NewsProbe News from Nigeria and Around the world
Raymond Ozoji, Awka
The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has expressed deep concern over what it sees as brazen non-compliance and non-observance to road signs and traffic regulations in Anambra state.
The commission noted that even though the signs were strategically located at vantage positions, people still violated them indiscriminately thereby causing avoidable accidents on the roads.
Making the observation at a sensitization workshop organized for head teachers and principals of schools in Anambra state at the state secretariat complex on Wednesday, sector commander of the commission in Anambra, Mr. Sunday Michael Ajayi, said that the importance of road signs in accident prevention could not be overemphasized as such signs helped to direct motorists on the right decision to take while using the roads.
The sector commander maintained that a larger percentage of the motoring public in Anambra state does not observe traffic signs even as he explained that such signs were veritable means of achieving safety and reduction of road mishaps on the highways.
On the essence of taking safety education to schools in Anambra state, Ajayi stated that catching school children young was the best way to inculcate safety culture in them, pointing out that the commission synergized with schools to entrench road safety education in school curriculum.
Meanwhile, Anambra Commissioner for Basic Education Prof. Kate Azuka Omenugha represented on the occasion by the Director of Schools Dr. Ray Offor said the sensitization was apt as it addressed the felt-need of the basic education sector.
The commissioner commended the Federal Road Safety Commission for introducing road safety programmes in schools as well as preparing them for the future stressing that there was need to guide school children on the effective use of the road especially as the state governor placed so much premium on safety of children; urging teachers to acquire safety knowledge to enable them to impart same in the children.
On his part, chairman of the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB) Nze Emeka Olisah said the federal government introduced safety tips into school curriculum and that there was need for teachers to stay alive to teach school children the to be safety conscious while on the road.
The ASUBEB chairman therefore admonished teachers to be part of what they teach and be safety conscious too when using the roads.
The chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers Anambra State Wing, Comrade Ifeanyi Ofodile, who was represented by the Assistant Secretary of the union Dr. Sam Egwu extolled the efforts of the FRSC for taking road safety education to schools in Anambra state noting that teachers were working assiduously to nurture and train school children in character and learning.
Ofodile however promised that teachers would carry the message got from the programme home and effect the necessary behavioural change. The state commissioner for transport Hon. Charles Uchenna Okafor said the core mandate of the Willie Obiano administration was safety on Anambra roads.
Okafor noted that it was a laudable idea to introduce road safety education into school curriculum to help prevent future accidents even as he disclosed that Governor Willie Obiano was currently transforming the transport sector in Anambra state.
