A retired pioneer staff of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Deacon Sunday Taye Dairo, has made a passionate appeal to the Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed, to institutionalize recognition and special preference for children of the 25 pioneer Road Safety personnel who laid the foundation for the Corps in 1988.
Deacon Dairo, who retired as a Deputy Chief Road Marshal with pin number M-8805-00021 in Osogbo in 2013 after 35 years of meritorious service, said the call has become necessary to preserve the legacy of the founding fathers and alleviate the current hardship being faced by surviving members and families of deceased pioneers.
Recalling history, Dairo said 25 personnel of the defunct Old Oyo State Road Safety Corps were released to the newly established Federal Road Safety Corps via a circular Ref. SP/C.224/3/VOL.1/312 dated 8th April, 1988, by the then Military Governor of Old Oyo State, Major General David Jemibewon.
According to him, the 25 officers were requested by the Federal Government to train the first batch of 1,000 youth corpers and kick-start operational activities of the Corps at a time when Nigeria had no structured road safety institution.
“Many of the personnel died while in active service while some retired peacefully after years of meritorious national service. Out of these pioneer operational personnel, only eleven are still surviving though retired. I am one of the surviving retired personnel and I am writing on behalf of all of us,” Dairo said.
The retired Zonal RSM painted a pathetic picture of the current condition of the survivors, lamenting that “most of us only survive on our meagre pensions even though we have children that have graduated from school who could be taking care of us in our retirement years, but these children have no jobs. So instead of them taking care of us, we have to be using our meagre pensions to take care of them. The situation is so pathetic that we have no choice but to appeal for compassionate consideration.
“I’m pleading that you please use your good office to help facilitate the appointment of any of them into the Corps so that my 35 years with the Corps will not be in vain.”
To underscore the urgency of the appeal, Dairo cited the case of two children of one of the surviving pioneers, Deputy Chief Inspector Sunday Taye Unuigbe from Edo State, who participated in the just concluded FRSC recruitment exercise.
He identified them as Unuigbe Tomiwa Odion (CX0126831ED) and Unuigbe Yemisi Adesua (CA0246823E).
According to Dairo, both candidates fulfilled all requirements, scaled all screenings and successfully but were dropped at the final stage without explanation.
Dairo therefore called on Corps Marshal Shehu Mohammed to grant formal recognition to the 25 pioneers and approve a special preference policy that would give priority to their children and wards in all future recruitment exercises.
“We humbly request the Corps Marshal to consider allocating some slots to us anytime the Corps is recruiting as a way of assisting to alleviate our hardships as our leader and father that God has put in authority,” he said.
He stressed that such a gesture would not only be a moral reward for their foundational sacrifice but would also serve as a motivation for serving officers that their labour will not be forgotten.
“This is not just about employment. It is about honour, legacy and saying thank you to those who toiled to build the FRSC from the scratch when there was nothing,” he added.
