Monica Dongban-Mensem (centre) received training from authorities to qualify as a traffic officer
During her free time, Nigerian Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem controls traffic in the capital, Abuja, eight years after her son was killed in a hit-and-run accident.
On the day I met her she was clad in her blue traffic vest, feet spread apart, sweaty arms slicing the air at a frantic pace, as she directed cars in 38C (100F) heat fuelled by the idling cars.
Around her was the busy chaos of the Berger roundabout in the city’s central area.
The cars that were not moving were hunched on their front axles, horns blaring, impatiently waiting for her to say “go”.
She was clearly in charge.
“Many Nigerians are impatient and it shows in their driving,” Justice Dongban-Mensem told me.
She did not know who was responsible for her son’s death but wanted to tackle some of the poor driving she witnessed.
She started going to bus stations to speak to drivers about road safety in Nigeria.
What she found shocked her.
Most of the drivers had not received proper training and were not familiar with the traffic rules.
Such ignorance might have caused the death of her son and she was determined to change that.
The 62-year-old has set up a non-profit organisation named after her late son – Kwapda’as Road Safety Demand – to educate motorists about safety and she also plans to establish a driving school for potential commercial drivers, where they can receive training free-of-charge.
Not content with that, Justice Dongban-Mensem wanted to play a role in controlling the traffic herself. After weeks of training with the road safety commission she qualified as a traffic warden.
It was not until 2016, five years after the accident, that she felt able to visit the scene of her son’s death in the central Nigerian city of Jos.
“My mission was to find someone who could just tell me or describe to me how my son died.”
But once she got there, she was left terrified, sad and angry by the chaos she saw.
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