WHO ‘rates’ Nigeria most dangerous African country by road
World Health Organisation (WHO) has rated Nigeria the most dangerous country by road in Africa.
In a report quoted by Senate President Bukola Saraki, Nigeria records 33,700 deaths in every 100 million people living in the country annually.
This translates to an African record of 60,660 deaths in its 180 million people, every year, a statistic Saraki regarded as “unacceptable”.
“A report from the World Health Organization adjudged Nigeria the most dangerous country in Africa with 33.7 deaths per 100,000 people every year. This is unacceptable,” he said in a statement.
In this regard, the senate passed a motion on the pandemic rise of road traffic accidents in Nigeria, brought to the floor by Ali Wakili, senator representing Bauchi South.
The senate president added that the upper chamber called on other government bodies to address the problems with road safety in the country.
“The Senate is disturbed by the fact that the bad state of our roads is further worsened by the indiscriminate use of sirens and retinue of security officials that drive recklessly on the Highways, endangering the lives of innocent Nigerians.
“Accordingly, the senate has resolved to urge the federal government to take action to address road safety in a more holistic manner that requires the involvement of multiple MDAs (Transport Ministry, Road Safety, VIO, Police, Health, and National Orientation Agency (NOA)).”
Nigerian roads are really a death trap. Apart from the deplorable conditions of the roads, for example the lagos Benin express way, an East to west connection lacks mentainance from after Ore to lagos, before Ore on a section of the road there is a ditch in the middle of the road for kilometers and don’t know if this is part of the design, but form more than two years now unsuspecting motorists have been running into it at day and night times, it lacks caution signs at this point and like many points on the road, when accident occur you find that the vehicle’s involved remain on the road for days, weeks and months in some cases untill thieves come to claim their part of the wreckage while FRSC. go back and forth to mount blocks to collect their usual token, not concerned or equipped with the facility to move heavy wreckage from the road. These increase the danger on Nigerian roads.