“FRSC should give effective communication a top priority in employing the principle of Public Relations. This is as it behoves critical stakeholders and, indeed, all Nigerians to know that the task of ensuring safety of lives and property on our roads is a duty of and for all.”
Protocols
Permit me to say that I was greatly humbled when the lot fell on me to carry out this arduous task, “Employing Principles Of Public Relations In Achieving Effective Communication With The Public: FRSC Station Officers‘ Perspective.” How can I stand before this great gathering to speak on issues around the above subject-matter?; It is intimidating. I only hope that my little contribution here today will help in furtherance of the essence and commitment of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to safeguarding lives and reducing, to the barest minimum level, carnage on our roads, otherwise known as Road Traffic Crash (RTC).
The aims and objectives of this workshop are essentially to seek for ways to help the local government station officers to improve their professional skills towards quality service delivery. The workshop is also aimed at boosting the image of FRSC at the grassroots, through quality public enlightenment. To be able to do justice to this, we need a better understanding of some salient issues as follows:
What Is Public Relations?
As defined by Wikipedia, Public Relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual, an organisation or an agency- such as a business, government agency (in this case, the FRSC) or a non-profit organisation- to the public in order to influence their perception. Put differently, Public Relations could be taken to mean image laundering.
Though inter-related, Public Relations is different from Publicity; the former is an agenda from within, that is, it is internally-controlled, while the latter, though a product or an outcome of PR, is contributed by external parties.
Public Relations is aimed at informing the public, prospective customers, investors, partners, employees and other stakeholders and to persuade them to maintain a positive view about the organisation or agency, its leadership, products and, as in the case of the FRSC, its activities.
Public Relations specialists of any organisation establish and maintain relationships with targeted audience, including the media, opinion leaders, and the general public. Among their responsibilities are designing communications campaigns, writing press releases and other contents for news, working with the media, arranging interviews and writing speeches for the leadership, crisis management and internal communications.
For the Public Relations Unit of any organisation or agency to be successful, it must understand the concerns and interests of the stakeholders of the organisation or commission namely, the public. The Public Relations professional must know how to effectively address those interests and concerns, using the most powerful tool of the PR trade, publicity.
Ethics And Principles Of Public Relations
The dual obligation of the Public Relations professional, both to the public and the organisation or agency, necessarily brings to the fore the fundamental values of the PR Unit. It also leads to the issue of ethics as a way of ensuring discipline, being the core value.
As established by the Public Relations Society of America, the ethics include such values as:
•Advocacy– Serving public interest by displaying ideas, facts and viewpoints to aid an informed public debate.
•Honesty– By standing by the truth and upholding facts at all times when projecting the organisation to the public.
•Expertise– By staying informed of the specialised knowledge needed in the field of PR.
•Independent by providing unbiased work to all parties- the organisation and the public- and be accountable for all actions;
•Loyal– Staying devoted to the organisation, even as there is a duty to serve the public; and
•Fairness– Conducting the PR business with fairness to all concerned.
FRSC: Work Ethics And External Image
There is no point dwelling extensively here on the why, when and how the FRSC came into existence. I want to assume that the history of the Commission is well known to most us present here today.
However, we all know the importance of the FRSC as a Commission saddled with the huge responsibility of saving lives and property by preventing carnage on our roads. That the Commission has been effectively performing this onerous task, over the years, is a fact that cannot be ignored.
A former Deputy Corp Marshal, Kayode Olagunju, in 2002, wrote and I quote: “Nigeria has one of the highest road traffic crash (RTC) figures in the world. The country has an unenviable record of 936,466 total accidents between 1960 and 2001, with 259,873 deaths on the roads; 796,538 others sustained various injuries, with some bedridden till the last breath. It means that 1,052,412 persons have either been killed or injured on our dangerous roads.” (Road Sense with Kayode Olagunju: 2002). What an alarming figure! One can only imagine what the figure would be by now, 23 years after.
Not only did Olagunju mentioned “our dangerous roads” that have taken so much casualties, he also did not fail to attribute the RTC to human, mechanical and environmental factors. He further simplified the three causes to include driver (human), vehicle (mechanical) and track, lane, road or any space (environment). However, one of the three causal factors critically overshadows the other two factors namely, human. What do I mean by this? It would take the human factor to put a stop to or, at least, greatly reduce the level of carnage on our roads. And this is where the FRSC, its officers and men come in.
