By Ade Adesokan
The recent spectacle of the Federal Road Safety Corps’ top brass attending elaborate social functions while ordinary Nigerians languish in endless queues for basic driving licence services raises fundamental questions about institutional priorities and leadership focus. While the FRSC is performing and functioning optimally in areas of traffic administration and safety management in Nigeria with the aim of halting the trend of road traffic crashes and fatality, the same cannot be said about driving license issuance and renewal to motorists in the country.
The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Shehu Mohammed mni, attended the “Call to Bar” reception in honour of former Corps Marshal Osita Chidoka, accompanied by an impressive entourage of very senior officers, including Deputy Corps Marshals Clement O. Oladele fdc and Chidiebere Benjamin Nkwonta fwc. While this achievement of the former Corps Marshal may indeed reflect resilience, determination and purposeful vision, the optics of such lavish ceremonial displays cannot be divorced from the harsh reality facing millions of Nigerian motorists seeking basic licensing services.
The gathering, which also featured the erstwhile Corps Marshal FRSC, Dr. Boboye O. Oyeyemi mni and several retired officers of the Corps, presented a troubling tableau of institutional self-congratulation at a time when the FRSC’s core mandate appears to be failing spectacularly.
Across the nation, driving licence centers have become symbols of bureaucratic inefficiency, with applicants enduring months-long delays for what should be routine administrative processes. The contrast between the pomp and pageantry of these ceremonial gatherings and the grinding frustration experienced by ordinary citizens seeking basic services is stark and deeply troubling.
The fundamental question that emerges is whether the FRSC’s senior leadership truly understands the magnitude of the crisis in their service delivery system. While Corps Marshals past and present exchange pleasantries at exclusive receptions, countless Nigerians are forced to navigate a labyrinthine bureaucracy that seems designed more to frustrate than facilitate. The delays in licence issuance and renewal have become so endemic that many motorists have simply given up on obtaining proper documentation, creating a dangerous situation where unlicensed drivers populate Nigerian roads.
A telling case in point is the writer’s experience at the FRSC office in Ikorodu, Lagos, where my data has failed to drop into the system since December 4, 2023, let alone progress to the capturing stage, despite numerous visits, phone calls, and direct messages to the agency’s social media handles. This represents over a year of institutional failure for a process that should ordinarily take weeks at most.
This institutional dysfunction extends beyond mere inconvenience to pose serious safety and security implications. When legitimate pathways to obtaining driving licences are blocked by inefficiency and citizens are effectively pushed into operating outside the law. The FRSC’s primary mandate is road safety, yet their administrative failures are actively undermining this very objective by creating conditions where proper licensing becomes the exception rather than the rule.
The resources devoted to these ceremonial engagements, including the time and attention of the organization’s most senior officials, could be redirected toward addressing the systemic issues plaguing license issuance. Instead of mobilizing senior officers for social functions, the FRSC should be deploying them to oversee emergency interventions at overwhelmed licensing centers across the country. The Deputy Corps Marshals accompanying the Corps Marshal to this reception could be leading task forces to streamline processes, upgrade technology systems and eliminate bottlenecks that have made license acquisition a nightmare for ordinary Nigerians.
The celebration of individual achievements, while not inherently problematic, becomes tone-deaf when conducted against the backdrop of institutional failure. The former Corps Marshal’s call to bar ceremony represents personal success that should be acknowledged, but the manner and scale of the institutional response sends the wrong message about priorities. When citizens cannot access basic services while their leaders engage in elaborate celebrations, it reinforces perceptions of a disconnected elite more concerned with internal recognition than public service.
The presence of multiple generations of FRSC leadership at this event also highlights the continuity of leadership thinking that has overseen the deterioration of service delivery. Rather than serving as a networking opportunity for institutional improvement, such gatherings risk becoming echo chambers where leaders insulate themselves from the harsh realities their policies have created.
The timing of these festivities is particularly galling given recent public outcry over license delays. Social media platforms are flooded with complaints from frustrated motorists who have spent months pursuing renewals or new licenses, often making multiple trips to centers only to be turned away due to system failures, lack of materials, or inexplicable procedural bottlenecks. My Ikorodu office experience exemplifies this systemic breakdown, where the most basic function of data entry appears to have completely collapsed for over a year. Citizens resort to flooding the agency’s social media handles with desperate pleas for assistance, only to receive generic responses that offer no real solutions. While citizens share these horror stories and exhaust all available channels for redress, the FRSC’s leadership appears more invested in maintaining their ceremonial calendar than addressing these fundamental service delivery failures.
The institutional culture reflected in these priorities speaks to a broader problem of accountability within Nigerian public service. When senior officials can attend elaborate receptions while their core functions collapse, it suggests a disconnection between leadership and purpose that goes beyond mere mismanagement. This disconnect becomes more troubling when considered against the backdrop of the FRSC’s demonstrated competence in traffic administration and safety management, proving that the organization possesses the institutional capacity to deliver effective services when properly focused. The multiple oversight bodies, from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to the National Road Safety Advisory Council, must now explain why an agency that excels in complex traffic management cannot master the relatively straightforward task of licence issuance.
The FRSC’s challenges with licence issuance are not insurmountable, but they require leadership that prioritizes solutions over ceremonies. The Ikorodu office situation, where data systems have been non-functional for over a year, represents a microcosm of the broader institutional dysfunction that could be resolved with proper attention and resources. The same organizational capacity that can coordinate elaborate receptions could be directed toward establishing emergency response teams to address backlogs, implementing temporary measures to expedite processing, and developing long-term solutions to prevent future crises. The senior officers who can clear their schedules for social functions could equally clear them for intensive problem-solving sessions with front-line staff and frustrated citizens.
The path forward requires a fundamental reorientation of priorities, where ceremonial obligations take a backseat to service delivery imperatives. It is time for the multiple layers of authority overseeing the activities of the FRSC system to proffer practical solutions to these challenges. The FRSC operates under the direct supervision of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, meaning its activities are coordinated at the highest level of government. The Federal Road Safety Commission serves as the governing body that sets policies and strategic direction, headed by a Chairman appointed by the President. Additionally, the National Road Safety Advisory Council which reports directly to the Vice President plays a strategic role in shaping national road safety policies. With such extensive oversight mechanisms in place, the persistent failures in license issuance represent a collective failure of governance that demands immediate intervention from all supervisory levels. The FRSC’s leadership must recognize that their legitimacy derives not from the accolades they receive from peers, but from their ability to serve the Nigerian public effectively. Until this shift occurs, the contrast between their social calendar and their service record will continue to undermine public confidence in the institution.
The former Corps Marshal’s achievement deserves recognition, but the current leadership’s response to it has inadvertently highlighted their own failures. True institutional honor comes not from celebrating past leaders, but from building upon their legacy through improved service delivery. The FRSC has the opportunity to redirect its energy from ceremonial displays to substantive reform, but this requires acknowledging that their current priorities are fundamentally misaligned with their public mandate.
Nigerian motorists deserve better than an organization that celebrates itself while failing to deliver basic services. The FRSC’s leadership must choose between maintaining their ceremonial traditions and fulfilling their core responsibilities, while the multiple layers of oversight must justify their existence by demanding immediate reforms. The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Federal Road Safety Commission, and the National Road Safety Advisory Council all bear responsibility for this institutional failure and must work together to implement comprehensive solutions. The nation’s roads will be safer, and the institution’s reputation more secure, when they consistently choose service delivery over ceremonial displays and when all levels of government oversight fulfill their supervisory mandates effectively.
Ade Adesokan is a public affairs commentator
