Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has commended the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) over the introduction of digital technology, especially in driver's license processing, with a drastic time cut for applicants.

The Speaker, however, expressed regrets that there is still high rate of loss of lives to road crashes across Nigeria, even as he promised that the FRSC establishment Act amendment Bill before the House would be speedily passed.

Dogara who was at the Corps’ headquarters in Abuja to renew his personal driver's license, subsequently met with the Board and management of the FRSC where he described the technological deployment as “a pleasant surprise” but insisted that it can still be possible to see a situation where an applicant would just do biometric data capturing within minutes.

“Even though this is a pleasant surprise for me because I was just here for data capturing, and I thought I will just spend two or three minutes and I’ll be gone, but it’s all well because it’s in the national interest that we are having the meeting and I’m glad that we are working for the interest of our great country, and I’m happy to see this team-spirit playing out among members of your board,” Dogara said.

Continuing, he said: “In some other agencies; we have had reports of how members of the board were fighting with the head of the agencies especially in the question of what is the delineation of the authorities of the board, but here you are working together seamlessly as I have seen among you; the spirit of comradeship, I must commend and I'm optimistic that things will definitely be better.

“I must also say that I am more than impressed by the infrastructure that I have seen here. I was just telling the Corps Marshal that if they had told me outside that we have attained this level of sophistication in terms of the deployment of technology, I wouldn’t believe it. If not because I’ve seen it, so even if I were Thomas, I’ve seen and touched it, and I now believe and know that truly we have made a quantum leap in terms of applying technology in order to better our lot here in Nigeria.

“What you do here is very important, and that forms part of the mandate of governance in the protection/securing of lives and property of our citizens and I have seen the statistics of deaths on our roads, with the Corps Marshal saying an average of 93 lives are lost weekly, I think that is very high, even though it is commendable that by deployment of technology we have been able to crash the figures, I believe working together the way I have seen between the Board and Management, we can even do more, we can further cut this number, and we can achieve that in the nearest future.”

Chairman, Governing Board of the FRSC, Malam Bunari Bello, earlier in his remarks appealed to the Speaker to help ensure the amendment Bill to the Corps’ extant Act is passed and enacted before the expiration of life of the current National Assembly.

“We are urging you to assist us get the Law Amended so that it can become operational within the life of this National Assembly, because if we do not achieve it now, we have to start all over again. I really think we should devise a way of getting it done without starting ‘denovo’. This is because it can be very frustrating when you spend 5 years prosecuting a case and either the Judge retires or it goes to the Court of Appeal, and you have to start again, and sometimes you see some of the witnesses die in the process and that has destroyed the whole work done.

“I think we should find a way for the National Assembly to dispense of it without us having to start all over again. I believe with your support we can get it done within the life span of this National Assembly, and I think it is something which would be kudos to the National Assembly if this is passed as it is definitely to impact on the lives of millions of Nigerians and those who are not Nigerians,” he said.

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