Pioneer Corps Marshal, Agunloye visits FRSC Headquarters, says agency on path to become model in Africa 

Pioneer Corps Marshal, Olu Agunloye visits FRSC Headquarters, says Agency on path to become model in Africa

L-R: Corps Marshal Sheu Mohammed and Dr. Olu Agunloye, a pioneer Corps Marshal, during his visit to the FRSC headquarters, Abuja

In a rare moment, the former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps and the serving Corps Marshal met at the Corps head office in Abuja on Tuesday, 10 December 2024.

One of the officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) captioned the encounter as “the rare moment in history when the first Corps Marshal and the incumbent Corps Marshal met after 36 years.” It was a rare moment indeed. It was when Dr. Olu Agunloye, the first Corps Marshal of the FRSC, appointed in February 1988, met with Mr. Shehu Mohammed, the current Corps Marshal who was appointed in May 2024 to head the road safety outfit.

Dr Agunloye was the pioneering Corps Marshal who reigned from February 1988 till December 1994 and was generally said to have established the high bars and standards for the Corps which situated it as a model Government establishment under the President Ibrahim Babangida regime.

After his seven-year tenure at the headship of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr Agunloye also appointed into other positions by the Federal Republic of Nigeria as Special Adviser to the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation in 1999-2000, Minister of State for Defence in 2001 and cabinet rank Minister of Power and Steel in 2002.

However, Dr Agunloye has been more well known for his innovation as the pioneering Corps Marshal at the FRSC for creative projects like the revised Highway Code, the harmonised single sheet National Drivers Licence scheme, the National Uniform Vehicle Licence scheme, the National Vehicle Registration Number scheme and gigantic number plate factory he built for the FRSC in Lagos in 1993. Dr Agunloye is also widely acclaimed for institutionalising the general etiquette and norms that have, up to this day, made the Federal Road Safety Corps positively unique amongst government ministries, departments and agencies in Nigeria.

Dr. Agunloye, in his usual simple casual self, walked into the premises of the National Headquarters of the Corps on Tuesday afternoon to have a closed-door discussion with the Corps Marshal and a few senior officers. It was a face-to-face of the new with the old.

The meeting was not formally scheduled as the incumbent Corps Marshal remarked, saying that otherwise, he would have got all the senior officers involved to welcome the pioneer Corps Marshal and to interact with him.

While speaking later to Dr Agunloye, he confirmed that he made an unscheduled visit to the FRSC headquarters to encourage the “new energetic team in their elaborate agenda to give a major boost to road safety management in Nigeria.” He said this will lead to “new frontiers in the West African subregion.” He noted that the new Corps Marshal and his team “are setting out on wonderful and innovative operations, which will make Nigeria proud and become a model for Africa.”

Dr Agunloye commended the previous Corps Marshals of the Federal Road Safety Corps for “upholding sound work environment and robust standards that had always challenged subsequent new Corps Marshals to yearn for remarkable improvements and innovations at all times”.

Dike E. Nwobodo.
Abuja. 11 December 2024