The Small Black Dots In The White Circle
For any FRSC official, especially the station officer or a road traffic officer, to be effectively functional in his/her duties, he/she must be involved in one form of relationship or the other with members of the public. He/she must have an interaction with the public. In the course of doing that, what image are we projecting to the public as a law enforcer? How are we seen by the public? How do we respond in the face of provocations from the bloody civilians behind the wheel, especially the commercial drivers? What impact does all these have on the corporate image of the FRSC? These and many more are questions begging for answers.
In truth, it is an established fact that the FRSC has some of the finest officers and men one can find in any part of the world. These gentlemanly officers and men are often civil and responsible and they do treat members of the public with courtesy and respect. This is not an attempt at flattery; it is an empirical fact known to observant road users.
It is, however, also true that we do have some chaffs in the grains of the FRSC. These small black dots in the big white circle, by their acts and actions, are causing greater damages to the image of the Commission. As we find in other uniform jobs, including the law enforcement agency, the Police, we are often confronted with the activities of some FRSC officials who could best be described as armed robbers in uniform, even on our major roads.
The social media space has made almost everywhere to be like a mirror; absolutely nothing is hidden anymore. This set of FRSC officials do throw decency overboard; video evidences abound of cases of officials extorting, demanding for and taking bribes and, in some instances, physically assaulting motorists, even at the slightest provocation. There are several evidences of officials exchanging fisticuffs with members of the public, just as there are instances where FRSC officials jumped on the bonnet of moving cars, all in a bid to arrest recalcitrant motorists who refused to stop to have their vehicles and vehicle particulars to be checked.
These are barbaric acts that are very inimical to the core essence of the FRSC, a Commission established to ensure safety of lives on our roads! Such acts and actions, as explained above, greatly put the lives of both the driver and such an official at a very great risk.
Of course, there are several other instances where and when FRSC officials are also at the receiving end of various inhuman acts by motorists, especially commercial drivers most of whom are heavily drunk as early as 7 ‘o’ in the morning. But there is an adage that says “it makes no news when the housefly bites the man with sores, but it attracts great attention when the man with sores turns around to eat the housefly.” The onus rest on the FRSC official, by virtue of his/her training, to maintain decorum and civility at all times. It is often said that you don’t join the pig to fight in the mud, otherwise you will be dirtier than the pig who is fighting in its familiar terrain.
Cases abound of trigger-happy law enforcement agents who have used their guns and weapons to send many people to their early graves. For the fear of such security agents, most Nigerians are against the renewed calls for arming FRSC officials with guns and other lethal weapons. The fear is that the people would be put in the harm’s way, should such a lethal weapon find its way into the hands of an over-zealous FRSC official.
The above factors, and many more, have badly dented the image of the FRSC before the members of the public. The once-upon-a-time highly-respected Commission has come to be seen as just one of the law enforcement agencies which, rather than ensuring the protection and safety of lives and property on the roads, has become an agent of terror, oppression and, possibly, death.
Revamping The Situation
The fact is that Nigeria, as a country, and its people are passing through trying times in the course of our national life. The problems identified above are not peculiar to the FRSC. My own profession, Journalism, is not immune to corruption and extortion as we have some bad eggs among us as well. However, all hopes are not lost. The Nigerian situation is not beyond redemption. Can we cut off our nose to spite our ugly face? No! Just like we cannot call for the disbandment of the Nigerian Police because of some bad elements in the Force, we cannot throw the FRSC into the dustbin. We cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let us imagine a situation whereby officers and men of the Police and the FRSC are withdrawn from our major roads for just one hour. The situation will be chaotic; lawlessness and disharmony of greater calamity will be the order of the day.
What then can be done to ensure an effective communication to restore the image of the FRSC in order to promote and enhance its effectiveness? How can we reinforce and reaffirm the confidence and trust of the people, road users, especially drivers (both private and public) in the Road Safety officials seen on the roads?
Suggestions are inexhaustible, but a few ones will suffice here…and this brings to the fore the essence of our gathering here today, “Employing The Principles of Public Relations in Achieving Effective Communication with The Public: FRSC Station Officers’ Perspective.” The workshop is essentially to seek to help the FRSC local government station officers to improve their professional skills towards quality service delivery. It is also aimed at boosting the image of FRSC at the grassroots through quality public enlightenment.
