Digitilisation to the rescue on our roads

A lot of ways have been tried in curbing the indiscipline on our highways, that have resulted  in needless deaths and devastating injuries over the years, in this country.  

There has been a lot of educational drives to let drivers plying these roads to realise the dangers of over speeding and the consequent destruction of properties and livelihoods, as well as the destabilisation of families.  

Finally, the powers that be, have now decided that enough is enough and so they are now employing the assistance of AI to help ensure compliance with the road regulations by road users especially drivers.  

What I like about this initiative is the elimination of the human element, which is prone to manipulation such that often times enable offenders to go scot free and also encourages corruption.

The abuse of power by some police officers on our roads, from the first of November, 2026 will hopefully be a thing of the past.  No policeman will be required to demand to see your licence on the highways or roads anymore.  

There is a funny twist to all this new initiative in the sense that I forsee a situation where some unscrupulous police officers who had been illegally making money on our roads, will now be seeking transfer from the MTTD.  

Nigerian man would say the milk in the cash cow don dry up.  There should be modifications in the software to capture things like worn tyres which has also been a source of some terrible crashes resulting in loss of lives.  

This will go a long way in preventing needless deaths and injuries which in the long run affects the productivity of the nation and therefore the national economy.

There must be proactive initiatives to deal with vehicles that break down on our roads and punishment must be heavy and swift enough to serve as a deterrent to other drivers.  A vehicle breaks down on the highway, for instance, and the driver instead of putting warning triangles behind it to warn other drivers, decides to leave it there and go searching for a mechanic to come and repair the fault.  

There must be a system that should pick up the breakdown and monitor the actions of the driver in terms of him calling for a tow truck immediately and if this is not done after say five minutes, the control centre should immediately contact the nearest Tow Truck to handle the situation.  The driver must then be sent a message to appear in court for attempted murder.  

This will surely compel other drivers to comply with the road regulations and prevent avoidable crashes of vehicles on our roads. 

The benefits that will accrue to the state by the implementation of this initiative are enormous.  The first is the reduction in the number of vehicle crashes and therefore the reduction in the loss of lives and property.  

We need to bear in mind that whenever there is fatality resulting from a crash of vehicles on our roads, the first cost to the nation is the loss that individual or individuals could have made to the economic growth of the nation.  

If he, she or they were educated, it means government has list all the investment made in educating him, her or them. Therefore it is not just a simple matter of some people have died and life goes on.  

The nation has lost something, families may have lost a provider, a brother, a sister, a son, a daughter, a mother or a father and the vacuum, the pain etc. to the families involved cannot be quantified.  

The nation must therefore embrace this new initiative to bring sanity and discipline on our roads for the benefit of everyone.  God bless.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah

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