TRAFFIC WARDEN SERVICE BILL, AN EPOCH LEGISLATIVE LANDMARK FOR
THE 8TH SENATE/NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
By JK.
JOHNSONAPLA
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ollowing the overwhelming support the
Traffic Warden Service Bill received during its 2nd Reading in the
floor of the Senate and subsequently at the Public Hearing of the Bill
conducted by the Senate Committee on Police Affairs, the 8th National Assembly
is expected to make an epoch legislative landmark when she eventually passed the Traffic Warden
Service Bill as an Act of the National Assembly. The passing of the Bill is
expected to allow Members of the Traffic Warden Service the effective
realization of the dream of being set free from the shackles of labourious
servitude they have been subjected to all these years. It is also the
expectation of most Stakeholders on the road project to get the Bill formally
passed as an Act of the National Assembly.
Having recognized the magnitude of
that Bill as a bold attempt at addressing the lingering and persistent road
traffic gridlocks and congestions that bedevils the nation’s metropolitan
cities and urban towns that has equally failed to receive the scientific and
innovative attention it deserves in the scheme of national planning. The Bill
has come at no other better time than now, as it would create tremendous
opening for mass employment through the Traffic Warden Service, as proffered by
the proponents of the Bill.
The passage of the Traffic Warden
Service Bill has multifaceted effect and great advantages to the
socio-political and economy development of the nation. It would give credence
to the fact that, the Traffic Warden Service is an independent Establishment
set up by a separate law to render invaluable services to the public on the
road. This Establishment is not supposed by all standards to remain languishing
as a parasitic Organization, totally dependent on another Establishment for her
to function, more over as the Court of Appeal has granted autonomy to the
Traffic Warden Service Establishment in the year 2000. The judgment of the
Court of Appeal delivered by our revered Jurists has to be considered, in
passing the Bill. The Traffic Warden Service deserve to enjoy the autonomy
granted her by the Court of Appeal. The rule of law has to be sustained. The
Service deserved to be de-merged forthwith and granted independence.
The passage of the Bill would
effectively mop up the various reported cases of social injustice suffered by
Traffic Wardens and the lack of visible development experience that the Traffic
Warden Service and her entire Personnel are wrongly made to go through
unnecessarily under the Nigeria Police regime, without recourse to their
Establishment. The Act shall create division of labour, focus, efficiency and
professionalism in the function of the Traffic Warden Service particularly on
the road and the various Agencies in the country. It will promote equality,
dignity and a sense of belonging to Traffic Warden Personnel in Public Service.
Subsequently, the passage of the
Traffic Warden Service Bill would put a stop to such brazen endemic extortion,
corruption and fraudulent practices that had become the order of the day,
glorified and remained persistently unchecked on our roads, a national
encumbrance; where the Federal Government is deliberately deprived of the huge
accruable income realized daily from the road traffic control subsector, that
rather ends in private pockets.
The Traffic Warden Service has as one
of her primary functions, to officially generate income from the road
activities into Government Coffers. The Act when effective passed would create
an avenue for the Traffic Warden Service to recover most lost
revenue-generating windows and equally create other windows for income
generation from her activities on the road into the Federal Government Coffers.
It is only in Nigeria that the Traffic
Control Outfit is made to come under another Establishment, where the Traffic
Control Agency is rendered incapacitated and not allowed an enabling
environment of operation or a level playing ground, owing to selfish interest,
greed, corruption and egoistic tendencies. In most countries, Traffic Control
Outfits are given free hands to function independently and focused, to enable
the Outfits to plan effectively and conduct research that leads the
Organization to constantly proffer solutions, repackage, reform and equally
render quality service delivery to the public, as expected. But, the Nigerian
situation had been that of recalcitrant behaviours where those representing the
government deliberately short-changes the government and carts away what
rightly should be for government. Such is wrong.
