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Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps has appealed to Muslim and Christian motorists currently observing religious fasts to stop and rest every four hours while driving, warning that fatigue and dehydration during extended fasting periods significantly increase the risk of road crashes on the country’s notoriously dangerous highways.
The advisory was issued on Friday by Nasir Mohammed, the FRSC Commander responsible for the Sagamu-Ore-Benin Expressway corridor, one of the country’s most heavily trafficked and crash-prone long-distance routes, connecting Lagos to the South-South and South-East geopolitical zones through Ogun, Ondo, Edo, and Delta states. He was speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria in Ota. Mohammed directed the warning at drivers from both major faiths simultaneously. Roman Catholic faithful began the Lenten season on Wednesday with the Ash Wednesday observance, commencing a 40-day period of fasting and abstinence that will run until Easter Sunday in mid-April. Muslim faithful began observing Ramadan the same week, with the Sultan of Sokoto formally declaring the commencement of the fast on Wednesday, a rare alignment of the two religious calendars that has been noted by Nigerian public figures across faiths.
“We are appealing to motorists, especially Muslims and Christians who are fasting, to always observe rest after every four hours of driving, to prevent avoidable loss of lives,” Mohammed said. “All motorists are enjoined to drive to stay alive.” He specifically cited fatigue and potential dehydration as physiological hazards particular to fasting drivers, and warned against speeding and unsafe overtaking manoeuvres, which he described as consistently among the leading causes of fatal crashes on the corridor he oversees.
The timing of the advisory is grounded in documented national data. The FRSC recorded 10,446 road traffic crashes across Nigeria in 2025, resulting in 5,289 deaths, a 9.2 per cent increase in total crashes compared with the previous year, with serious crashes rising by 10.5 per cent from 6,131 cases in 2024 to 6,772.
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The number of people injured on Nigerian roads in 2025 rose to 33,400, up 7.2 per cent year-on-year. Corps Marshal Shehu Mohammed, no relation to the Sagamu-Ore-Benin corridor commander, has identified driver fatigue as one of the leading documented causes of crashes in the corps’ causation analysis, alongside speed limit violations, which accounted for 41 per cent of all identified crash causes in December 2025 alone.
An FRSC analysis of the first nine months of 2025 recorded 7,715 crashes, 3,915 deaths, and 24,674 injuries, with driver fatigue listed among the primary contributing factors in the corps’ own data. The Sagamu-Ore-Benin corridor, as a principal artery for commercial freight and long-distance passenger transport between Nigeria’s economic capital and the oil-producing south, carries a disproportionate share of that risk. Articulated trucks, intercity buses, and private vehicles share the road over stretches of highway where poor surface conditions, limited rest stops, and inadequate lighting compound the dangers of driver impairment.
The FRSC’s Ramadan advisory is part of a standard seasonal enforcement and enlightenment cycle the corps runs throughout the year. Last year, the Ota Unit Commander similarly appealed to fasting motorists to sleep a minimum of eight hours before driving and to refrain from driving against traffic during the Ramadan period. This year’s appeal is broader, incorporating the Lenten season explicitly for the first time in reported advisories from the Ogun State area commands, a reflection, corridor officials suggested, of the unusual calendar overlap between the two fasting periods.
Read Also: Sultan Declares Wednesday First Day Of Ramadan In Nigeria
The FRSC was established in 1988 by military decree, and now operates through 12 zonal commands, 37 sector commands, and more than 300 unit commands, with a presence in all 774 local government areas of Nigeria. It recently marked its 38th anniversary. Despite incremental improvements in some metrics, Nigeria remains among the countries with the highest road traffic fatality rates in Africa, with the WHO estimating that one in every four road accidents on the continent occurs within its borders.
No enhanced enforcement deployment was announced in connection with the fasting period advisory. Motorists were urged to contact the FRSC emergency line on 122 to report crashes or request assistance.
