…Renewal now takes over 6 months
By Olakunle Olafioye
Anxiety is growing in the last six months over the inability of the Federal Road Service Commission (FRSC) to attend to the avalanche of driver’s license applications from Nigerians across the country.
Under this period, the FRSC has not been able to issue Nigerians new licences nor renew old ones. Those who went to either renew or capture to be issued new licences have usually left disappointed and dejected.
The unending excuses by the licensing officers are that “our servers are down, there are no materials to print new licences in Abuja, there is no money to produce, we are waiting for Abuja,” among others.
Consequently, the number of Nigerians seeking to be issued with permanent driver’s licenses is growing amid promises by the issuing agency, the FRSC, to address the mounting frustration.
This frustration is compounded by the tendency of other security operatives to cash in on this unfortunate development to fleece exasperated motorists, most of whom claimed to have made countless visits to the licensing offices where they made their applications without getting their permanent licenses.
Almost a year after passing her driving test, Mrs Olabisi Ganiu is disappointed that she is yet to be issued with a permanent driver’s license, leaving her at the mercy of corrupt security operatives.
Having been certified to be issued with a driver’s license, which will enable her to drive in the country, Mrs Ganiu said that she wasted no time in putting in her application for her driver’s license.
But after making necessary payments, making it to the stage of getting captured, the process got stalled and became a major issue.
Hear her: “At that point, I realised that there was a long queue of people waiting to be captured, most of whom told me that they had made more than one visit to the centre.”
Those in the know would later inform her that there was a much faster route to getting captured. And that she followed. Despite following their suggestion, Mrs Ganiu said that it took her over eight hours at the licensing office before it got to her turn.
She was subsequently issued with a temporary driver’s license and was asked to come for the permanent driver’s license before the expiration of the temporary license.
“I have visited the office three times, but I was told that my permanent driver’s license was not ready each time I went there,” she said.
In between, Mrs Ganiu said that she had had to naively part with money to a police officer who insisted that the temporary license was ‘overdue’ though not expired.
“I didn’t really understand what he meant by being overdue, but not expired. But because I didn’t want to be delayed unnecessarily, I decided to give in to his demand,” she revealed.
Like Ganiu, more and more Nigerians seeking to be issued with driver’s licenses are getting frustrated by the delay being encountered in securing their driver’s licenses.
Mr Nurain Oseni said that his efforts to get his permanent driver’s license since February this year has failed to yield a positive result.
Though an experienced driver of many years, Oseni told Sunday Sun that he was compelled to undergo fresh capturing even when he had the option of settling for “by-pass’ since he only wanted to renew his license.
According to him, two different encounters with law enforcement operatives who disputed that the picture on his old driver’s license did not have the same semblance with his present looks had compelled him to insist on being captured for another photograph.
However, since undergoing the capturing exercise four months ago, Mr Oseni said that he had visited the issuing office where he did the capturing and had called a particular number given to him to confirm if his driver’s license was ready without any luck.
Describing the experience as frustrating and time-consuming, Oseni said that it is really disturbing to find out that the Federal Road Safety Commission performance as far as the issuance of driver’s license is concerned has remained as ineffective as it was decades ago.
“It is very shocking to find out that an agency like the FRSC will remain at this level of inefficiency in an era where technology has not only simplified the processes of doing things but also has made things much faster,” he wondered.
Findings by Sunday Sun at some licensing offices visited in Lagos and Ogun states revealed the level of pressure being mounted on officials of the commission by those who throng the centres daily for registrations and for their driver’s licenses.
At Ijaiye Ojokoro Licensing office, in Agbado-Ijaye area of Lagos, an obviously frustrated man was seen fuming as he stormed out of the office over the delay he had experienced in getting his drivers license while a few others also calmly walked away after being told that their driver’s licenses were not yet available.
An official of the commission who spoke to Sunday Sun on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak said that the office only does the registration and then transfers the data generated to Abuja where the plastic licences are produced.
According to him, “once we are through with the registration here, the data generated is sent to Abuja for the production of the permanent driver’s licenses. At our end here, we have the power to issue temporary licenses which they can use for at least three months until when the plastic card will be issued. And when the licenses are ready we communicate with them via SMS to come over for them. But where the licences are not ready before the dates on their temporary licenses expire, we advise that they come back to revalidate them,” the official said.
At another licensing office in Agbara, Ogun State, it was gathered that since the machine being used for registration at the centre packed up in August 2023, registration exercise for driver’s licenses have been suspended, thereby compounding the pressure in other licensing offices in the area.
Sunday Sun gathered that the issue of faulty machines is another major factor contributing to the delay in the processing of driver’s licenses. “Whenever we have issues with our machines we send information to them in Abuja and engineers will be sent to come over for the repairs. But occasionally, when the machines cannot be repaired at the centre, like the one here, they are taken to Abuja like this particular one,” an official of the commission revealed.
Speaking at a reception organised by the alumnus of the College of Advance Studies, Zaria in Abuja penultimate Saturday, the Corps Marshal of FRSC, Shehu Mohammed admitted that his commission was really battling with some challenges which he blamed were responsible for the delays being encountered with issuance of driver’s licenses and plate numbers, but assured that would be over soon.
“I went on a facility assessment in our FCT office today; the causes of the delay are numerous; some are internal, while others are technical and financial,” he said.
He revealed that modalities have been put in place to eliminate delays in accessing driver’s licenses and number plates, adding that the incessant complaints of delay in accessing number plates and driver’s licenses would be addressed.
