The Beer Sectoral Group (BSG) of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) have partnered to eradicate road traffic crashes in their bid to create a safe motoring environment in the country.
The move, according to them, is apt considering the need to sensitise road users and commuters on ember months even as reports have it that over 1.3 million people are killed through road traffic crashes with about 50 million others sustaining varying degrees of injuries worldwide annually.
Speaking at the BSG and FRSC 2023 annual launch 2023 of the ‘Don’t Drink & Drive’ campaign and park rallies in Lagos, the Chairman of the BSG and managing director of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Hans Essaadi, said, the BSG had signed an MOU with the FRSC in 2017 to support the FRSC’s role in achieving a safe motoring environment in Nigeria, explaining that, it was the MOU that gave rise to the ‘Don’t Drink & Drive’ campaign, a flagship project of the BSG and the FRSC aimed at enlightening drivers and other road users on the dangers of drink-driving and how best to avoid this.
According to him, the BSG and the FRSC have executed this campaign as an annual event from 2018 to date, except in 2020, when the campaign did not hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He pointed out that the campaign advocates against any association between alcohol consumption and driving, including advocating against the sale of alcohol at motor parks.
To this end, the BSG and the FRSC conduct random voluntary breathalyser testing at motor parks, to demonstrate how the FRSC discharges its duty in testing drivers for alcohol consumption.
“To ensure that the FRSC works efficiently in its task to ensure safety of all road users, the BSG regularly donates new breathalysers to the agency, in addition to testing and recalibrating existing breathalysers. The breathalysers will be used in testing drivers before and after embarking on a journey to ensure that the drivers do not drink and drive,” he said
Also speaking, the FRSC Corp Marshall, Dauda Biu, represented by the Assistant Corps Marshal, FRSC Gilbert Igbokwe, acknowledged the importance of the FRSC’s partnership with the BSG, and called for the campaign to be sustained, while inviting other private sector players to partner with the FRSC to achieve its objectives.
“We appreciate BSG’s effort in ensuring that our quest for the safety of Nigerians is of utmost priority. The donation of breathalysers will go a long way in checkmating drink-driving on our roads”, he concluded.
He added that the ember months is a period of September to December that has been known to be a period of intense economic activities, due to many people wanting to meet up with the goals they have set for the year, while others want to prepare for the Christmas celebrations.
“Today, the Ember month campaign is being flagged off, to remind ourselves that road crashes do not just happen, they are caused. We the road users are prime casual agents, we are the victims and we must be the solution,” he added.
He stressed that this year’s theme tagged ‘Speed thrills but kills: Drive responsibly, avoid overloading’ is quite apt as it depicts and points scenarios of the prevalent infractions that are the three leading safety imperatives on roads during ember months.