LATSMA @ 24: A transport agency at war with motorists

…We are doing our best to regain public confidence – Bakare-Oki

In November 2021, a video of an official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LATSMA), who sprinted across the express road in Mile 2, Lagos, to escape death, went viral, amid public condemnation.

About seven enraged commercial motorcyclists (popularly known as Okada riders) parked their motorcycles and pursued the uniformed officer, who narrowly missed being knocked down by a vehicle as he dashed blindly across the expressway and disappeared into the nearby Jakande Estate.

The above is among the many of such ugly incidents across Lagos, and some even resulting in death.

Sadly, such altercations between the officers of the traffic management agency and motorists were not what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who founded LATSMA, while in office as governor of Lagos State, envisaged.

The traffic management agency was solely established to help in maintaining sanity on Lagos major roads, a role that includes: promoting road safety, reducing traffic congestion, and enhancing the overall transportation experience in the state.

On July 15, 2024, when the traffic management agency marked its 24 years in operation, many motorists in Lagos questioned what has changed in the over two decades of operation, as they can barely pinpoint any, considering that the roads seem more congested now than they were 24 years ago, when there was no traffic manager.

According to Numbeo, a traffic index that assesses commute time, dissatisfaction with traffic, CO2 emissions, and overall system inefficiencies, Lagos ranks among top five African countries with the worst traffic congestion by mid-2024.

A high traffic index of 354.5, with the average commuter spending approximately 68.8 minutes in traffic each day, according to the traffic monitoring index, indicates severe congestion, making Lagos one of the world’s most congested cities.

But LASTMA sees beyond the congestion and points to feats achieved in the last 24 years.

Read also: 14 officials face disciplinary action as LASTMA cracks down on extortion

Countering the ranking as one of the most congested cities in Africa, LASTMA explained that it has been up and doing on its role for 24 years, but the high population density in Lagos exacerbates traffic as more people rely on the same road networks, as well as, too many private vehicles on Lagos roads that are not necessary.

Of course, Lagos population has almost doubled in the last 24 years, leaving LASTMA with more traffic issues to combat.

Apart from the above, motorists in the state, hardly obey traffic rules and regulations, LASTMA observed.

Despite the challenges, Olalekan Bakare-Oki, general manager of LASTMA, noted that the traffic management agency has made some remarkable progress since its establishment.

For the doubtful, the LASTMA boss said that travel time for Lagos residents, especially during the peak period, has greatly improved, with the traffic management agency bent on improvement.

From January to June 2024, Bakare-Oki disclosed that his agency impounded 9,370 vehicles for alleged traffic violations, to ensure free vehicular movements.

He also pointed to the successful enforcement across the five divisions of Lagos as top among LASTMA’s feats.

The sustained enforcement, according to him, has seen to the clearing of the Apapa Port and other heavily congested routes in the state.

“Apart from the Apapa corridor and even Iyana-Ipaja, we were on the island. We entered Idumota, Apongbon, CMS and other areas, and we cleared the stretch of Lekki-Ajah axis.

“We were able to achieve certain levels of sanity around the axis. Cumulatively, we have been able to touch the five divisions in Lagos in terms of enforcement, and this is continuous,” Bakare-Oki said.

At 24 years, LASTMA has come of age, and is putting everything in place to improve traffic, hence the deployment of modern traffic equipment, over 2000 across the state, the boss insisted.

The LASTMA boss is also stepping up inter-agency collaborations with the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police, and other relevant agencies to ensure free vehicular movements on Lagos roads.

To ensure that officers of the traffic management agency are in tune with modern traffic management practices, LASTMA has trained over 2000 staff members, according to the boss.

“In the last six months, it has been the good, bad and ugly, but so far, we have been able to surmount many challenges especially when it comes to training and retraining drive.

“We started with external training, we had collaboration with the training department of the Nigerian Police, Lagos Command, and we were able to train over 900.

“We equally collaborated with our three consultants on leadership skills, emotional intelligence, customer care and incidents management.

“We are doing all these so that we can improve on service delivery to Lagos residents,” Bakare-Oki noted.

But one big hurdle is how to regain public confidence and to do that, Bakare-Oki said, “We equally want to rebuild LASTMA, rebuild public confidence in LASTMA especially in the area of public relations.”

