Osita Chidoka pays tribute to Deborah Ohamara

Deborah, the golden voice, as she was known, performed two Patty Obasi songs very well. I was Impressed. I asked her why she was not a musician and learned she was a radio presenter. 

We kept in touch. Sadly, our scheduled interview did not happen. 

Deborah should not have died. Yes, road crashes are not ordained by God. It is a consequence of our actions or inaction. I am angry. I have bottled up emotions since 2014 because road safety is a passion for me not a job. 

I dedicated seven years of my golden decade to improving road safety on Nigerian roads. We made some progress. We can do better.  

The Airport road in Abuja is poorly designed. The effort to get Ministries of Works to submit road designs for safety audits has been ignored. 

We created a department for Safety Engineering based on advice from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and got a US government grant for Chicago University to train Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) staff. 

The plan is that safety audits should become part of our road contracting mechanism. The Goodluck Ebele Jonathan administration approved it, and the World Bank, under a $330M loan for road development, committed $30M to road safety. The WB used  $10m to build the pedestrian bridges in Abuja and $10M to improve road markings across the country executed by the World Bank. 

FRSC got  $10M for safety improvements in the six corridors – Mokwa – Bida – Suleja, Lagos – Ibadan, Benin – Ifon – Owo – Ilesha, Enugu – Abakaliki – Mfun, Jos – Bauch – Gombe, Abuja – Kaduna – Kano, Abuja metropolis. This intervention led to a drop in crashes and deaths along these corridors. 

Since I left FRSC, I have elected not to comment on road safety issues. For the memory of Deborah,  I will visit the Corps Marshal and ask questions. 

What is happening to the National Road Safety Strategy? What is happening to the Road Transport Safety Standardisation Scheme and Driving School Standardisation Program? What is happening to the National Road Safety Partnership?  How can we help? 

Deborah is now part of the statistics of the 24 people who died daily in the first half of 2023, according to the Corps. Road Safety is a collective responsibility. The government should place some renewed emphasis on the lives of the young Nigerians wasting on our roads. 

Good night, Deborah. I had planned that you would host the 2024 Patty Obasi challenge competition. In your memory, it would happen. If you meet Patty Obasi, tell him that your voice brought him to life for many of us. Tell him na Ụwa bụ ahịa….as he sang. 

You, Deborah, have finished your time in the market. I am angry. Together with the departed, we pray for God’s continued mercy and love. Amen.

*Osita Chidoka is a former Minister Aviation and former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps