“Enforcement must be impartial. The law must apply with equal force to the commercial driver, the private motorist, the government official, the security convoy and the politically-connected.”
The Senate’s passage of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Act (Amendment) Bill, 2026, has been welcomed by many Nigerians as a decisive step towards restoring sanity on the nation’s roads.
Awaiting presidential assent, the Bill proposes stiffer penalties for speeding, reckless and drunk-driving, violations of traffic signs and traffic lights, and other dangerous conduct that has turned many highways into corridors of tragedy.
The legislative initiative deserves commendation. Yet, it also raises a fundamental question: Has Nigeria’s road safety crisis been caused by weak laws or weak enforcement?
Disconnect between the law and its implementation
The answer is straightforward. Nigeria does not suffer from a shortage of traffic laws. It suffers from a chronic failure to enforce them.
The FRSC already possesses extensive statutory powers to regulate road traffic, arrest offenders and prosecute violations. Nigeria’s road traffic laws adequately prohibit dangerous driving, speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, disregard for traffic signs, and numerous other offences that daily endanger lives.
The real problem has never been the absence of legal authority. It has been the inconsistency, selectivity and, at times, the apparent reluctance to exercise that authority.
For years, I have maintained a lonely but persistent campaign against reckless driving, particularly within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Through petitions to the FRSC headquarters and representations to successive FCT ministers, including the incumbent, Chief Nyesom Wike, I have repeatedly drawn attention to the alarming collapse of traffic discipline in the nation’s capital.
To the minister’s credit, each of my interventions elicited official responses and public warnings. But warnings do not change behaviour. Only consistent enforcement does.
Across Abuja and many other parts of the country, motorists routinely drive against traffic, ignore red lights, overspeed, overtake dangerously and violate basic traffic regulations in full view of enforcement officers.
Such violations have become so commonplace that traffic lights are increasingly treated as decorative street furniture, rather than instruments of law.
The consequences extend beyond the tragic loss of lives and destruction of property. Persistent disregard for traffic regulations erodes respect for the rule of law and projects an unflattering image of Nigeria before the international community.
As the nation’s capital, Abuja is the first point of contact for diplomats, foreign investors, development partners and other international visitors. Their impression of a country is often formed long before official meetings begin.
When they encounter motorists driving against traffic, ignoring traffic lights and violating basic road regulations with apparent impunity, they are left to question the capacity of public institutions to enforce even the simplest laws. Such perceptions diminish confidence not only in traffic administration but also in the country’s overall governance and regulatory culture.
Nothing erodes respect for the law more quickly than weak or selective enforcement.
Commercial bus and taxi drivers violate traffic laws with impunity, while convoys of the politically-powerful and other privileged motorists routinely commit similar or even more dangerous violations without consequence, all in the glare of law enforcement officers, including the FRSC. Such indulgence undermines public confidence in the Corps and weakens the moral authority of the law itself.
The certainty of punishment—not merely its severity—is the true deterrent to lawlessness. A modest penalty that is imposed consistently will achieve far more than a harsh sanction that exists only in the statute book.
If this amendment merely increases fines without transforming the culture of enforcement, Nigeria will have achieved very little. The country cannot legislate its way out of indiscipline while tolerating administrative complacency.
The FRSC must therefore look beyond tougher penalties. It must embrace technology-driven enforcement through wider deployment of speed detection devices, automated surveillance, electronic ticketing, digital offender databases and transparent performance reporting.
Equally important are better logistics, continuous professional training and improved welfare for personnel who daily place themselves in harm’s way to keep our roads safe.
Above all, enforcement must be impartial. The law must apply with equal force to the commercial driver, the private motorist, the government official, the security convoy and the politically connected. The rule of law begins where privilege ends.
In one of his recent write-ups, veteran journalist, Lanre Ogundipe, described Nigeria as “a graveyard of good intentions”—a country where noble policies often perish because implementation is weak, inconsistent or compromised. That observation remains painfully relevant to this discourse.
Against this backdrop, the FRSC must do all that is required to prevent the amended Bill from becoming another addition to that unfortunate catalogue.
Its success will not be measured by the size of the fines enacted by the National Assembly. It will be measured by whether Nigerians can once again travel on roads where traffic laws are obeyed because enforcement is certain, impartial and beyond negotiation.
The National Assembly has played its part. The president is expected to complete the legislative process through assent. Thereafter, the greater responsibility rests squarely with the FRSC.
The Corps already possesses substantial legal authority. What Nigerians now expect is not another cycle of public enlightenment campaigns and official warnings, but an unmistakable institutional commitment to firm, fair and consistent enforcement.
Only then will this amendment become more than another well-intentioned legal authority. Only then will it save lives, restore confidence in road safety administration and reaffirm a simple but enduring principle: on Nigeria’s highways, no one is above the law.
•Ogundipe is a retired diplomat and public affairs commentator.
