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Harriman Oyofo: The Business of Driving in Nigeria

Road traffic collisions kill thousands of people in Nigeria each year, not to mention the accompanying damage to property and the environment. It is estimated that in about 80% of the occurrences driver error is the principal, primary cause. That is to say that as many as eighty percent of those collisions could have been prevented if drivers involved had acted differently at the material time.

However, drivers can only prevent collisions if they know what to do to respond correctly in time to collision-enforcing conditions while behind the wheel. Acting correctly in time comes from a background of proper training and constant practice. Any driver not properly schooled in the art of safe driving is a problem to him/herself as well as to others because like they say, it is practice ally impossible to give what you do not have. According to local authorities, most drivers plying our roads lack basic safe driving skills because they did not pass through approved standard driver training and education programs prior to their certification as fit to safely operate motorized vehicles on public roads, streets and highways. If so, it paints a truly worrisome picture for the safety of the local road user.

Driving is generally hazardous but against such a chaotic backdrop, it becomes extremely challenging to stay collision-free on the road because the odds are simply out of sight. Imagine having to routinely face an army of poorly trained, poorly educated drivers at each turn, at every intersection, every traffic lights stop; then you may begin to appreciate the threat to your comfort and margin of safety, if indeed there’s any in the first place. That said it probably makes more sense to say that the exposed driver is on his/her own in terms of the prevailing hazards because in reality, that you get into trouble doesn’t depend solely on what you do or do not do. The truth is that your trouble will most likely come from what the other driver does or does not do, which really is the crux of the matter.

Coping in traffic populated by drivers with less-than-adequate knowledge of the provisions of the Highway Code, road signs and markings, vehicle performance limitations, etc. is truly a hard nut to crack to say the least. If you were to add lack of road skills, poor adjustment to weather, light, driver, traffic and vehicle conditions then you may begin to sense the size of mountain any safe driver must climb each time, to make a safe trip in the Nigerian motoring environment.

But climb that mountain every driver must by themselves unaided to drive to stay safe on the road. People must appreciate that driving and drinking do not mix. So do drug and other substance use or abuse. Driver education/training does not end with passing a driver's test and becoming a "proud" possessor of a driver's license, it continues in all your days of driving, otherwise you could lose more than the license itself in certain circumstances. Continuous improvement is a philosophy with road traffic safety in mind because without it, the driver is a sitting duck. For instance, it takes discipline, training and good old common sense to know that using the phone while driving is a NO GO AREA for the safety conscious and aware driver.

And you know what? So also is eating, drinking, reading, texting, arguing, etc. 

Harriman Oyofo is CEO, Mann Associates Ltd., Nigeria. 

 

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