Lagos Commissioner For Transport, Kayode Opeifa On Next Political Ambition & Allegations Against His Ministry

Mr Kayode Opeifa, the Lagos state commissioner for Transport talks about his next political move and challenges of his office.

Que: 2015 is around the corner, what are looking at? Contesting like you did in 2007?

Ans: My plan is what God plans for me. However, I am an organizational person. I am not in APC by accident. I came into Action Congress when I came back into the country between 2005/2006. My intention was to run for the House of Representative. I had the party ticket, but someone paid to have my name changed not the party. In fact, my case would have been like that of Amaechi who didn’t contest for the main election but was chosen by the court. I would also have won if I took my case to the court. So it’s not about you in a progressive democratic party like ours, it’s about the structure and the organization.

The organization must agree on the minimum criteria….so you can be the best candidate, but if your organization says you are not the one they want, you should just sit down. i.e. by your own standard you are the best but for the organization’s interest you may not be the best.

Based on that, I am commissioner today. I was Special Adviser before and of course in 2011, I wanted to go back to the House of Representatives. In fact, I had all the opportunity but I was prevailed upon. I was told I am needed in Lagos and I didn’t argue it for one second.

The organization had discussed and this is where they wanted me. So as long as you are in a progressive organizational setting and not in a republican setting, your ambition must be subjected to the collective interest of the group and that group will decide for you.

So my ambition is what the progressive democratic movement wants me for.

You must not forget that it is not ambition that drives election in the progressive democratic movement; it is the collective interest of the people that decides.

I am qualified to be a House of Representative member representing Agege Federal Constituency. I am qualified to be Senator Lagos west, I am qualified to be Governor and I am qualified to be President of Nigeria, but if the caucus says this is where we think you are best, then you should just stick by that.

But I know the God that I serve who knows what is good for David, knows what is good for me.

You see, one of the problems we face in Nigeria is that people die for positions. If God does not choose you, you are just a joker. If it is the wish of God that I should become XYZ , then let it be. I want to be in God’s purpose for my life so that I can be fulfilled, not pursue the lust of this world. I don’t want anything God has not proposed for me.

Que: You said in a recent interview you don’t have any challenges, can expantiate a bit on that?

Ans: What I meant is that When I see challenges, I see opportunities. If you think about challenges, you won’t do anything.

Que: You actually gave a one liner response

Ans: what I was trying to say was like for example, if the heavens are coming down, it an opportunity for you to erect a pillar that will support the heavens {smiles}.

Today, several states call us to come and help them create their own traffic management authority. We have assisted so many states like Rivers, Kano, Osun, Ekiti, Edo, Kwara and others. If we had not seen the chaotic transport mess in Lagos as an opportunity to make things right, we wouldn’t have been the trail-blazer in that sector of the economy.

Que: One of the major challenges of your ministry is perception, some believe one of the major tools of your operations, Road Signs are not enough and most road users suffer arrest by your agent based on this development?

Ans: Be rest assure that the allegations are untrue. We have installed over 20,000 signboards in Lagos state. But it got to a time Danfo drivers and Okada people started removing them.

Most of the time, people expect to see the sign at the point where they are arrested, but you only see it at the entrance of such roads. For example, the road where intercontinental hotel is located in Victoria Island is now a one way road, we were there over the weekend and my colleagues were saying they didn’t know. When you are coming out of the hotel, you now face one way, but before getting to the hotel, you would have seen that it is a one way road from the beginning.

83% of the complaints we get are illegitimate, 10% are military and 7% is genuine. We have GPS positioning for all our signage, just as we have for our traffic lights. LASTMA don’t come from nowhere, they are always on the road to do their jobs. Go and google about traffic wardens, they are the most hated all over the world because they arrest you for the most mundane offense.

However, if you want to know when a city is in order, go and look at their transport system. A city where people obey traffic rules is an orderly city. The difference between Ghana and Nigeria is the fact that they obey traffic rules. They don’t park and pick passengers anyhow. In fact, when we were growing up in Lagos, there was orderliness; no transporter would even stop for you. During the Buhari/Idiagbon regime, we dare not throw dirt away in public; people keep it in their pockets. If you go to Obalende now, after the remodeling, people now queue for taxis.

If you go to Oshodi when it was chaotic and now, the difference is people queuing. The difference between the two transport systems is people’s behavior. They were trading on the transport route, we removed the traders and the drivers behaved. We kept their buses behind the drainage and till now, they have not come back.

You need to understand that I know what I am talking about, in fact, let me shock you, to confirm things for myself, I take public transport from time to time. I take Danfo, BRT, Molue and the likes. So I laugh at them when they talk as if I sit down in this office and don’t know what is happening on the streets.

