- Conviction of Iyayi’s killer should teach other killer-drivers a lesson
The family of late President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Festus Iyayi, got a good measure of justice when the driver whose irresponsible driving led to the death of Iyayi was sentenced to seven years imprisonment last week in Abuja. Iyayi was killed on his way from Edo State to an ASUU meeting in Kano in November 2013 while travelling in the company of two other members of the union: Dr. Ngozi Iloh and Dr Enchanted Anthony, both of whom were seriously injured.
Presiding magistrate, Alhassan Husaini’s remarks during the judgment: “I have no option than to sentence you, Danladi Baba, to seven years’ imprisonment without an option of fine. What is regrettable in this case is the serious abuse of privilege of late by VIP convoys. These siren-blaring convoys force on-coming and other categories of vehicles off the roads in a manner that exposes law-abiding road users to hazards” aptly captures a major source of accidents on the country’s roads: lawless and irresponsible driving by drivers who turned the cars of their politically well-placed bosses into instruments of homicide against innocent road users who keep to the law.
As belated as the judgment may be (over four years after the death of Iyayi), justice seems to have been finally served. Certainly, no punishment can be enough to answer for the loss of one of the country’s icons, a winner of the Commonwealth Prize for Literature and a game changer in the history of academic unionism. But the sentencing of Baba is likely to bring to a near closure the killing of Iyayi and injury of his co-travellers. Though healing is expected to be hard and slow, Justice Husaini’s courageous judgment is likely to be a major factor in the healing process.
Equally of major significance is the attention the magistrate draws to the menace that official convoys and their drivers have constituted to safety on our roads. The lack of proportionality that affects many areas of the country’s public life also plagues the culture of long convoy of SUVs created for moving political officers on city roads and highways.
There are many Danladi Baba working in convoys designed for the country’s men and women of political power. While Baba’s aggressive driving may have resulted in the killing of Iyayi, there are many such drivers scaring other road users off the road and causing tragedy for many innocent citizens that might also have avoided proper prosecution. We commend Magistrate Husaini for his “I have no choice position in the case of Baba.”
However, issues raised by the judgment that are beyond the authority of the magistrate need to be addressed urgently. The average size of official convoys in the country is bizarre. No country with worse threats from terrorists has the size of convoy that exists on our roads for persons considered extraordinary; not even those countries that manufacture the vehicles found in convoys on Nigerian roads. It is also curious why political officers in the country feel so unsafe to the extent of needing outlandish convoys such as produced Iyayi’s killer. It is remarkable that such convoys were discouraged at the beginning of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari and puzzling that the relative peace on the roads then had quickly found its way out of our roads and highways. The sooner politicians realise that it is the provision of general safety in the society that can guarantee safety of politicians and other so-called VIPs while they travel, the better for our country.
In other countries where there are skeletal convoys, the training given to the drivers is starkly different from what happens in Nigeria. In such countries, all drivers of public vehicles are given rigorous training in defensive driving which is absent in the aggressive driving by chauffeurs in the convoys provided for our political leaders. Further, while the Federal Road Safety Commission and its state counterparts continue to provide rigorous education for drivers, those employed to work in convoys need additional training on disciplined psychological and emotional handling of official vehicles, until the culture of convoys for special people peters out. Relatedly, we call for quick settlement of insurance claims for the families of Iyayi, Iloh and Anthony, all victims of senseless driving by Danladi Baba.
