Each time matters of insecurity are raised in any forum or during discussion, every mind tends to be focused on insurgency and militancy. But what could be more terrorizing than the absence of decorum in traffic management?
In several parts of Nigeria, South-South and South-East zones to be precise, it has become more like a normal phenomenon to see some government officials, commercial and private drivers and banks dispatch van drivers, security patrol van drivers etc. drive recklessly and against traffic rules.
A visitor to these parts of the country may be quick to conclude that steerings are  manned by the “mentally unstabled” personalities due largely to the attitude of drivers on the steering.
The maturity and exhibition of safety standards on wheels expected of drivers as sureties to defensive driving, which is the hallmark of driving, are not visible on our roads.  Some analysts have attributed this situation to either ignorance  or sheer mental disorder.
Indeed, many,  drivers consider it waste of time to subject themselves to driving tutorials in driving schools. Drivers’ blatant disrespect for traffic codes, in no mean measure, now constitutes daily nightmare for road users.
From making and receiving calls while driving, stopping abruptly at unauthorized spots to pick and drop passengers, to driving against traffic and beating traffic light regulations without recourse to the safety of the next driver, our roads and highways are on daily basis rendered unsafe for the road users.        This situation forced the immediate past  administration in Rivers State to inaugurate the Rivers State Road Traffic Management Authority  (TIMA-RIV) to handle matters relating to road safety, traffic management and transportation in the State. At first, the interventionary measure actually paid off as the presence of the traffic marshals of TIMA-RIV restored relative sanity on our roads.
Although, TIMA-RIV was empowered to prevent road users from committing traffic offences, when offences were committed, it ensured offenders were apprehended and punished within the provision of the law.
Unfortunately, TIMA-RIV, in the public’s view, was for all the wrong reasons. They were accused of arbitrary use of power and extortions on the raods. But aside such accusation from perceived victims of their supposed corrective measure, they made the public realize that it takes the mentally unstable to flout traffic rules and throw road decorum to the winds. Their constant referrals of defaulting drivers to the psychiatric wards served as deterrent to erring drivers. However, the dissolution of that outfit signaled the return of recklessness by motorists in Port Harcourt metropolis.
Just recently, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC)  said it would begin to subject traffic law violators to psychiatric test with effect from July 1. According to its Corps Marshall, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, the test is expected to focus on four areas of violation namely; use of phone while driving, traffic light and route violation, as well as dangerous driving.
The mere mention of the corps’ intention to resume referral of all classes of offenders to various government hospitals for  mental check-up is already sending panic into drivers’ spines. While some see it as a welcome development, capable of restoring sanity on the roads, others consider it a dehumanizing measure, meant to insult the personality of the citizenry.
Nevertheless, everyone who detests illegality would attest to the fact that all such sharp practices on the road only depict irresponsibility and possibly explain that all is not well with the perpetrators’ mental faculty and so, continuous fatal crashes due to traffic light violation, people jumping the lines and driving against traffic must not be allowed to thrive.
It is for this reason that the  proposal of the FRSC is a welcome development that needs the reception and embracement of all and sundry if sanity must return to our roads. After all, it is only a psychiatric investigation by medical doctors that can ascertain the mental health condition of drivers who display all manners of recklessness on the roads.
However, the success of this measure lies on the ability of the administrators to maintain a high degree of neutrality where no cow is considered sacred. It will, therefore, amount to serious unfairness to this noble course should some mentally unstable people be allowed to hide under the guise of “uniform personnel” to continue to encourage unsafe practices on our roads.
A proper execution of this programme remains an effective antidote to the high level of illegalities resulting to accidents and losses of lives and properties on our roads.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi