Is it True?

[Abu-Fatima]

Is it true that majority of drivers that fall victims of Road Safety Commission's personnel are those that drive at moderate speed, have their particulars intact and stop when stopped by the FRSC's men?

[gogannaka]

Absolutely true.

[Dan-Borno]

good question baban teema, i have been eager to talk about
this for a long time.

as gogannaka said, its absolutely true, they harass and intimidate
moderate speed drivers or drivers who are conscious of the law and
respect the FRSC officers.

i ply kano - maiduguri road frequently, and you will be surprised that
never have the FRSC stopped the DANGOTE trucks with their illegal
passengers on top of the trucks.

never will you see them arresting 'akori kura' for not minding to replace
his rear lights (danjan baya) on our highways.

never will you see them arresting golf taxis for over speeding and over
loading, not to talk of not wearing seat belt or fire extinguisher or triangle,
forget about vehicle licence - the NURTW ID card surpasses all other
documents.

however, as a gentleman and law abiding citizen coupled with been a
middle class citizen, they stopped you immediately they sight your car,
they can ask you the least - razor blade, and would not mind to fill the
form or confiscate your car for that. 

despite their educational qualification, they act worst than police officers
who had never undergone any form of training after their police school
training.

if at all, baban teema is an officer of the FRSC, thank God you hear our
views - there are motorist that are far above the LAW.

[gogannaka]

Their highhandedness is very annoying and frustrating.
It seems to be even worse when they see you with a woman in the car.
They seem to want to disgrace you. I was once stopped and after producing all they had asked for they asked for a tinted glass permit.
The car,being a minivan was manufactured with tinted glass at the rear. In the car i had four children. I was so annoyed that i confronted the officer. I showed him the kids and asked him what he thought the kids would think of him and any other person in uniform.
He felt so embarrassed. I eventually gave him the permit and he didn't even read it because of guilt.

Its just that the whole system is so bad the the people that are supposed to make the whole system work are the most corrupt.
The police and all other uniformed men feel jealous when they see you in a good car or in fine clothes. They automatically think you stole the money and they have a share in it.

[bakangizo]

I remember some ago my friend's uncle was driving to work along Lagos Street in the morning when FRSC officials stopped him on the pretext that he was not wearing his selt belt. He got so angry that he asked them what were they doing when countless busses has passed without rear lights, brake light or even side mirrors? He told them that if he wasn't wearing his belt, he was only putting his life at risk. But those buses and taxis are risking many peoples lives, so would they ignore them and bother him?. Ya ce in bai sa seal belt ba, is it their problem? Do they know whether he came out to commit suicide? ;D It is his life, they should bother about those endangering other people's lives with their recklessness and rickety vehicles. Kai, ya zazzaga musu bala'i. Da kansu suka kyale shi ya tafi.

Ni kai na na taba gaya wa wani dan road safety da ya tare ni cewa kamar sun fi raina wanda yake kokarin bin doka.

[Bajoga]

You all said d truth, bt is like you forgot d nature of d country. Ai wannan shine Nigeria din kenan. In case gaba, jst do hands down kaga ikon Allah, wallahi they jst give you a good salut as a civilian.

Sai a hankali.

[ummutameem]

ha ha, im cracking up, all true, d stories are endless.

however, i think y they dont stop those commercial vehicles or d 'obvious offenders' is bcos those guys are programmed to give egunje on sight, as soon as they see them, they roll up, a 20 or 50 n pass on, discretely, while an ordinary law abiding citizen does not think like that.

me, i dont fight them, whatever they say i follow, i frustrate them, if they like let em take an hour, i dont break sweat, but u ll not c my kobo, cos i havent done anything wrong.

there was a day, i was on my way to d office, i got to a check point n some policemen stopped me, i parked n gave my papers, unfortunately for me, when they couldnt find anything wrong the guy got smart n found out that, they ppl at d licencing office got my car reg. no. wrong, d no. is 166 n they mistakenly wrote 116, every other thing is correct, i pointed out to them dat this is clearly human error, but they didnt want to listen, so i said what do u want me to do, n they didnt know, n they cldnt come out n ask for money directly, so i left d car there, went to d office, by d time i got back, they had finally resolved dat i shld do a petition, n carry it, till i get d papers corrected!


they are amazing!

[Abu-Fatima]

This issue of bribery is eating deep into our societal moral fabric, particularly in our uniform services/forces. Not only the methodology of the men that patrol our streets, or man our roads, but even the way and manner they get into the uniform service is bribery centred. Just last week a friend was telling me that to enlist into the armed forces or police, one need up to N80, 000.00 to bribe his way. What do you expect from a police constable or an FRSC's personnel who paid such amount to get into the service? We really need prayers and a lot of personal sacrifices to get out of this mess. It is all part of the learning process!

[Dave_McEwan_Hill]

Ummutameen is right. Give them nothing. The demanding of a bribe and the offering of a bribe are two sides of the same coin. If everybody just refused to give bribes the whole nonsense would stop.
It would appear little has changed since I left Nigeria.
I remember insisting on going to the Police Station one night because I had a women in my car who was not my wife. The charge was that I was going to commit adultery with "dis black woman".  Maybe I was, and maybe I wasn't but either way it was none of the three policeman's business and there was no crime being committed. I was aware that most white guys would have given them a few notes and driven off but I refused and went to the police station where the last thing I saw was the three constables being put into a cell. (But probably just till I went away as I was threatening a written complaint to the Police Commisioner).
On another occasion I was being driven home by friend who hadn't his car papers with him when he was stopped on State Road. He was allowed to drive off after he handed out a copy of the Beano Comic paper with a large currency note in it. This I told him was deplorable.
It was always the same sort of nonsense at the Airport. Because I was a teacher and a Government Officer I got off easy. But I remember a business man who came off rthe same flight as me at Kano Airport. He got the usual suggestion that somehow his passport wasn't properly stamped etc etc and he couldn't be allowed entry. Most commercial firms had somebody up at the Airport greasing palms to get their people through. He didn't and he didn't want such. I met him later and he had just sat it out (likle Ummutameen suggests) till they got fed up and bored and made an excuse to let him through - nearly two hours later.
The worst thing I ever experienced at Kano Airport was the humiliation of my 80 year old mother who had nothing for the officers and was given an "internal examination " by two women Nigeria Army officers where they roughly pushed their fingers up all my mother's orifices purporting to looking for smuggling drugs. I could have hated Nigeria after that