GreenLight Initiative Condoles with Former Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, Calls for Improved and Collaborative action to Road Safety.

GreenLight Initiative Condoles with Former Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, Calls for Improved and Collaborative action to Road Safety.

GreenLight Initiative Condoles with Former Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, Calls for Improved and Collaborative action to Road Safety.

We received the news of the fatal crash which involves the loss of two aides to Former Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan with a heavy heart. We condole with the families of the deceased and Former Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan.

Whilst more than 80% of the economic activities in Nigeria rely on road transportation, It is worthy of note that road traffic crashes have since for a while remained a pandemic that has so long continued to kill, maimed, and cause unwanted destruction of valuable properties, assets, and infrastructures. Nigeria has a fair share as one of the worst-hit in terms of road fatalities globally. The consequences of road traffic crashes negate development as more than 3% of countries’ GDP are lost annually if road safety is not prioritized according to World Bank indices.

With what we know, there is a solution and the good news is that this pandemic in road traffic crashes are all avoidable and preventable.

In October 2021, the United Nations (UN) adopted a new Decade of Action Plan 2021-2030 with an ambitious target to reduce the over 1.35 million road deaths globally to at least 50% by 2030. The targets also seek to prioritize the safety of vulnerable road users such as children and young people.

In June/July 2022, the UN General Assembly will hold a High-Level Meeting in New York on Improving Global Road Safety as mandated in A/RES/75/308 adopted in July 2022.

It is for this reason that we call on the Nigerian government to take a leadership role by actively participating in this very important high-level meeting on improving road safety by sending high-level delegations and vulnerable road user such as youths who bears the brunt of road traffic crashes. We equally call on well-meaning Nigerians, Civil Society groups, Foundations, and the organized private sector to join us in this campaign to save lives by improving road safety.

GreenLight Initiative is a Nigerian non-profit organization working to promote road safety, health, environment, and sustainable development.

Simon Patrick Obi

Executive Director GreenLight Initiative and Youth Leadership Board Member for the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety representing the African Region.

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