‘I Knew That Coming To Lagos As Sector Commander Wouldn’t Be Easy’

BY CAMI EZENWA, LIZZY AZUBUIKE & MARY OMOKHAGBOR

To say that the Lagos Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Olusegun Ogungbemide, is an interviewer’s delight is to state the obvious.

Aside an impressive presence of mind, and firm grips with trends in his field, his agreeing to grant this interview, within a relatively short notice, could only have been a demonstration of the passion he has for the job, one; moreso, the obvious regard he has for the media.

Neat and alluring in his well trimmed official garb, the Corps Commander promptly cleared his table to concentrate on the interview session, providing as many highlights and clarifications as were necessary

Could you please sir, provide our readers, an overview of your journey thus at the FRSC, which to state the obvious, remains instructive ?

I started like any other junior officer. I rose through the ranks beginning as Assistant Route Commander. I passed through so many rudiments of the job, moving from one  post to the other; from one rank to the other to where we are today as Sector Commander.

I took up the mantle of leadership on the 11^th of June 2020, leaving Ondo State as Head of Operations. Immediately after my promotion, I got posted to Lagos, which is very rare, because when you are newly promoted, it is expected that, even when you would be given the opportunity to becoming a commanding officer, it would not be a flashy state like Lagos.

Given antecedents, I regard it as a favour,  that the Corps Marshal deemed it necessary to post me to Lagos.

Coming to Lagos, I know it will be enormous when it comes to job responsibility, coupled with the fact that that would be my fourth time here.

We would appreciate more backgrounds relating to that first coming to Lagos?

My first taste of Lagos was in 2007, when I was posted from Akwa Ibom to become the Head of Operations at Badagry. I was there for  a year and two months before  I moved to  Lagos island for four years as a Unit Commander. from there, I became the Zonal Public Enlightenment Officer in charge of Lagos and Ogun states. There were other movements here and there, and then back to Lagos.

What were the peculiar experiences you met upon retraining to Lagos which you left earlier, but this time on a commanding position.

I know Lagos is a very dynamic state. What I left was different from what I met. When you look at the volume of vehicles that was there when I left, it was now more than hundred percent upon my return.

And the man I took over from, did so well having spent six years here. So, you can imagine the size of shoe that I was coming to wear.I prayed, that God should give me the feet to fit in.

Not quite a week after, what really announced my arrival, was the Kara bridge fire incident, where about three tankers laden with fuel, one with gas got involved in a crash which resulted in an inferno.

We were on that road for 12 hours, from 12 midnight to 12 midday. That incident gave me an inkling what I was coming to Lagos to meet.

That same week, the first place I visited was the Otedola bridge, because prior to my coming to Lagos, it was all over the news, the incident that happened there that close to 90 people were killed. I felt the responsibility on us, was:  What is wring with this part of the road.

I got there, did my assessment; and was able to do some interviews.

 We had collaboration with the Ministry of Works, Lagos and Federal , and the company working on that terrain. And I was able to understand that the problem was not witches from my village as the impression created in some quarters.

-FRSC Sector Commander 1-

I found out too, that the problem was not  really the road. You will agree with me that when you travel to some parts of the country, when you are climbing a hill, you will not see the other side, but Otedola bridge is not like that. From the filling station, you can see the other side of the road. It is an indication that it is not too steep, it is not too deep; it is just a normal road. I did the assessment: where do we normally have these crashes?  The crashes occur outward Lagos not inward. So why do we have it inward, not outward?

Inward, empty. The tankers are empty so they have the capacity to pull through. Going, they are already loaded, most times, overloaded. And the engine capacity might find it difficult to cope, coupled with the  bad vehicles that  are not well maintained, and bad drivers that are not well trained.

Having done that, Io had t start with advocacy.

We thought that solving the problem of road safety is not just about the enforcement agencies. Enforcement can only take about 15 per cent when it comes to curbing the problems. It is a problem that has to be solved by all stakeholders, the government, the road  users, the various transport unions, the enforcement agencies, construction agencies, Nigeria Customs, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), just name it.

When you look at it, there are roads today that are not safety-friendly – unnecessarily narrow, so many twining points …..when it could be straight.

From the vehicle angel, you see a vehicle that had already spent its time, more than 30 years being brought into the country.

