UN Partners FRSC, Firm, Launches Nigeria’s ‘Make A Safety Statement’

OLORUNDARE ENIMOLA, Lagos

The United Nations has partnered the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC and JC Decaux, a media giant, to launch the Nigeria campaign slogan of; ‘make a safety statement’, with calls for support and synergy from the motoring and general public.

The launch which held on Friday 3, October, 2025, at the Black Diamond Hotel, Victoria Island, drew major stakeholders in the road safety industry who were informed about the mission of the campaign and the impacts it has made at reducing road traffic crashes across the World in line with the United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety.

Mr. Jean Todt, the United Nations Secretary-General’s special envoy for Road Safety, in his speech said the campaign is to affirm the fact that road safety is everyone’s business every day, stressing that the campaigns is seeking for small actions that save many lives, like wearing seatbelts, helmets, and driving safely.

In his words, “this campaign is done in agreement with our partner, JC Decaux, calling for small actions that save many lives, like wearing seatbelts, helmets, and driving safely.

“By late 2026, the campaign will have been shown in 80 countries and go around one thousand cities worldwide. It works with leading global personalities in sport, film, fashion, and culture. I’m delighted to be here with my good friend, Drogba, a true sporting legend and an African hero.” Todt added.

He pointed out that in Africa, road crashes kill more people than in other parts of the world, accounting for more
than 250,000 deaths on the road every year, adding that nearly one in four road crash victims globally are in Africa with fatalities rising faster here than anywhere else in the world.

Todt speaking further, “Every number has a name, every statistic has a story, every loss hits many loved ones. Where are the people out on the streets demanding for change? We must wake the world up to end this carnage. This is what our campaign is about.

“Nigeria has an excellent national road safety strategy, but it must be actioned everywhere. There are nearly 37,000 road deaths in Nigeria each year. That’s around 100 deaths every day and I do appreciate what the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC is doing in a country with a population of 240 million.

“If they don’t get the support from the President, from the Vice President, from each governor of the region, from the health minister, transport minister, police minister, education minister, the situation will remain severe.” He averred.

On the tolling impact of road crashes, Todt said, road deaths are the second highest cause of death for teenagers and young adults in Nigeria, noting that the will to end the crisis is there, but there is need for more urgent actions to save lives.

“There is a strong, clear case for making road safety a national priority in every African country, because crashes affects not only the families, but also to the country, lowering 5% of the GDP. Safe mobility powers a prosperous, sustainable future for us all,” Todt said.

He expressed special thanks to the other global and national celebrities supporting the campaign and inspiring so many people around the world, while expressing his immense appreciation for the important collaboration with the International Olympic Committee, saying “we all share responsibility for road safety, and we all have roles to play. The responsibility is ours. Let’s work together to end this violent pandemic.”

Earlier in his welcome address, CM Shehu Mohammed, the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps FRSC said, Nigeria has adopted the United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety and has developed the Nigeria Road Safety Strategy for road safety management, defining and guiding the implementation of programmes and strategies that cut across all the five pillars of safe system approach.

This safe system according to him, enables road safety to be viewed as a collective and shared responsibility for every citizen of Nigeria who could join to make sure that road traffic crash fatalities is reduced by 50%.

He reeled out the five pillars to include; safer speed, safer road, safer vehicles, safer road users, and adequate possible crash care, adopted by the Nigerian government with commitment to achieve the reduction of road traffic crash by 50% by the year 2030.

Explaining further, he said, “Today, we have the National Road Safety Advisory Council headed by the Vice President, with the executive council members comprising cabinet ministers as members of that council with six governors representing the six geographical zones and agencies that have to do with safety and security in this country.

“In this council, we also have the technical working group headed by the Minister of budget and National Planning with the mandate to set up the target coordinate the strategy between the national and sub-national level and also implement the strategy. That shows how Nigeria has keyed in to really get these crashes reduced by half by the year 2030.” Mohammed said.

He therefore called on Nigerian citizens, the motoring public and every road user to abide by the road traffic rules and regulations, “to be able to say no to speeding, no to overloading, no to drunk driving, no to use of phone and text messages while driving, to be able to maintain speed limit within town and within the major roads leading to wherever they want to go, to use the helmet while riding motorcycle or bike and the use of seatbelts,”

Assuring that if the citizenry can cultivate this culture of compliance to road safety regulations it will lead to their safety and safety for others and the country would be able to achieve the much needed reduction of road crashes by 50% by the year 2030.

Abimbola Ijaniyi, the Nigeria Sales Manager of Jcdecaux, the sponsoring partner in her speech on behalf of Mr. Dada Omoniyi, the Country Manager of the company, appreciated Mr. Jean Todt for organising, focusing on road safety which she described as a pressing issue that needed to be tackled frontally.

Ijaniyi said JC Decaux is honoured to be the UN partner, working with Todt and his team on the international road safety campaign, saying the company has being supporting the campaign effort since 2017 and the United Nations since 2023, revealing that slogan has been seen by millions of people in more than 50 different countries.

She said, “as we speak the campaign slogan has been translated into 30 languages. Our goal is to deploy this campaign on all JC Decaux assets in over 80 countries where we’re present and 1000 cities in the coming months. This campaign underscores how sustainable media can use its power and mass outreach to raise awareness to save lives and to also pass on the road safety tips.

“At JC Decaux we are firmly committed to actively supporting this campaign and are fully invested in amplifying the reach of this initiative to ensure the long-term impact of all stakeholders which includes the cities, the transportation partners, advertisers, NGO and everyone involved in this awareness effort.” She added.

Didier Drogba, the former international football star, who is also part of the global personalities who had made a safety statement was on ground to further lend a voice in support of the campaign, saying; “because world safety is something that kills our population, that kills our kids and I’m sure most of us here have someone that has died from a car accident, from a motorcycle accident, or something like that. So, as an athlete, and with the platform that we created, I think it is important and my responsibility as part of the family to come and spread the message of road safety.”