Part of efforts at rebuilding public confidence is the establishment of the 24-hour toll-free customer service centre, which aims at enhancing the operations of the traffic management agency.

According to Sola Giwa, Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, who opened the customer service centre at LASTMA headquarters in Oshodi, motorists can contact the call centre via toll-free hotlines to report incidents, request assistance, or seek information on road conditions, including updates on the activities of LASTMA personnel.

“When you see something, say something,” he said, while urging the motorists and the public to take advantage of the whistleblower app to report dangerous driving and other reckless behaviours on the road.

The above, he assured, would enable LASTMA to take immediate action and uphold traffic regulations.

But motorists are still doubtful of the innovations, especially the whistleblower app, as some reported cases of extortion and bad behavior of some officials of the agency seemed to be swept under the carpet.

“I saw on Lagos television when LASTMA boss was rewarding some of his officers. I heard that about N16.5 million were given out as financial assistance to officers who were injured in the line of duty, what about those we reported to them for extortion?” Demola Amodu, queried.

According to the Lagos Civil Service retiree, the best way to regain public confidence is by exposing the bad eggs and prosecuting them for others to learn from it.

“I often sight some unscrupulous officers among them from my flat window at Jakande Estate Mile 2, sharing money extorted from motorists. This has to stop because the quest to make money is overshadowing the reason for their job, which is to help decongest traffic, to point motorists to safety and not intentionally allow them to drive into trouble and then ask for settlement,” he said.

Many motorists also complain that as the price of everything has increased, so also the unofficial fines charged by some unscrupulous LASTMA officials, who are alleged to be under pressure to service their daily contribution scheme.

Uchechukwu Ofodile, a motorist, is of the view that if government deploys modern traffic equipment on Lagos roads, there would be less altercations between LASTMA officials and motorists as the computer-generated query serves the purpose better and penalty fine paid by defaulters goes to the government rather than private pockets.

“Imagine one telling me to transfer money and the account number he gave me does not bear his name. I insisted on his real account number and he refused and took me to their Cele bus stop office. I gladly paid the N20,000 fine for breaking traffic law to the government rather than paying the N10,000 he demanded into an unknown account. It is sad and they will not change because nobody listened to my story when I reported the extortion part of it at their office,” Ofodile said.

To curb extortions, Amodu, who follows media reports, noted that LASTMA should make public the actions taken on extortion allegations levelled against its officers to gain public confidence and curb the menace.

“I followed a Punch Newspaper report in November 2022 of allegation of extortion levelled against three officials of LASTMA. All we heard was that a seven-man panel had been set up to investigate the allegation. But nobody told us what the panel concluded on. Some officials will tell you that the case will not go beyond Oshodi and you see them on the road again.

“A focused LASTMA will bring sanity on our roads, more money into government coffers, save its officials from untimely death, and better name for themselves, but it seems that nobody wants good name nowadays,” he decried further.

In a seeming defence, Denis Orukpe, a commercial lawyer, noted that the politicians, civil service, police and also LASTMA are products of the corrupt Nigerian society and you don’t expect them to behave otherwise.

“Since its inception, I am not sure there is a LASTMA boss who has lasted up to three years in office. The high level of turnover of the general managers is alarming and I think that it points to the corruption in the system.

“If you are given a target for being on the road and see your boss living large, you will want to corner little money into your pocket too.

“Also, if you don’t pay them well, they will look for ways to augment their poor salary. Government is aware, but often looks the other way, while the officials look into motorists’ pockets, including all security agencies who are not paid well,” Orukpe said.

The lawyer also argued that Lagos motorists hardly obey traffic rules, considering the frequent altercations between them and LASTMA officials.

He also frowned that whenever there is enforcement of traffic laws or new laws, there is always public outcry, which has made enforcement difficult in Lagos.

“Yes, there are some bad eggs in the traffic management agency, but if motorists can obey simple traffic laws, they will not fall prey to these bad eggs. “The traffic laws are there and downloadable, but most motorists don’t care, some are even the ones inducing the officials to collect bribe because they are in a haste or are aware of the gravity of the law they violated,” he concluded.

Looking ahead and for better vehicular movements, the LASTMA boss has advised the motoring public to obey all traffic rules and regulations and respect traffic managers.

But some pundits think that it is a two-way thing, as the public is also advising LASTMA to respect the rights of motorists, be civil with them and no extortion going forward.