Decree 45 of 1988 provides for the establishment of Federal Road Safety Commission (the Governing Council) and Federal Road Safety Corps (the operational/enforcement Agency) for road traffic administration and road safety management in the country. The Commission is headed by the Chairman, while the Director of Organization and Chief Executive who is also a member of the Commission, heads and oversees the day to day administration of the Corps. This designation was changed to Corps Marshal through Decree 35 of 1992.
Federal Road Safety Corps had its first National Headquarters at Ibadan before moving to Gbagada, Lagos. The National Headquarters of the Corps was moved from Lagos to Abuja in 1992. At inception, the Corps had 5 Zonal Commands located in Kaduna, Bauchi, Benin, Aba and Ibadan. The Zonal Commands coordinate the activities of the Corps in the various States (Sector Commands). Within 2 years of existence, the Corps created some Units under the State Commands for greater spread and impact on its activities. Similarly, the Corps started with six major Directorates, namely: Admin and Finance, Operations, Public Education and the Directorate of Technical Services. The nomenclature was later changed from Directorates to Departments.
Over the years, the Corps carried out several reforms on its structure to optimally utilize organizational resources and achieve greater productivity in proactive response to prevailing exigencies. Thus, the structure of the Corps has metamorphosed from Six (6) Directorates in 1988, to Eleven (11) Departments in 2003. The structure was later pruned down to Eight (8) Departments as presently constituted. In a similar vein, the number of Zonal Commands has continued to change in line with the dictates of the time. The number of Zonal Commands grew from the initial Five (5) to Ten (10) and later reduced to Eight (8). Two more Zonal Commands were created in the year, 2000, bringing the number to Twelve (12). After its de-merger with the Nigeria Police, a realignment exercise was carried out which resulted in the relocation of some Zonal Command Headquarters to suite the requirements of the Corps. On the other hand, the number of Sector Commands has continued to increase in tandem with State creation while the number of Unit Commands has grown from less than 20 in 1994 to 217 in 2020.
Currently, the number of Unit commands has increased to 215 with the addition of 48 Outposts, 42 Zebras and 27 Road Side Clinics.
The Corps has also created a number of specialized Units known as Corps Offices for effective performance. These are: Public Education, Intelligence Office, Provost, Legal Services, Corps Secretary, Corps Audit, Corps Transport Standardization, Logistics, Corps Budget, Medical and Rescue Services, and Corps Procurement. The Corps Information Technology Office (CIT) and the Project Implementation Office lend additional support to the Departments and Corps Offices.
