From dealing with daily traffic snarls and potholes to unruly drivers in rickety vehicles with expired documents, Nigeria’s highway patrol officers have a lot on their plate.
At the same time, they have to face the risks from armed robbers who attack unsuspecting road users idling in monster traffic jams.
An increase in crime on the roads has sparked fresh debate over whether members of the Nigerian Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) should be allowed to carry firearms.
FRSC chief marshal Boboye Oyeyemi has said that about 70 operatives were either shot dead by robbers or knocked down by hit-and-run drivers in 2016.
Those deaths would have been prevented if his operatives had guns, he said.
FRSC spokesman Bisi Kazeem said officials were legally entitled to do so.
“The provision is there in the FRSC Act, but the [Nigerian] government has to approve and gazette it before it can be implemented,” Kazeem said.
Nevertheless, industry sources said an armory had been built for the agency in the capital, Abuja, should the green light be given.
Last year, the Nigerian House of Representatives passed a resolution urging the government to procure weapons for the road marshals.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country of more than 180 million people, returned to civilian rule in 1999 after decades of military rule.
Politicians having replaced generals are in charge of the country, but uniforms are still everywhere and many of those who wear them are armed.
They include the army, navy and air force; the police; customs, immigration and prison services; officers from the anti-drug agency; and the civil defense corps.
Some say that adding to the list would be a recipe for disaster — particularly for anyone dealing with Nigeria’s hot-headed and frequently frustrated motorists under the tropical sun.
Opponents say it will further militarize the country and aggravate tensions, as security forces deal with threats from Boko Haram militants or violence between herders and farmers.
There have been well-documented cases of human rights abuses, including torture and extra-judicial killings.
Recently, a police special anti-robbery squad was forced to change its name following public outrage at atrocities by its officers against civilians.
“Allowing the FRSC to bear arms is tantamount to militarizing the polity and unnecessary proliferation of arms,” security consultant Don Okereke said. “There are too many outfits carrying arms in the country such that people continue to live under constant fear. This is not healthy for the civil society.”
There would be more killing of innocent people in what the police claimed was due to “accidental discharge” if the FRSC is armed, Okereke said.
A retired FRSC commander, who asked not to be identified, agreed.
“The timing is wrong. Now that elections are approaching we should not encourage anything that can heat up the polity,” the retired commander said.
Unscrupulous politicians could pay corrupt FRSC operatives to use their guns against their opponents, he said.
Nigerians are to go to the polls on Feb. 16 to elect a new president and parliament, with state governorship and local assembly polls held two weeks afterward.
On the roads of Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city where traffic is a constant headache and tempers flare, drivers already have a lot to deal with.
They include over-zealous traffic police with sticks and spike strips to burst tires, officers from the FRSC and its local equivalent, the Lagos State Traffic Management.
Add in the so-called “area boys” or gangs who run the bus stops and depots for the battered yellow minibuses, or danfos, driving often resembles a city-wide shakedown for cash.
“Without weapons, the FRSC is already a fearsome unit,” said Olufemi Oluwaseye, a communications student who is a regular user of public transport.
“They [the FRSC] have this unique way of instilling discipline, even if temporary, into even the harshest drivers,” he said.
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