Former officer of the Nigerian Army, Major Rasaki Salawu (retd.), narrates to GABRIEL OSHOKHA his experiences in the army and how he created the Federal Road Safety Corps about 38 years ago.....CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>.....CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
The Federal Road Safety Corps is your brainchild. Tell us about the genesis.
I had conceived a plan for road traffic management before I left the army on June 10, 1977. So, immediately after I left the Nigerian Army, I talked to the then-military administrator of Oyo State, Major General David Jemibewon (retd.) about the plan, and he asked me to bring the proposal. He went through the proposal and allowed me an hour to defend it.
After I had defended it, he said it was implementable. That was on the 8th of August barely, two months after I left the army. He thereafter assembled a team that would work with me. The then Commissioner for Works, Bandele Aiku, Chief Olunloyo, Chief Areoye Oyebola, the late proprietor of Alafia Nursery and Primary School, Mokola, Ibadan, were among the governing board of the proposed outfit.
So, Major General Jemibewon, who was very happy after he had looked at the papers and the names of the governing board members, asked if we could do the job, and I gave him an affirmative answer. On August 12, 1987, Jemibewon wrote me a letter that I should apply for the post of the director of the organisation. It was as if they needed the road safety outfit badly. That was how we started.
As of the time we started, people were suggesting that we call the army or the police to train the people, but I said, ‘No’.
Why did you say no?
The reason was that we had a force very close to us; a local force though, but I knew them for the discipline they maintained. So, when I was asked which commission I had in mind, I told them the firefighters; I mean the fire brigade. The first set of road safety corps was trained by the Oyo State Fire Service.
That was during the time of Mr Lekan Adeleye, who was then the Chief Fire Officer, and one Oyelami who was my classmate in primary school. They were two topmost fire officials at that time, and they gladly trained the first set of road safety marshals in this country.
That was how we started the whole thing. They didn’t call it Road Safety initially; however, we believed it was better to give it a sound name that included ‘safety’ and ‘road.’ We made the name available and made the people understand that it would be an appropriate name in place of the Accidents Prevention Corps.
How did you come up with the idea of the Federal Road Safety Corps?
As a matter of fact, I didn’t call it the Federal Road Safety Corps or Road Safety. What I put in my proposal was the Accidents Prevention Corps because of my knowledge that accidents were actually happening at an alarming and intolerable rate. The idea was to seek an alternative to what the Nigeria Police Force was doing as of then because the means of preventing rampant accidents was either completely absent or unknown at all.
Why did you suggest a dog as the logo of Road Safety?
The concept of a dog for the Oyo State Road Safety logo was derived from Greyhound Transportation Company in the United States. The company has the largest fleet of buses plying roads in the United States. The drivers of Greyhound buses are known for careful driving.
Greyhound is a particular dog species for sport as there are different dog species in the United States. So, when the subject of a suitable logo for the Oyo State Road Safety came up, people suggested all manner of logos, but I suggested Greyhound because I was banking on the quality services rendered by Greyhound buses. That was how the concept of a dog was adopted and became the logo of Oyo State Road Safety.
You were contacted by a former military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida (retd.), to replicate the Oyo State Road Safety Corps, also known as Majamaja, at the federal level. How did it happen?
About three or four years later, the Babangida-led military government requested a replication of the template I used for the Oyo State Road Safety Corps at the federal level. The move by the Federal Government was aimed at reducing the frequency of road accidents on federal highways. They needed preventive measures in place to curb the rate of accidents on highways.
Babangida sent for me through Chief Olu Falae who was then the secretary to the military government. I was mandated to implement the template I used for the Oyo State Road Safety to establish the Federal Road Safety Commission at the federal level. This was followed by a letter that I should apply as the director.
Thereafter, I received a letter from Chief Falae, on December 1, 1988, that they were handing over the preparatory job of the Federal Road Safety Commission to me, and that I should let them know when it would be completed. The letter clearly stated that I should hand it over to a governing board after the completion of the assignment.
I was also asked to assemble members of the governing board. In fact, that was how Prof. Wole Soyinka came in. But before then, the late Vice Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof Ojetunji Aboyade, had connected me to Prof. Soyinka whom I appointed as an Honorary Marshall to represent the university, primarily to prevent cultism from taking a root on the institution’s campus.
Were you able to implement the template at the federal level?
As I mentioned earlier, I received a letter on December 1, 1988, from the Babangida-led military government which mandated me to set up a road safety organisation at the federal level. That was when the civilian government had been displaced. On February 18, 1988, after I had successfully delivered the assignment, I handed the template over to Rear Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, who represented the Federal Government at that time.
That was the date registered in any paper regarding the formation of Road Safety in Nigeria. At the time, I also received a long list of people numbering over 100 and was given the authority to choose one person from the list that would work with me.
I chose Soyinka because he was the only person on the list that I could vouch for, as I had earlier known him through Prof. Aboyade then of the University of Ife. Although he was made the Chairman of FRSC, I was in charge of every other thing.