Starting with the local government station officers, they are the face of the FRSC before the people at the grassroots level. Communication is both verbal and non-verbal; it consists of what we say or do. Most often, members of the public imbibe what we do, more than what we say.
In view of the above, concerted and conscious efforts should be made by the leadership of the FRSC to ensure strict enforcement of the work ethics of the Commission and make them binding on its officers and men, especially at the grassroots level.
We learn by unlearning to relearn; we learn each passing day, from the cradle to the grave. As a matter of policy, FRSC should not stop, but seek for ways to further improve on the training and retraining of its officials on a regular basis. It should embark on series of training-the-trainer programmes for its local government station officers, road traffic officers, testing officers and vehicle inspection officers, in conformity with the international best practices. Officers and men of the Commission must be going on periodical re-orientation courses, especially as such courses relate to human and public relations.
Conscious efforts should be made to take the message of road safety to the people at the market squares in the remote villages. The FRSC has the Revised Highway Code. Copies of this should be made affordable and available in public spaces at the grassroots level.
Apart from the regular marshals, more and more prominent Nigerians should be encouraged to join the Special Marshal. Though a voluntary organisation, this can be done by ways of provision of some benefits for such members. The NYSC Road Safety Club can be further expanded by taking the message of road safety to the young ones at the secondary school level, if not in the primary school.
As regards the second part of the aim of this workshop, boosting the image of FRSC at the grassroots through quality public enlightenment, suggestions are not far-fetched. Public Relations job basically contains information and communications. FRSC wants to keep the public, especially at the grassroots, informed about its activities. This can be done by ways of communication which is a two-way process. Having taken the information on road safety to the public, we can only know its impact through an effective feedback mechanism. How are the people taking the information? How well are they receptive to and acting on such information? This is where the media comes in and its importance in promoting the message of safety, as espoused by the FRSC, cannot be over-emphasised.
The media, from time immemorial, has been a critical partner in the course of social change in any society. As Robert Idemudia puts it in “Mass Media in National Development and Integration: An Appraisal of Democratic, Social and Political Impact in Nigeria, 1999-2007”: “Social change is the outcome of effective national development. It is the transformation that takes place in the traditional, cultural and institutional spheres of a people.” (Fred I. A. Omu and Godwin Ehiarekhian Oboh, eds, Mass Media in Nigerian Democracy, 2008).
In the same vein, Nkereuwem Udoakah (Government and the Media, 3rd Edition, 2014) lays emphasis on the role of the media as he stated clearly that the Press owes the society an obligation to report events so that the citizens would have sufficient information to plan their lives and avoid dangers. He added that the Press helps to discover the truth and assist in the process of solving political and social problems by presenting all manner of evidence and opinion as the basis for decision making.
The motives of the media ranges from its core traditional roles namely, to educate, inform and entertain, transcending to the realm of influencing the ways of life of a people. Indeed, the media, as a social instrument, has been playing a very significant role in shaping the cause and course of national history globally. It influences norms, cultures and values of the society. Its role and influence can either be positive or negative; it can change opinions because it has access to the people and this gives it a lot of strength.
Given the enormous power of the media, especially now with the prevalence of the ubiquitous online media, otherwise known as the digital media, it would be a surprise if the FRSC should fail to develop a more robust and mutually-beneficial relationship with the members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm in its effort to spread the message of road safety to all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.
The leadership of the FRSC should, more than ever, seek to have an improved relationship with the media. It should be deliberate and aggressive in its partnership with the men of the pen-pushing profession in the quest to boosting the image of the Commission at the grassroots through quality public enlightenment.
Finally, as emphatically declared by Andrew A. Moemeka: “Development, Social Change and Development Communication…” (Development Communication in Action, 2012), “Communication is so central to human existence and activities that without it, the world as we know it, would cease functioning.” FRSC should give effective communication a top priority in employing the principle of Public Relations. This is as it behoves critical stakeholders and, indeed, all Nigerians to know that the task of ensuring safety of lives and property on our roads is a duty of and for all.
Thank you for taking time out to listen to me.
•A paper presented by Falade, Editor/CEO, Newscoven.com and a former Deputy Editor with the Nigerian Tribune, Nigeria’s oldest surviving national newspaper, at the Fourth Quarter Workshop for all Local Government Station Officers, held at the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Oyo State Command, Eleyele, Ibadan, on Tuesday, 26 November, 2024.