The day I took BRT, I didn’t know they knew who I was. The one that frightened me the most was when I took one BRT almost two years ago. I also took one 4 weeks ago. I took Danfo eight weeks ago and I took Molue 8 months ago but I don’t really like that mode of transportation.

Que, Trips on on the state public mass transit system, BRT- how often do you make and how was the experience?

Ans: I do it once in a while, to keep the drivers in check…but a particular one usually comes to mind it happened on top of a bridge. The BRT driver was dragging the road with a trailer and everyone shouted Jesus. My brother, I also shouted. I didn’t even know when I shouted. Somebody then said ‘Olorun ti mu e, Commissioner wa ninu moto’ meaning you have been caught, the commissioner is in the bus…that was how others got to know I was in the BRT with them.

The advantage of such an experience is that it provides first hand knowledge of what is happening in the real world and enables us to come up improved strategies at making our people better service providers.

Que: Your road offenders apprehension units, how do you rate them? Based on targets as speculated in some quarters?

Ans: We used to chose the best units, personell and all that before…but we don’t again..we reward base on performance. Behaviour, attitude to work and etiquettes and approach to discharge to duty…For the last appraisal we did, we checked where there were less complaints and also asked all the units and officers to vote the best amongst themselves. We look for someone or unit that does something outstanding..those are the criteria.

We are given targets by the state as well like others, because our revenues are part of the budget projections of the state, but target doesnot determine the best agency or officer here.

Que: How do you handle cases of extortion against your officers?

Ans: What people call extortion is not extortion. Officials are only carrying out their duty, it is the law. They say our fines are exorbitant and that we are using it to generate revenue. In fact, let me tell you, when we started enforcing the new traffic law, the revenue dropped for the first 8 months, but it later picked up again. I can also tell you that our fines are exactly the same with that of Federal Road Safety Commission.

All the fines are legitimate and are constitutionally backed way of generating funds for the state government’s activities. So it’s not extortion, it is the law.

But if some insist on allegations of corruption we encourage them to come forward and investigate it. And ofcourse offenders are dealt with.

Que: Do you ever waive fines?

Ans: Sometimes we wave fines when arrest is wrong or on a compassionate ground. Sometimes it happens that as a private person you get into places you are not conversant with. In fact, it has happened to me once. I got into this road around Ijora and found out I was the only one on the side of the road. I had to pause quickly and called one of my colleagues who told me it was a one way and I turned back immediately. Thank God there was no LASTMA official on the road at that time to arrest me.

Que: You said when you started enforcing the traffic law, there was a drop in LASTMA revenue, how is that?

Ans: Well, there was high level of compliance for the first 8 months.

Que: Is there a possibility recent review of the traffic laws lead to reduction in punishment?

Ans: We did a review of the traffic law because it was up to two years we promulgated it. We are meant to review the law every two years. So it is not the case that we want to rescind it or lessen stipulations…the laws are meant to stay.

Que: Traffic laws and commercial drivers literacy level, what strategies would you say has really helped them imbibe state transport policy?

Ans: First of all, I don’t know how many drivers are literate. {points to a man on TV}, you see that man, he heads the Okada riders association in Lagos state, he is a graduate, but because of the way they choose to live, they behave as if they are not. But I can tell you a lot of them are graduates. Also, secondary school certificate holders cannot be said to be illiterates simply because they choose to work the way they do.

Now having said that, understand that outside the country, they hardly use drivers. If I am in the US today, I will drive myself. There is orderliness over there, but we employ drivers here. We employ from the same group of people, ie a pool of secondary school dropouts or primary school graduates.

You have a lot of people driving due to social economic reasons; those who are deliberate are few, so you cannot really call all those you see drivers.

Now, to make sure they understand our transport policy and what professional driving is all about, we decided to create the Lagos State Drivers institute. As I am talking with you, the institute has graduated over 200,000 drivers in Lagos.

Que: You mentioned proclaim your next move being in the hand of God and dictates of your party, what is you take on people decamping from one political party to the other?

Ans: You can’t be a serious person by decamping from one party to the other. If you think you have been cheated in a party, resign and go and sit in your house, don’t go to another party. Decamping means you have no principle and ideology. People like us remain loyal to party principles regardless of our disagreements. You can’t agree with all party positions, but you just have to abide and don’t complaint.

Whatever the party decides, God in his wisdom will guide the party.

If you saw me in 2011, I overworked to make sure my party emerges; I overspent and printed t-shirts, even when it was clear my name had been removed. I went to everywheres, telling my people, the party must win.