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Thursday 11 August 2011

Are commercial bus drivers exempted from obeying traffic lights?


That  commercial motorcycle operator in Lagos (popularly known as Okada riders) have no business with traffic rules is no longer news; but a more dangerous dimension to this impunity on Lagos roads is rearing its ugly head in the midst of commercial bus drivers.
Like most other aspects of Nigeria’s daily live, government and its agencies have lost control of the traffic situation in the state and residents have been left to the grace of God.
It could be disheartening and it is actually heartbreaking, to witness the recklessness on our roads where uniformed traffic personnel watch lawbreakers disinteresting. The carnage on our roads is largely fostered is largely fostered by this absolutely lack of concern by security/traffic management agencies to arrest this unbecoming situation.
It is discomfiting to see a cluster of security/traffic officials at a road intersection where impunity reigns, yet nothing happens. If anything, the officials felicitate with the lawbreakers and urge them on as they zoom past with all the lawlessness they can muster.
Most annoying is the flouting of the traffic light commands by commercial bus drivers and the risk they pose to other law-abiding road users. 
Commuters along the Egtbeda-Akowonjo-Dopemu axis have their eyes filled with this attitude at the shasha/Akowonjo junction traffic light. Commercial bus drivers heading from Egbeda to Dopemu, Ikeja, Oshodi zoom past the traffic light irrespective of which colour is showing. And since none has been apprehended, it is now regarding as normal. They no longer stop, they use the service lane leading to shasha road and zoom past while others wait on the remaining two lanes for the green light to go.
The government should protect law-abiding citizens of this country from lawless ones. Lawbreakers today seem to enjoy the society more than law-abiding citizens. Law-abiding citizens now live in fear of lawbreakers. The Government cannot spend money to install traffic lights if it had no intention for them to be obeyed.




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