New Lagos traffic law takes immediate effect - Fashola

Lagos traffic

Contrary to the general view that the enforcement of the Lagos traffic law recently signed by Governor Babatunde Fashola is deferred pending public enlightenment, the law is already in force  and an offender risks the sanctions as prescribed therein. 
Governor Fashola who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay in his office on Thursday, said the law became operational the moment it was signed, as it is no suspended law.  The law which seeks to regulate and sanitise the chaotic public transportation system in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, was assented to by the governor on August 2, 2012.

Some aspects of the law include the criminalisation of eating and making or receiving phone calls while on wheel, driving against traffic flow (one-way) and the barring of motorcycles from dual carriageways in Lagos.  The new law prescribes a jail term of three years and fines ranging between N20,000 and N30,000 for offenders.    Some officials of the state government, a day after the law was signed had said that the enforcement would not begin until the general public was fully sensitised, to avoid claims of ignorance.

But speaking to BusinessDay, Fashola said “Once a law has been signed without a deferred commencement day, it becomes the law. If you’re apprehended violating it, you will get the appropriate sanctions that the law prescribes immediately. There is no suspended law. The law is in force.” The governor explained however, that the commitment and focus of the state government in the meantime, was not on arrest of offenders, but to educate the people about their rights and liabilities with regard to the new law, as well as provide enough signages and information.

“What we’re concerned about is not how many people we catch; it’s how many people we convert into compliance by the strength and the advocacy for the values of compliance. And that’s what we want to focus on in the short term. In the medium term, some increased enforcement and in the long term, total, uncompromising zero-tolerance. By that time, we would have more people voluntarily complying; you’ll see that it’s the same thing as our environmental laws. We spent a lot of time advocating, although that did not mean it was not a crime to dump rubbish in the drain. It did not mean it was not an offence to build on the drainage. We just spent some time on advocacy on the danger of flooding. That’s what we’re going to do again. That’s the government we are, communicating with our people,” Fashola said.

He also debunked the insinuation that revenue generation was at the heart of his administration in fashioning out the law, saying rather, that it was meant to address disorderliness and create economic prosperity for all.
“Let me make one thing clear: No amount of fines that we get can deliver on the economic prosperity that is possible if the Lagos traffic works. So, it’s a tunnel vision approach to think that this is about revenue generation. I’ve heard some of our political opponents say that this is all about revenue; they’ve been out of government for so long they don’t even understand this is not a kobo-kobo business. It’s about general prosperity, when people can travel seamlessly from one end of the state to the other, government makes more money than when they’re locked down in traffic.

“Then, why do I want to put my citizens in jail; I don’t even have space. This is not about locking people; it’s about changing habits and changing a way of life. We’re moving on to a new plane, where a 30-minute journey is a 30-minute journey, not a five hour journey. When there’s breakdown, we already have capacity to remove it. But don’t compound difficulty by breaking the law, by driving against oncoming traffic,” he said.

The governor further explained that the law would address the increasing insecurity of the citizens and their property with the regulation of the operations of commercial motorcycles (okada) and buses, as they would now operate on specific routes assigned to them under the new regime.  BusinessDay reports that the issue of robbery with motorcycles has become a recurring  matter in major Nigerian cities, including Lagos.

“If you go to my inaugural address at my re-election, this was all I spoke about: law and order. It’s the only thing left. If we deviate from law and order, nothing will work. Nigerians have demonstrated that they can, I’ve seen that,” he said.
Fashola also unfolded plans to deepen the knowledge of the enforcers of the law, particularly officers of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) in the use of modern technology in traffic management.

According to him, there’s a lot of technology currently in use, which LASTMA officials are tapping into. He cited the example of Auto Inspector- hand-held devices which enable traffic officers track information about any car registered in Lagos and its owner.

“I’ve told LASTMA, understand your brief. Your brief is to keep Lagos traffic moving. Your brief is not necessarily to apprehend people. So if you see an offender, it does you no good to struggle for his key. Take his photograph with your camera or phone camera and give us a detailed report. We can find him. We have a device now, called auto-inspector, and I can give you the name of the owner of any vehicle registered in this state.

Now we’re already looking at how we can deploy cameras to the traffic lights that we’re putting up. So if you run a light, we’ll come and meet you at home,” the governor said.

Source:  Businessday