THE QUEST FOR SPEED MONITORING DEVICE

If all goes well with the plans of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) of Nigeria, all vehicles used for public transport must have speed monitoring device installed in them by today or be off the nation's highways by tomorrow.
According to news reports, this is because the FRSC is finally going to monitor compliance with directive for the installation of the device in all vehicles plying Nigerian roads starting the public transport facilities.
Not a bad idea because it will ensure drivers stay within recommended speed limits and reduce deaths from accidents caused by excessive speed.
It is not a disincentive to transport business in Nigeria either, because if it were, that would have been enough reason to suspend or cancel implementation for now.
Yet, there is still a caveat to it all. Is the device too technical to be manufactured, or at least, assembled in Nigeria? If the answer is no, then someone must answer the next question: What are the plans on ground to install only made or assembled in Nigeria speed monitoring devices?
If there are no such plans, it is better to postpone implementation until such a time this can be possible.
Even in normal times, it pays to learn from past mistakes and make amends. Nigeria embraced mobile telecommunication more than a decade ago without any plans afoot to manufacture handsets and the like that were eventually and still are in high demand. Today, those items are high on the list of imports contributing their own quota to the foreign exchange stranglehold choking Nigeria.
That could have been avoided with a little vision beyond the immediate benefit of going mobile.
Much the same way, the follow up demand for speed monitoring device given the number of vehicles plying Nigerian roads, will be more than enough to encourage current manufacturers to establish factory in Nigeria, given the right incentives. That is assuming it is a technology Nigerians can not produce or duplicate if challenged.
These are the kind of lessons from past mistakes and vision beyond benefit and perhaps, even immediate personal return for those in power, that today's tough times demands of public sector decision making and decision makers.
Thus in plain language, it is better to suspend implementation of the directive on the speed monitoring device if it is going to be imported.
Indeed, let it be a major part of national economic revival strategy that from now, imported expertise; products and support will only be patronised or encouraged through policies by all Nigerian governments ONLY if such can not be sourced locally or encouraged to be so sourced.

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