What were your experiences in the Nigerian Army?
I was recruited into the Nigerian Army in 1957 alongside former Lagos State governor, Mobolaji Johnson; former governor of the Eastern Region and the Biafran warlord, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu; three Ibadan boys and many others. We had our training, and thereafter, we were posted to different units. I had my first training at the Reconnaissance after leaving the depot.
Reconnaissance is a unit that is usually at the forefront of the war. It collects raw information and then sends it back to the superior headquarters for processing to determine whether the report is reliable or not. So, that was my first contact with the military in terms of activities. We did signals, and reconnaissance was later developed into a tank unit.
All the courses we took in the United States and the United Kingdom were basically about military tanks. Sometimes, tanks will lead the battle, and do the communication, they have the firepower and mobility too. The army personnel in the armoured corps can determine the type of report you want to send to the rear for the higher command to work on for further processing.
That was where I worked throughout my service in the military. That’s why I showed you various photographs of tanks from Pakistan, Russia, and other countries where I had been trained.
Why did you resign from the army?
As a matter of fact, I was not due for retirement on the grounds of age at the time l left the army, but I was due for pension. So, when I was due for pension, I wrote a letter that I wanted to go, but the army authorities were reluctant to approve my resignation. I believe it was because they felt I had just returned from overseas training at the Ministry of Defence in the UK at the time.
I had the training then with former Oyo State military governor, Oladayo Popoola. Again, because the approval of my resignation letter was delayed, I waited for about two and a half years before my resignation was approved. I think the approval was held up perhaps because they needed a convincing reason from me for deciding to leave the army.
For me, the decision to leave the army at the time I did was like leaving for uncertainty. I wasn’t so sure the proposal for the Oyo State Road Safety would be accepted by the state government. But Major General Jemibewon who was then the Oyo State governor approved the proposal for the implementation of the Oyo State Road Safety. Believe me; if Jemibewon had objected to the Road Safety proposal, there wouldn’t have been Road Safety anywhere in Nigeria today.
What are your views about how the current FRSC personnel are putting their lives at risk while doing their jobs?
One thing I discovered is that functionaries can never be enough for the type of job the FRSC is doing. Following my observation, we carried out an analysis of what FRSC is doing every day because we have our team, too. That is what we want to do now for the Oyo State Road Traffic Management Agency.
I will turn OYRTMA into a research centre for traffic management in this country, and I’m already working on that. By the grace of God, between now and June or July this year, we will call Governor ‘Seyi Makinde to come and launch it.
We believe there are certain areas we should work on in federal road safety management. It is a forgotten area. We want to know why Road Safety cannot give us zero crashes on our roads. My team wants to know why there shouldn’t be zero deaths because of accidents on our roads across Nigeria.
Do you think the FRSC has any right to arrest motorists for faded number plates since they issued the same item?
The plates on which numbers are inscribed or etched are supposed to last 20 years before fading. That was what we planned. That means the lifespan of a vehicle under normal use could last a maximum of 10 years. But if a car is parked for two years because the owner is not around, that car can last 14 years. And if the owner doesn’t use the car regularly, it can last 20 years.
The number plate is supposed to last at least seven years and above, but not below seven years. But if it starts fading less than seven years of its use, that means either the material used is inferior or they didn’t do it well. If it becomes an issue of litigation in the court, I think what is allowed, and which is not covered by the law, is for a vehicle owner to go back to FRSC so that they can produce another one at a cost.
That has never been under any litigation. But because people have been taking their faded number plates to the licensing office and are given another one without any form of argument, this will lead to court action. If this is acceptable to the public, why not?
Share your mood with us about the new car the Oyo State governor recently gave you.
To be honest, I want to tell you that my homecoming after serving in the army, the Road Safety in my state, and serving at the federal level, has been very comfortable. The reason is that Governor ‘Seyi Makinde made it comfortable for me. I’m not saying that I’m living in an abject situation, no. That’s not what I meant. I’m comfortable, yes.
I have promising children, among them a pilot and ship captain. I once gave somebody a Volkswagen when I was in the United States. But I want to tell you that ‘Seyi Makinde has made my retirement more comfortable than it was. I remain thankful to him for his kind thoughtfulness. It’s a brand-new car, not a common car. Since January 15, 2025, it’s as if I’m in a new world, a new world in the sense that I now see myself this very time as somebody ‘Seyi Makinde made.
When we met at Iseyin, the question he asked me was, ‘Excuse me, sir, what do you want me to do for you?’ And I replied, ‘Anything that my age will not serve as an impediment to my service, I wouldn’t mind.’ And the governor said, ‘I will get back to you,’ That was July last year. Some people might have told him about me if he hadn’t heard about me.
Governor Makinde had outright told people that it was rare to find people who could do what Major Salawu had done for this country and that nothing was too much for him. I want to tell you that about 15,000 to 20,000 people now earn their livelihood from FRSC, which started in Ibadan and began with Major Salawu…READ FULL ARTICLE [HERE]>>