The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has honoured the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) with its ” Road Safety Pillar Award.”
The Corps Marshal of FRSC, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, said during the 34th anniversary award and dinner night of the FRSC in Abuja that the agency was being honoured for its contributions to the current eminent status of the commission as it clocked 34 years.
Oyeyemi also said that the commission had made impressive strides in road safety management since inception through the help of relevant stakeholders among which was NAN.
NAN reports that FRSC was established on Feb. 18, 1988.
Oyeyemi said that the founding fathers of the FRSC had conceived the idea of a modern road safety lead agency for the country to address road safety issues.
This, he said, was an institution with personnel who would be willing and ready to render selfless service that would bring sanity on the roads, reduce road traffic crash with its attendant fatalities and injuries as well as bring succour to all road users.
According to him, these are the ideals that the FRSC represents and to which successive leaderships have been committed to in order to ensure its attainment and sustenance.
“Today, we might not have reached the final destination set in our tortuous journey toward a crash-free nation or fully realised the vision of creating a safe motoring environment.
“But every discerning Nigerian is convinced that FRSC has done a lot considering its modest achievements.
“I wish to assure all of you that the Corps would remain focused to the attainment of its mandate of creating a safe motoring environment and achieve a country where road traffic crash results in no death, ” he said
Oyeyemi further said that the awards given were to honour individuals and stakeholders that had been of assistance in the development of road safety management over the years.
Commenting on the award given to NAN, its Managing Director, Mr Buki Ponle, said it was a badge of honour in recognition of what the agency had been doing over the years.
” Having followed closely the odyssey of this critical road safety management body from its formation some three and half decades ago, nothing can be more gratifying than to be alive again to witness the commission’s evolution into the octopoidal institution it has become today.
” It is particularly heartening that NAN has continued to be part of the success story of the FRSC, dutifully reporting the commission’s challenges and highlighting its triumphs as it valiantly confronts the onerous task of reducing the carnage on Nigeria’s highways,” he said.
Ponle also noted that the award was a call for the agency to do more.
“When you are given a position of responsibility , you make sure you do that and ensure that you step up what you are doing, ” he added.
Other awardees were the Nigerian Television Authority, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, National Union of Road Transport Workers and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency among others.