FRSC hopes to cut road accident by 50% in a new scheme

Folalumi Alaran

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), through GreenLight Initiative has teamed up with Georgetown University in Kenya to implement a low-cost road safety scheme in Nigeria, with the aim of reducing road accident by fifty percent.

Representative from the University, Marther Mutual, speaking at the FRSC headquarters in Abuja recently, claimed that, the pilot initiative ‘Zusha!’ was first launched in Kenya and has reported 80 percent reduction in traffic accidents.

She further said that the core concept for the campaign is saving lives, through cost effective ways which translate to encouraging the passagers to speak up to their drivers if the driver is driving recklessly.

She said: ” Zusha road safety campaign is a cost-effective intervention proven to reduce road accidents and save lives, and designed to give the government agencies access to monitor and control the effectiveness of road users across the country”

“Zusha was designed and tested in Kenya and Tanzania by Georgetown University Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation (gui2de), USA”.

The Executive Director GreenLight Initiative, Mr. Simon Obi on his part said GreenLight Initiative stands in support of replication of the Zusha road safety campaign in Nigeria, ultimately to save lives on the roads by reducing road traffic crashes as witnessed in Kenya and Tanzania.

He said: “t is for this reason, that the GreenLight Initiative and Zusha road safety team have come to pay a courtesy visit to the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps to intimate the FRSC on the project and seek its partnership for the successfully implemention in Nigeria”.

According to Simon, the visit gave the opportunity for cross fertilisation of ideas, interactions with the Corps as well as the opportunity to invite the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) for better collaboration.

In a sideline interview with Thisday, the Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM), Jonas Agwu, expressed his confidence in the initiative adding that if the campaign worked in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania then Nigeria should not be left out.

He said: ” Our major focus has been how do we change drivers and passengers attitude, but I think this innovation has its own uniqueness which is the reason why we said its something that can work and I believe that when the report gets to the Corp Marshall, he he will want us to look at it and see what impact it can create in Nigeria.”