The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) was established by Decree No. 45 of 1988 under General Ibrahim Babangida, after an Oyo State pilot scheme — chaired by Wole Soyinka as Road Safety Commissioner — recorded sharp reductions in fatalities on the Ibadan–Lagos and Ibadan–Ife axes in 1981–87. Decree 45 created a federal uniformed corps with national jurisdiction over all categories of road, vehicle registration and number-plate production, the driver's licence regime, and the highway code.
The Commission's federal reach has been challenged repeatedly on constitutional grounds. In 2003 the Supreme Court ruled in Attorney-General of Lagos State v. Attorney-General of the Federation that the federal government's authority over roads classified as federal trunk roads — and over national driver-licensing — was secure under the Exclusive Legislative List. The FRSC was re-enacted as the Federal Road Safety Commission (Establishment) Act 2007 to align with the 1999 Constitution.
Openly attempted state bans and pushbacks include: Lagos State's 2007 attempt to bar the FRSC from operating within the metropolis, defused by federal-state negotiation; Rivers State (2013) under Rotimi Amaechi, who issued executive directives restricting FRSC operations on state roads — later withdrawn; Lagos State (2018) under Akinwunmi Ambode, who barred FRSC officers from state roads and from impounding state-registered commercial vehicles — partially reversed under federal pressure; and Anambra State (2022) under Charles Soludo, who issued a directive restricting FRSC to federal highways within the state. None of these state-level prohibitions has survived in full; the constitutional position is settled.
In 2026 the FRSC operates 56 sector commands, runs the National Vehicle Identification Scheme (NVIS), and partners with the NIMC on the harmonised national driver's licence — making it the most operationally capable federal road agency in West Africa, and a recurring federalism flashpoint.