FRSC: Arms In Their Hands?

BEN OKEZIE

1988, their constitutional baptismal name has not changed, but their demeanor has gone through many transformational policies. Its name has remained the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). Two notable personalities helped shape its destiny despite widespread agitations and reservations: former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who initiated it and it was mid-wifed by Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, between 1988 and 1992. As a government agency with statutory responsibilities for road safety administration in Nigeria. Its founding fathers, who, incidentally, were military officers, never contemplated arming the personnel of FRSC except with walkie-talkie gadgets and fast vehicles.

Indeed, there was no reason for such upgrading. However, what could have stopped merely as street gossip was further fuelled by the pronouncement the House of Representatives Committee on FRSC, which disclosed during the 2020 budget performance and 2021 budget defence by the FRSC that personnel of corps may soon start to carry firearms to “curtail the excesses of road users in Nigeria”.

Since the announcement, Nigerians have been wondering and asking, why such a hasty decision and for what purpose and in whose interest? They ask if members of the House of Representatives Committee on FRSC are not toeing the path of regret. Here is a country already bedeviled by criminals of every shade brandishing different types of firearms despite the mopping up of illegal guns in wrong hands across the country. Are they not aware of the proliferation of assorted firearms? Are they not aware of illegal importation of firearms into the country? What exactly is behind their motive? Definitely, it is not born out of patriotism. A list of agencies officially armed with guns includes: Nigeria Police, Army, Navy, Air Force, DSS, Immigration Service, Customs Service, EFCC, DMI, Correctional Service and Civil Defence Corps.

In a country with 200 million population and about 60 million of youthful age, there is the need to be extremely cautious when the issue of security is on the discussion table, especially when it concerns firearms. The Holy Book says, “The heart of man is desperately wicked”. If the Committee’s only argument is for the FRSC personnel on the highway “to curtail the excesses of road users in Nigeria”, the first question one needs to ask the legislators is if they are just returning from a journey abroad and on what basis they tendering their loose submission. If they have been in Nigeria and are very active and observant, such proposition would have been an anathema to them.

How else shall we accommodate such needless proposition in the light of glaring insecurity that is visible and challenging around the country?

(To be continued)

• Ben Okezie, a Security Expert, writes from FCT, Abuja.