22nd July, 2014
Kazeem Ugbodaga
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has warned officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, to stop extorting money from motorists and the Kick Against Indiscipline, KAI, officials to desist from harrassing and seizing goods belonging to traders under the guise of keeping Lagos clean. He said such acts give the state government a bad name.
Before now, officials of KAI confiscate traders’ goods and auction them while some of the officials cart home cooking items and foodstuff such as rice, beans, pepper and others which they seize from traders.
Addressing officials of LASTMA and KAI at the State Secretariat at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, Fashola told the officials to always discharge their responsibilities in a manner that the state would not be portrayed in a bad light before the public.
“Your primary responsibility is to keep Lagos clean. It is very simple because really and truly, we cannot deliver on our responsibility to save life and property if the city is dirty. Disease will thrive in a dirty environment. But keeping Lagos clean does not mean harassing market women. Keeping Lagos clean does not mean seizing their goods because they are part of this economy,” he warned KAI officials.
To LASTMA officials, he said: “Your primary responsibility is to move traffic. If you have to make a choice between moving traffic and letting an offender go, let the offender go. I don’t need him; we need to keep traffic moving because moving traffic is the economy.”
According to Fashola, LASTMA and KAI must always do their jobs with compassion and confine themselves to their primary responsibilities without digression to enable the state win the war against all forms of indiscipline and disobedience.
He also warned LASTMA officials against extorting money from drivers and commuters, saying, “there are very few people within both organizations (LASTMA and KAI), and I stress that word, a few people within both organizations who want to give you a bad name and we must move very quickly to find out those people and show them where they belong.”
The governor added that there were also people who pose as KAI and LASTMA officials with fake uniforms.
He appealed to members of the public to be vigilant and look out for people who might want to pose as KAI or LASTMA officials to dupe them with fake uniforms of any of the agencies without name tags, warning that such people were not government staff.
“We have done so much with your crests and with your name tags and I use this opportunity to appeal to members of the public to look out for those who may want to pose as KAI or LASTMA officials to dupe them with fake uniforms without name tags. They are not our staff,” he said.
Fashola also appealed to officials of the two agencies to do their jobs with compassion and the understanding, knowing full well that their salaries were being paid by those they serve, adding that with such understanding, they would be more disposed to treating members of the public with respect and compassion.
He said the issues arising at this period of elections were tied to their jobs, adding that there was need for them to fight to keep their jobs.
“We have given them to you and now it is for you to defend them. You know what the opposition thinks about our tree planting policy. We saw a hundred thousand jobs, they saw cosmetic.”
Fashola warned that “those faking your uniforms and those of your members committing fraud and spoiling the agency’s name are threatening your jobs, so you must stand up to protect what is yours. For KAI, the same thing applies. Educating people about where to keep their wares and about where to dispose of their refuse is better than seizing their goods.”
While urging the officials to continue the good work, the governor, however, reiterated that their jobs, like any other job, come with enormous responsibilities, stressing that only a government like Lagos could have provided such an enormous opportunity that puts food on the tables of thousands of people.
“In 1999, there was no KAI and there was no LASTMA here. If this state, through its progressive policies and government, has not created KAI and LASTMA, what would you have been doing?” he asked, noting that government started the programme small with the pioneer staff earning just about N10,000.”
He expressed joy that the officials were today permanent staff in the state’s Civil Service, pointing out that the process to get them into the service was a tough as government had to lobby to get a special cadre for them called “Law Enforcement Cadre,” which, according to him, was hitherto non-existent.
The governor also called on the Nigerian Police to desist from extorting money from motorcycle operators, saying the state government would not tolerate a situation where some people would capitalize on the good intentioned policies of the government to do evil and hurt Lagosians.