Federal Road Safety Corps (Nigeria)

Federal Road Safety Corps is the Government Agency with statutory responsibilities for road safety administration in Nigeria. Founded in 1988, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) operates in all Nigerian states as well as the Federal Capital Territory and is the leading agency in Nigeria on road safety administration and management. The statutory functions include: Making the highways safe for motorists and other road users as well as checking road worthiness of vehicles, recommending works and infrastructures to eliminate or minimize accidents on the highways, and educating motorists and members of the public on the importance of road discipline on the highways.
The FRSC is headed by a Corps Marshal who is appointed by the President with a four (4) year tenure renewable once.
The current Corps Marshal is Shehu Mohammed. He is the 3rd career officer to head the Corps after Boboye Oyeyemi OFR mni NPoM and Dauda A. Biu NPoM.
The Corps is divided into the Officer and Marshal cadres. The Officer cadre is saddled with the responsibility of leadership, planning and coordination at various cascading levels of command.
The Marshal cadre is made up of the Marshal Inspectorate(MI) and Road Marshal Assistant (RMA). The MIs known generally as Inspectors serve as intermediaries in command between the Officers and the whole Marshal Cadre.
The Officer ranks are as follows from the highest:
All staff in the Officer and Marshal cadre are considered Regular Marshals. There exists an unpaid volunteer force known as Special Marshals who supplement the numbers of the Corps.
The Special Marshals are the volunteer arm of the Federal Road Safety Corps. This volunteer arm was created by the same FRSC statute Sec. 10 (1)… “the Corps” which shall consist of such number of uniform and non-uniform members as may be determined, from time to time, by the Commission. FRSC Establishment Act (2007). They are men and women of means, with proven integrity in society, and able to influence their immediate environment (work place/community) in favor of the course of road safety. The Act empowers the Special Marshals to carry out patrol and other activities that ensure good road usage on our highways. Just like their Regular counterparts, they can arrest and book traffic offenders as well as prosecute them when necessary.
They can be identified with their blue high visibility regalia including face caps, high visibility jackets and arm bands. Special Marshals work strictly under the supervision of Regular Marshals.
Prior to the establishment of the Federal Road Safety Commission in 1988, there was no concrete and sustained policy action to address the carnage on Nigerian roads. Earlier attempts in this direction were limited to discrete and isolated attempts by some states of the federation and individuals.
Notable among the efforts to institute a formidable road safety program was the effort of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) between 1960 and 1965. The effort of the Nigerian Army in the training of its officers and men on road safety in the early 1970s also contributed to road safety ideas and consciousness in Nigeria: The Nigerian Army started the First Public Road Safety Campaign in 1972 when it initiated an annual Road Safety Week.
The first deliberate policy on road safety was the creation in 1974 of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) by the then-military government. The impact of the commission was, however, not sustained. In 1977, the Military Administration in Oyo State, Nigeria established the Oyo State Road Safety Corps which made some local significant improvements in road safety and road discipline in the state. That lasted till 1983 when it was disbanded by the federal government.
With the continued dangerous trend of road traffic accidents in Nigeria then, which placed it as one of the most road traffic accident (RTA) prone countries worldwide (the most in Africa) in 2013, the Nigerian government saw the need to establish the present Federal Road Safety Corps in 1988 to address the carnage on the highways.
The unpleasant trend in the nation's road traffic system which resulted in an upsurge in road traffic accidents made the Federal Government initiate a search for a credible and effective response to the challenge.
In February 1988, the Federal Government established the Federal Road Safety Commission through Decree No. 45 of 1988 as amended by Decree 35 of 1992 referred to in the statute books as the FRSC Act cap 141 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), passed by the National Assembly as Federal Road Safety Corps (establishment) Act 2007.
The functions of the Commission generally relate to:
In particular, the commission is charged with responsibilities as follows:
In exercising these functions, members of the Commission have the power to arrest and prosecute persons reasonably suspected of having committed any traffic offence.