Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety
Commission, FRSC, may have stirred human rights controversy when it said
Wednesday that commercial driver’s licences would no longer be issued to
applicants below the age of 25 years. Disclosing this, the Lagos State Sector
Commander, FRSC, Mr Nseobong Akpabio, said the step was intended to get rid of
underage drivers and sanitise the profession. Commercial drivers licences are
given to drivers of trucks and taxis. “An underage commercial driver has no
commitment and may see driving as one of those jobs that could be toyed with.
Many road crashes, especially with articulated vehicles, were usually traced to
motor-boy drivers, who were without experience,” Akpabio told the News Agency
of Nigeria. Akpabio called on transport unions, parents, as well as passengers,
to assist the commission in checking underage drivers in order to achieve the
United Nation’s Decade of Action for Safer Road Users. “Road crash involving a
commercial bus may jeopardise the existence or progress of 10 families and if
it involved freight vehicle, it will affect the progress of the company.
“Drivers are very important as they
can either mar or make a person, because if there is safe arrival, goals and
aims can be achieved, but in a reversed case, such goals and aims have been cut
short,” he said. He said that the approved minimum age of 25 years for
obtaining commercial driver’s licence would help in checking road crashes
usually caused by underage drivers. He urged commercial drivers to start
processing their licence now to avoid last minute rush, adding that they should
avoid patronising touts and go through the normal process of obtaining the
product. The new commercial driver’s licence – Class-E — was flagged off in
Lagos on 31 December, 2012, to identify underage and unqualified drivers. .
