on to the government to improve safety of lives by bringing about security on the road and of the vehicle and to ensure that government agencies are performing their jobs effectively.

You know the rate of road crashes today is becoming alarming; and we are one of the leading voices calling on government to   ensure that laws made are enforced or implemented.

 What is the value of your NGO to the society?

It represents the interest of road users in the sense that we speak up on their behalf. This is because without us, you have no one who will be monitoring and supporting activities that will protect lives and properties of road users. So far when accident happens on the roads or when there are road crashes, you hardly find solutions to the problems; and so, we are established to monitor activities on  our roads in the areas of road safety; in the areas of road worthiness; in the areas of human capacity and development; in the areas of road transport sector and also building capacity building for the officers so that they can perform effectively.

When did you establish your NGO?

That was in September 2006

What kind of atmosphere have you created for this NGO?

Well, we succeeded in creating awareness because the awareness on the road was not there before our coming on board. Initialy, nobody was taking road crashes as a serious matter. We have brought in  the interest of foreign agencies or agencies for international development and  we partner with them. We have created that awareness and today, road crash prevention is topping the list. We just celebrated the World Rememberance Day which is marked worldwide or globally for road crash victims.  We have also created some level of awareness among the agencies of federal and state in the enforcement of accident prevention laws. We have done much recently; we had an annual National Conference of Directors/Chiefs in Abuja. So, we have done a lot of deliberations; we also look into some of the court judgments against the VIOs and issues were resolved and a lot of decisions were taken. These were partly towards finding solutions. Because we are focused, we are partnering some state governments to ensure that those who have certain things to do with certain vehicles are properly trained. Such people are the mechanics and those who sell spare parts. We have created awareness that people should not sell substanded spare parts.

On what motive was your organization founded?

We were founded mainly on safety motive. We have no political or religious interest; we don’t support anything like that, but we can call on road users to support any politician that has road safety interest as a political agenda. We can call upon road users if it is the person you need to support because he has the agenda of protecting the lives of road users in his political agenda. So, that is what we can do. Our establishment was non-religious and non-political.

What’s the focus of the organization?

Our advocacy is directed towards complementary efforts in road accidents prevention and safety for road users including adequate deployment of ambulances for the rescue of road crash victims.

How do you get support to run your NGO?

Our support comes from various areas of partnering with individual, companies and the government. Yes, we carry out some functions for them and we get some rewards; some financial rewards and we use that to ensure that our organization is sustained. We don’t solicit for funds in doing most of what we are doing because the times are hard except for those who believe in what we are doing and want to extend support. We have no objections to accept it.

What can you say on the rate of daily accidents on our roads which government dosn’t bother about?

That is what I am saying: That we are the leading voices again in the campaign against road crashes because so far, the rate is increasing and it is not reducing because the roads are not safe in terms of security, in terms of even quality of drivers including vehicles. So, a lot of political support is needed to address all these things. So, there is need for the political will of government because as we speak today, there is no political will of government to address road crashes. At both the federal and state levels, the political will is zero and so, people keep dying and the agencies keep on taking them to mortuary without efforts to mitigate the cause. If you look at some of our roads, they are just there. There are no road signs and when you look at the enforcement on the roads, it is zero. The reason for all these is that we have monetized safety; revenue has become the greatest interest instead of safety. So, that is where we are today.

How many lives have been impacted through your NGO

We have impacted many lives. The road users are the major beneficiaries because they read us on networks, some of the flyers we share out they read us from different angles of social media. So, it dosen’t mean that when you go to the hospitals you give somebody milk and all that; we are touching virtually every lives; that is exactly what we are doing.

Can you tell us about your expansion so far?

We are all over. Our voices are every where; we are all in the social media outlet and we use to have radio talk. We also have campaign being carried out in different areas. I am talking about the outlet as well. We are established in FCT; in Anambra State and we are going to come up in Cross Rivers We are also going to Enugu but like I said, we always establish in areas where we have partnership with either companies or state government.