The passage of the Traffic Warden
Service Bill cannot be imagined as a duplication of function nor would it blot
the Public Service, as argued. No other Agency other than the Traffic Warden
Service has the intra-city road traffic control service as her primary
function. The FRSC has her function mainly on the nation’s intercity Highways
and Motor Parks only, the FRSC don’t have traffic control as part of her
function neither should the FRSC Personnel be found inside the Cities. In fact,
the FRSC is the official version of Saint John Ambulance Brigade. The FRSC has
no business working inside the Cities but on the Highways, protecting and
saving the lives and properties of Highway Users. Let’s keep our priorities
right.
It was on such overzealous reasons
that, the FRSC in 2012 sponsored an amendment Bill requesting the National
Assembly to amend the necessary laws to grant the FRSC the leverage to take-over
the intra-city road traffic control from Nigeria Police. The FRSC further
requested that, all Police Personnel in the road traffic control service
including Traffic Wardens should be compelled by law to vacate the road traffic
function and join their counterparts in the Police institution to maintain
internal security and prevent crime. That was because the FRSC quite know that
intra-city traffic control is not their function and they were quite ignorant
of the status of Traffic Wardens in the Police institution. Equally, checking
of Vehicle Particulars is not the duty of the FRSC. Of course, the FRSC tried
to make herself relevant in the Public Service when out of sheer jealousy the
Police Highway Patrol Squad was rejuvenated by the IGP and made to overshadow
the FRSC on the Highways. The FRSC had no option then than to avoid clashing
with the Police on the Highways duties but quickly ran into the cities to carry
out her duty, encroaching on the rather stage-managed road traffic control
service. The FRSC endeared her Organization to the public when she successfully
developed and introduced the biometric data system of Vehicle registration in
the country. It is envisaged that, as the Police are preparing to vacate the
road traffic subsector, the FRSC shall hopefully return to the Highways, where
their function lies most and leave the intra-city road traffic.
The VIO has the checking of
Vehicle/Road Worthiness as her primary function. These two Agencies don’t have
the road traffic control as part of their respective primary functions. The
Agencies are merely overzealous, encroaching on the duties of the Traffic
Warden Service or do try to cover the yawning vacuum on the road artificially
created by Nigeria Police negligence, lack of zeal, nonchalant attitude, laxity
and lack of interest in performing the practical job of traffic control and
such Police demonstrated incompetence in handling the road traffic control
service effectively. Such official dereliction created the controversy, the
traffic gridlocks and congestion in the nation’s intra-city roads.
The Traffic Warden Service was
established in 1974 to take-over the road traffic control function from Nigeria
Police. If for any reason the Police are still around the road traffic control
function because of having Traffic Wardens unconscionably conscripted into
Nigeria Police, with the FRSC and the VIO existing and no one imagined such as
being a duplication of function, why would the de-merge of the Traffic Warden
Service and the road traffic control function from Nigeria Police be imagined
as duplication of function. The road traffic control remains the primary
function of the Traffic Warden Service, nothing new. It is only the Nigeria
Police that is expected to shift base and vacate the road to allow the Traffic
Warden Service perform her official duties independently, effectively and
efficiently on the road as soon as the Bill is passed. No duplication of
function. Each Agency is also required to remain focused and maintain her
respective terrain of primary function.
The National Assembly would be making
an epoch legislative landmark when she effectively remove such artificial laws
militating the smooth management of the intra-city road traffic control service
in the nation, and pass the Traffic Warden Service Bill into an Act. The
Law-Makers should use their discretion to evolve a system that caters for our
own domestic social needs. Unemployment has become the nation’s social burden.
Government cannot afford to toy with, ignore or abandon her citizens’
unemployment debacle and/or such barrel of gun-powder steering on faces. No
sacrifice is too much for the nation to make in providing sustainable
employment opportunity to the teeming youths of the nation.
SOURCE: TRAFFIC WARDEN SERVICE. http://www.vanctrawact.org.ng/