In this report, AMAKA IFEAKANDU looks at the difficulties of obtaining a driver’s licence in Lagos
The process of obtaining a driver’s licence in Lagos has become discouraging and frightening.
By law, the process requires that individuals to go through three agencies, which are the Motor Vehicle Administration Agency (MVAA), the Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS) and the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) before a temporary license can be issued.
But for many applicants, going to the three agencies for driver’s licence is not really the major challenge that discourage them from completing the process, but the bottleneck associated with obtaining driving certification which has succeeded in creating a black market at various driver’s licence centres in Lagos state.
Some applicants who spoke to our correspondent blamed the last year’s rush on the deadline set by the Joint Tax Board (JTB) for old driver’s licence to be out of circulation.
They explained that before extension of the deadline from September 2013 to June 2014, the officers of the authorities involved in the issuing process were taking advantage of the scheme to enrich themselves.
Our correspondent visited some issuing centres in Lagos like the Ojudu-Berger office of the FRSC, and he observed that the process has been compromised.
Some applicants attributed the compromise to the officials’ demand for gratification during the data-capture stage.
Besides, the process has equally created informal business for the operatives of the agencies that play one role or the other during the documentation stage or in the process of capturing applicant’s biometric data.
Investigation has revealed that some of the officers are using some people as middle men to carry out the deals.
An applicant who simply identified himself as Chigozie alleged that some officers were working with some people who posed as agents and operated from kiosks and shops located within the FRSC office.
Chigozie, who has been going to FRSC office at Ojodu Berger for the last two to three months for a licence, said: “There exists a symbiotic relationship between them in the sense that the agents cannot do without their allies in the offices of the authorities involved.”
He added that the agents had made things more difficult for individuals to complete their documentation.
Another applicant, Mr. Emeka Obiora, described the situation as illegal alliance created by the regime that brought in the procedures for the new licence.
Obiora said that the relationship between the agents and their partners “are very strong,” insisting that “It is just a cartel, with strong partnership.”
According to him, such people in the process undermine the established order just to short-change the applicants.
He however said that the FRSC officials play major role in the corruption surrounding the driver’s licence scam.
Speaking further, he said “I met an official who was introduced to me about three years ago. From my observation, the officer makes money on a daily basis from issuing driver’s’ licence.”
He said that when the officer was transferred out of Ojodu Berger, he lobbied his way back to his former office due to the “internal deals”. He also said that one of his friends that went to Ikeja for a licence had similar experience, stressing that officers working at Ojudu-Berger and Ikeja where the licence is being issued are very corrupt.
Obiora admitted that he paid money to have the front-row seat during the data-capture exercise recently at Ojodu-Berger.
“Ordinarily the whole process should cost N6,500 or a little above that, but the officer demanded for more, which I paid,” he said.
He stated that in spite of the amount he paid to help fast-track the process, he could not undergo data-capture due to technical problems which slowed down the process. According to him, it was indeed frustrating because people spend months to complete the process.
“Indeed, there are very few machines in the whole of Lagos being used for data capture and that is one of the reasons the process is slow,” he added.
Another applicant, Mr. Adebola Adewale, explained that he began the process of obtaining a driver’s licence in October 2011. He said he collected a form through FRSC website and filled it online.
He said that he paid N6,500 as licence fee, but it took him months for him to conclude both practical and written tests conducted before he had opportunity to go for data capture at the FRSC.
Adewale said that it took him a year to do photo capturing because the machines were not functioning very well and another one year to get the drivers licence in plastic form. Adewale stated that at Ojodu Berger, initially they had only two machines before it was increased to three.
He said that a major challenge was that the date given to applicants by VIO for data capture does not tally with FRSC working days, adding that if the date given to applicant for data capturing falls on public holidays, the person has to start the process afresh. This, according to him, makes things very difficult for such applicants to do data capturing if he comes the following day.
One of the top officials of the FRSC, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, said that the problem is that officers at the centres could not respond effectively to the applicants because of the huge crowd, adding that data-capturing machines cannot handle such population on daily basis.
He explained that the authorities involved in the issuance and production of the licence have been working together to reduce these challenges. He said that increase in the number of data capturing machines as well as creation of more centres would go a long way to reduce the stress the applicants are going through and make it easily accessible to all irrespective of where they live in the state.