  Tell us about your human development

In terms of human development, yes, we have been able to bring about the establishment of support for road accident victims; we discussed that at this last function and also at the World Remembrance Day for road crash victims and when you look at it in terms of human development, fine. We are training drivers; we are trying to also improve the capacity of the officers that are offering to lecture them and to improve the quality of their services .They are very numerous.s You can imagine since 2006 we have been active and you can imagine what we have achieved so far.

Can you tell us about the prevention of road accident, work place and environment?

When you look at that, we know we are not an enforcement body and we are not a regulatory body. We are simply advocates and where we have resources, we can use them to complement government‘s efforts.  First and foremost, we need to have ambulances within the workplaces within the neighbourhood and within the road, but unfortunately, this is not easy to come by. On our own, like I said, until the government develops political will to ensure that every life counts, we will not have all these things. We are talking about having fire disasters in several places; and we have called on the government to establish fire services centres on high ways so that vehicles that get is engulfed in fire can easily be extinguished. This is because the content of fire extinquisher we carry in our car can not contain or reduce the level of fire that catch up with our vehicle but one thing is to speak out and another one is for the government to listen. That is why the primary responsibility of government is safety of lives and properties, but we have not seen that happened when it comes to road crash issues. Road crash is not riot, road crash is something that happens unexpectedly and the government must be willing to provide the infrastructure or the facilities that will take care of those unexpected issues when they occur. If we have many fire extinguishers on our high ways, all those tanker explosions would have been contained, but unfortunately, they are not there; you can see the level of damages tanker explosions have caused this country in terms of lives and properties. So, if government is not doing anything about that, I don’t see who is coming to do it. That is the truth you have to understand.

What are your efforts in saving lives?

That is what I told you that when you look at it the safety of lives is the primary responsibility of the government you understand and what it means when you want to go and saves lives who authorises you, you must have the authority of the government you must also have the capacity to provide such services so in our positions we are simply advocates we advocate what the society expect from government anything short of that if we have ambulances and the government says okay we want to carry out such functions we will eventually get that approval and if it is not approved we cannot do it so we as NGO bodies ours is to serve as a watch dog we watch what the government does we watch what the society does we look at them and we critically analyse and we speak out this is what is needed  to be done we can also call for conferences in order to come out with a communique or advice that the state can look into but of course we have done a lot you know nobody is listening and what do we do like we are incapacitated we cannot do what the government is expected to do because it is not within our covering.

What do you want the government to do to empower your organization?

Currently, there is new established emergency fund by the Federal Ministry of Health providing for the five per cent of medical health allocation to be provided for emergency services to help road crash victims. Currently, they have not extended it; it is lying fallow and people like us deserve to be given the opportunity to have some funds to acquire ambulances and also establish first aid centres on high ways and major roads so that accidents, when they occur, will be positioned to provide first aid services and rescue operations. These are done in civilized societies.

What is the level of your awareness?

The level of our awareness is so high

What are your expectations from the government so far?

Government should provide us with ambulances and alloation of spaces to construct first aid centres on highways.  I mean for every 50km of the road there should be a first aid centre with ambulance for the purpose of rescuing accident victims. You can do that in collaborations with government and that is exactly what is expected because a lot of accident victims are taken to the mortuary. Their lives would have been revived if we had first aid rescue respose equipped with first aid. That is exactly what is happening; a lot of people have lost their lives. If we had all these things, their lives would have been revived, but today, once there is a crash, what you see is a car to come and carry them to the mortuary; even some are dumped in the mortuary without anybody caring for them. It doesn’t show any concern at all, it doesn’t talk well of this country and it means that we don’t have safety for people in distress. Every life should matter; that is our concern. The government does not have the capacity of personnel, we have trained paramedics; we have them and they are ready to work; so, we need ambulances and the opportunity to build first aid centres. Like I said, every 50km of the high way should have a first aid centre so that they will be positioned even to start educating drivers that are using the roads, we have breakdown of vehicles on the roads and it will cause more accidents but if we have those centres, they will be monitoring situations and reporting them to the government and even contributing how best we can avert a dangerous situation that can consume lives.

What were you doing before you established the organization?

I was still in legal profession but I am a victim of road crash

Can you tell us about your logistics so far?

We don’t have much logistic because we are not receiving any fund from anybody; we are operating at our level

 

 

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