Guardian

Down Town Drive game, newly invented by Mr. Victor Anazonwu may be one thing stakeholders have been looking for to reduce road accident in the country.

THE life of Mr. Victor Anazonwu, the Chief Ideation Officer (CIO) of Elipses Projects, a marketing communications and innovative firm, is rooted in invention and diversification.

Such innovative outlook recently propelled him to invent a game, Down Town Drive, meant to reduce road accidents by teaching roads signs and codes through a game. Down Town Drive game, Anazonwu said is a product of research of the past 10 years.

Explaining the motive behind the game, the Anambra State father of three said: “Down Town Drive game was inspire by the observation that everyday thousands of people die from road accidents globally so that motor accidents kill more people than AIDS does. That shows that road accident is a big disease. And sadly in Nigeria the incidence of road accident is higher than global average. Most of us have lost friends, relatives and friends to road accidents. Those who do not die get maim, and the cost of treatment is enormous.

“Imagine those who cannot use their legs and hands anymore because of road accidents? Why does Nigeria have high number of road accidents? If you look at Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) data and analysis, it is because of human errors. Some of the human errors arise from poor education of the rules and education guiding driving and the use of the road. Some people sit in their homes to get their driver’s licences while the lives of thousands of people are in their hands. Therefore, many Nigerians do not know that there are roads codes that enable one to drive safely. We asked ourselves what we could do to remedy the situation. But we know that there are many people who drive every day we cannot force to school to learn road signs. We thought of how to make them learn the principles of safe driving again. That how Down Town Drive came about.”

Anazonwu although not a regular scientist likes late Albert Eistein and Thomas Edison has his life centered on curiosity. Down Town Drive game, the marketing communications expert said is one of the end products of that curiosity.

Anazonwu started his early education at Santa Maria, now Zik Avenue, and Primary School, Enugu, in the early 70s and Government College, Owerri, Imo State.  After his secondary school  everybody predicted that he would become  a lawyer because of his argumentative style. His lawyer father, though keen that the young Anazonwu became lawyer later in life, advised him to study any other course in his first degree with the intention of returning to study law.  “My father encouraged me to be a lawyer and told me that even though he himself was a lawyer, he found out that the best lawyers are people with multiple academic backgrounds. He would cite Justice Oputa and one of the English  lawyers with mathematics background. And he would add ‘ I want you to be the best lawyer you want to be; study anything in your first degree and later come back to study law,’” Anazonwu said.

Excited with his father’s advice, he got admission to study history at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). His initial excitement of studying law later in life was soon to wane down while he was in 200 levels at the university.

“But in my second year, I was already regretting because I thought the process of studying history for four years and coming back to study law would be too long. I became a little impatient and became less attracted to law than I was as a younger person,” he said. “Those were the days of Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu, Yakubu Mohammed and Newswatch. In those days at UNN, we used to gather at free readers association  and every week, I would forego my money for food to buy Newswatch. My favourite writer was Dan Agbese. So, I was seduced by journalism and media.”

After graduation, he went back to the university for his masters in journalism before securing job with the now defunct The Outlook newspaper in Enugu in 1988.

Again, frustration set in his media pursuit as he realised that society was not being changed for the better because what he and his colleagues wrote. “I just realised that I needed a new challenge in life,” he said.

That change saw he went back to UNN for his Masters in Business Administration (MBA). That later made him to change line of job from journalism to advertising and started working with Sunrise Marketing Communications in Lagos with the aid of his former lecturer and APCON pioneer registrar, Prof. Charles Okigbo. He later moved to MC and A and Satchi Advertising company and STB-McCANN advertising in Lagos.  After 14 years in STB-McCANN, he resigned to establish Elipses Projects with his wife, Ngozi.

Anazonwu said the Down Town Drive game would go a long way in reducing road accidents in Nigeria because of its easy –to-understand manner.

“The innovative game is like ludo or draft, scrabble, monopoly and chess games. What we did was to configure the concept of ludo game to teach about responsible road use. For example, instead of just moving seeds around, we turned the entire experience into a track or road so that seeds mimic cars on the road. The game can be played either by one person or four people.

To start, one would need to throw a dice and whatever the play determines the movement of the seed. But to start, one needs to throw six from the dice to move from the initial. The next road sign the play would encounter is check your car. This is one basic rules FRSC and car manufacturers advise Nigerians everyday: Even though your car is brand new, it does not mean that it cannot malfunction. Before, you drive out every morning, one should do simple physical inspection of one’s car like, look at the tyres to see whether they are over-inflated or deflated. It could be that the car is licking off oil and the water might have dried off. The break-fluid might have gone. If you look at under your car every morning, it takes lot of pains away later on. Your break-fluid might have licked and you will not know not until you hit the road and press the break under serious condition. Just imagine what that could lead to. To move from the initial to the next point, one must throw a dice to move- meaning one should commence driving with low speed. And to move to the next level, one must throw two, subsequently three as a mean of explaining that speed and acceleration is built gradually. It is not advisable to move from zero to 80kms. Just in five steps, the game would have reminded the player of two things: Check your car and move steady and gradually. After four, the player can then move according to the throw of dice so that if he throws one, he moves one step and if he throw two, he moves two steps which is similar to cruising speed of one’s car.

But as one pass this point, everywhere one’s seed falls, one is expected to obey the instruction on that spot. What we have done is to incorporate kilometres into each of the squares and road signs because we realise that majority of Nigerian road users do not know road signs. We incorporate road signs that are not commonly known. If one landed on no parking spot for instance, one would be penalise to move two steps backward. If one lands on good spot, there is a reward. What that tells one is that roads are govern by rules and regulations. The game teaches simple discipline and compliance to highway codes.  A blue circle with a number inside tells the driver the minimum speed he supposed to go. In Lagos, it is absurd to see cars driving at 20km/hr on a fast lane. It is wrong. But red circle with a number means do not speed beyond that number.”

Anazonwu, who said he is looking for partners to get the game into the hands of Nigerians, advised other Nigerians to switch on their creative power.