In its renewed commitment to rewarding hardworking and diligent staff for enhanced productivity and discipline in the Corps, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Board is setting in motion necessary machinery for review of the FRSC Regulations on Maintenance of Discipline in order to ensure that reward takes precedence over punishment in the new provisions. This was disclosed by the Chairman of the Board, Barrister Bukhari Bello while opening the 2018 Third Quarters Corps Marshal Strategy Session on Monday in Abuja.

According to the Chairman, the intended provisions to be included in the Disciplinary Codes of the Corps became imperative in view of the need to make reward an integral part of staff incentives and to motivate them for increased productivity and attainment of the desired disciplinary levels without coercion. He noted that too much emphasis on punishment instead of reward could be counterproductive in achieving discipline, adding that efforts are being made to harmonise reward and punishment to achieve balance in the system.

The Chairman assured that the Board is concerned with addressing the welfare needs of the staff and committed to doing everything possible to ensure that the working conditions of the staff improve significantly. He stressed the need for the staff to remain committed to their duties, assuring that in the new provisions being contemplated in the FRSC Regulations on Discipline, every positive contribution made by the staff would be acknowledged, even if it is to give commendation as may be necessary.

He however frowned at acts of indolence, rumour mongering and laziness among staff, saying such practices would not be condoned.

The Chairman urged every staff to rededicate to the new vision of the Board to take FRSC to greater heights as a disciplined and highly productive organisation.

Earlier in his address, the Corps Marshal of FRSC, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi while welcoming the participants stated that the essence of the Corps Marshal Strategy Session was to enable members of the Management and Commanding Officers do a holistic review of the Corps’ activities in the last 8 months of the year and plan well for the remaining part of the year, while setting agenda for next year’s operations.

Oyeyemi expressed satisfaction with the achievement made by the Corps in the last quarters of the year, especially in the area of crashes and fatality reduction, saying the 25% reduction in fatalities attained by the Corps during the last Eid el kabir Sallah celebration is quite commendable and the tempo would be sustained to ensure that crashes and fatalities remain minimal in the remaining months of the year.

He commended the Federal Government for the ongoing rehabilitation works on various roads across the country and the logistics provisions to the Corps which have prepared the organization for the tasks ahead in the end of year special operations. He called on road travelers to cooperate with the law the enforcement agencies to ensure that roads don’t turn into death traps.

To this end, he urged road travelers to plan their journeys well and avoid unnecessary rush and speeding that could undermine safety rules and regulations.

On the Nigeria Road Safety Strategy document,(NRSS), the Corps Marshal revealed that since its adoption by the country, frictions between the federal and state governments in terms of what every tier of government could do to address the challenges of road safety management in the country have reduced drastically as such functions were well spelt out in the document. He added that the global acknowledgement of what Nigeria has done in the area of road safety campaigns was manifested recently when the nation got appointed into the Advisory Board of UN Road Safety Fund to represent Africa.

The Corps Marshal called on Commanding Officers to promote discipline in their commands and avoid acts capable of undermining the disciplinary status of the Corps.He assured staff of the Management’s commitment to addressing issues of welfare and provision of necessary working tools, stressing that logistics support from the federal government remains a great boost to the success of the Corps, which all staff must reciprocate through improved service delivery.

The Strategy Session had in attendance members of the FRSC Management team, Zonal Commanding Officers and Sector Commanders from the 36 states of the Federation including the FCT. As part of the programme, specialized lectures were delivered by some Experts on selected topics, while status reports were presented by the various Departments, Corps Offices and Commands of the Corps.