In Nigeria, you can drink and drive 

By Levi Obijiofor 

20 April 2001 

If you ask many people to list the main cause of road accidents in Nigeria, chances are that you will be inundated with angry remarks about the deplorable state of the nation's roads. 

That is a good beginning but it fails to recognise one of the main causes of fatalities on Nigerian roads; the influence of alcohol on driving. You may have heard it many times: drinking and driving don't mix. Not many people pay heed to this advice. For purposes of clarification, drinking, in this context, does not refer to non-alcoholic beverages. The phrase is probably not common in Nigeria because neither the Federal Government nor the comatose Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) understands what road policy to pursue to ensure that Nigerian Kamikaze drivers do not kill themselves and other innocent people on our highways. 

When the FRSC was set up some decades ago, everyone thought it would herald an end to the carnage on Nigerian roads, particularly the frequent road fatalities that occur during festive seasons. For a few years the FRSC lived up to its name. Dangerous drivers were fined or arrested and prosecuted for infringing traffic regulations.  

Like everything Nigerian, there were many areas where the FRSC did not achieve success. For instance, it did not succeed in deterring greedy luxury bus drivers from packing excess passengers (often referred to as "attachments") in their vehicles. The FRSC did not succeed in preventing unlicensed drivers from driving on Nigeria's roads. But the FRSC failed woefully in one area. It did not attempt to stop Nigerian drivers from driving under the influence of alcohol. Perhaps the FRSC did not have the equipment and human resources to subject drivers to breath-testing on the roads. Perhaps one of the reasons why we do not regard drink-driving as a serious cause of road accidents is that we prefer to attribute road fatalities to superstitious and remote causes such as presence of evil spirits and wicked enemies or the restless actions of some angry forefathers.  

In most developed countries, there are laws that stipulate what a driver's blood alcohol level must be. Anyone who drives with a blood alcohol reading way above the required limit automatically faces severe penalties such as a stipulated period of ban from driving, loss of driver's licence and or a heavy fine.  

Nigerian drivers, particularly male drivers, are notorious for testing their masculinity on the basis of the litres of alcohol they consume at any point in time. In fact, some drivers often offer the reverse logic that their visibility on the roads is enhanced only when they have consumed a certain quantity of alcohol. Strange as this argument may sound, it says a lot about the suicidal instincts of drivers on Nigerian roads. It also says a lot about official nonchalance about the impact of alcohol on deaths on Nigerian roads. Alcohol consumption, particularly excess consumption, impedes visibility and reduces our natural reaction time. 

Many people may wonder why it is necessary to prevent adults from committing mass suicides on our roads. The answer basically is that governments have a moral duty to protect lives. Human lives too are precious and must be preserved. Second reason and perhaps more important is that governments must protect innocent road users against the reckless actions of some other drivers. 

Drivers who engage in alcohol abuse cause some of the most ghastly road accidents in Nigeria. Sadly, there is a certain feeling of official apathy about the impact of alcohol consumption on driving-related deaths in the country. This apathy extends to official attitude on statistics about road accidents in Nigeria, particularly accidents resulting in fatalities. Official figures on road fatalities are either non-existent or they might have been collected haphazardly or through anecdotal evidence. However, evidence seems to suggest that one in every five major commercial vehicle drivers like to keep (as company) some bottles of beer beside their seats. Private drivers fare no better. There are others who openly consume alcohol while driving.  

In societies where laws are made and respected, this constitutes a serious driving offence. Just as nothing is regulated in Nigeria, the sale of alcohol is also a free business activity. Whereas businesses that trade in alcohol are required to be licensed, there are many roadside provision stores that sell alcohol and still operate without licences. In Nigeria, children can drink as much as adults. There seems to be no law designed to prevent under-age drinking in Nigeria. Which is perhaps why school children and other teenagers buy alcohol freely without fear of arrest. The lack or absence of rules and regulations applies to the marketing of pharmaceutical products. 

If the government and transport authorities in Nigeria are serious about reducing the number of road fatalities, one way to tackle the problem would be to devise ways of shutting the taps of alcohol abuse. It will be a daunting task but first there must be laws to stipulate the minimum standards of behaviour expected from drivers. Such laws must also outline what drivers can and cannot do on our roads, including the required blood alcohol reading.  

The Federal Government should, as an urgent measure, equip the FRSC with the materials and human resources to embark on regular and massive breath testing of drivers on the roads. That is the most effective way of catching drivers who drive under the influence of alcohol. The penalty for this offence should be immediate suspension of a driver's licence. Of course, the suspension of licence would be a laughable penalty in a country where it is easy for people to obtain driving licences without undergoing driving tests. This loophole suggests further tightening of the licensing procedures.  

Tightening the process of issuing driving licences is designed to ensure that only qualified and responsible people receive driving licences. Under normal circumstances, it shouldn't be simple or easy for anyone to obtain a driver's licence without going through the approved testing procedures. 

Unfortunately ours is a system where ethnic affiliation, kinship relationships, old school ties and, above all, money undermine laws made for the good of society. These are the factors that will challenge the government and any new laws aimed at reducing fatalities on our roads caused by alcohol abuse. It is these same factors that make nonsense of public administration in other facets of Nigerian society. How the government should tackle these social problems is uncertain. But what is certain and indeed urgent is that the government should act to reduce the carnage on Nigerian roads.