Having done such detailed analysis, and made some reasonable conclusions, what followed, and how has it helped

I was able to exchange my analysis and we did comparative study – looking at it, we realised that some establishments that came in the last four, five years, had  more than 1, 000 vehicles in their fleet and have not been involved in accidents, compared to accidents involving independent vehicle owners. So, why do we have crashes involving these ones that are independent? We weighed it: the first category came into the country with new cars; the second category brought in mainly fairly used vehicles.

Those in the first category  train their drivers every year. You can imagine training 1, 000 drivers in batches that keep us occupied from January to December, and as they are finishing this year, they are rolling in another set.

-FRSC Sector Commander 2-

In the second category, it is all-comers affairs. The driver could say he is tired, and that the motor boy should take over the steering and so on. So, for the two categories, you have proficiency versus lack of proficiency.

This one has a standard workshop for maintenance. But the other one, would rather use the  money to drink beer than to use it to fix the bulb. His conclusion is that nothing would  happen, but definitely, given such a scenario, there would be crashes.

Linking these explanations to the Otedola incident, what did you arrive at?

My own stand then was: if it is Otedola bridge that was the problem, how come this one that has all the qualities that I mentioned never had a crash, for four years running?

We found that the bulk of the vehicles involved in these crashes are vehicles that have spent more than 30 years. So, until we stop bringing in these vehicles that have spent up to 30 years, there would be crashes.

In terms of the mandate I have been implementing as the sector commander, I came with the intention of complying with the FRSC vision that says:

1. to eradicate road traffic crashes and create a safe motoring environment for Nigeria. And the mission to achieving this vision is very simple: to sustain public education. To enhance motor vehicle administration.

To make effective, our stakeholders approach to safety on our roads.

Ii. To do prompt rescue, because we have got to the point where under 15 minutes that  a crash would occur we would be there; We have been proven beyond that in the sense that all artisans you see along the corridor are operating for FRSC. That vulcaniser, that woman selling tomato by the road side, were brought here one time and taught on rudiments of first aid application.

For me to take off from this office and arrive the accident spot, may take 15 minutes, but for them, five minutes they are there, while we are coming. We call them first responders, and that is why I say we have made tremendous improvement.

-FRSC Sector Commander 3 –

Was it always like that, or this came as part of innovations of this dispensation which you head?

The training of the first responders was my initiative; before now, the role they were playing was more, that of informers. But when I came in, we now trained and equipped them to do more. This is in the sense that they were given some accessories to administer to the victims, and this enhanced our rescue operations.

Still in the line of collaboration, what are you doing with other bodies or agencies in improving your effectiveness?

We have a good working relationship with all other relevant agencies. Some people have even said we have overlapping responsibilities  – FRSC, Vehicle inspection officers (VIOs) and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), and I usually respond with a local slang.: whether I was the one that killed the snake, or the VIO that killed it, the most important thing is that the snake is dead.

Look at the road network, look at the number of people in Lagos and we have gridlocks. Even, all the agencies put  together, we have not been able to solve the problem of gridlock in Lagos, so, we can never be too many. If, for example, you line all of us up, we cannot solve the problem of over speeding.

-FRSC Sector Commander 4-

So, we have been able to summarise the challenges with effective patrol operations. No matter the public enlightenment that we do, if it is not supported with enforcement, people will just see it as entertainment.

We were having series of problems involving trucks and containerised trucks and tankers. If you remember when a truck fell on a vehicle along Apapa Road, it was about the time I came to Lagos and it generated a lot of sympathy. So, we had to invigorate the special patron that was launched in 2016 – Operation Scorpion, as an intervention to solving that problem. That is why we insist that all containers must be duly latched, in line with the national  road traffic regulation.

We came out with enforcement and public enlightenment.

 Along the Lagos Ibadan corridor, we arrested more than 800 vehicles, during a two-week special operation that took place late last year. And we continued it in Lagos with mobile courts. More than 40 trucks that failed to latch their containers were presented to the magistrate. I am not talking about those arrested for other offences.

On the average in Lagos, we make about 300 arrests daily. We have 14 units and six outposts and these arrest an average of 300 offenders on daily basis.  This is aside what LASTMA is doing and what VIO is doing.,  for you to know that we have natural, recalcitrant defiant drivers.

For many of them, it is a game of cards: “If I am lucky, they won’t get me today…”

A man told me one time when arrested for overloading that he was not going to stop overloading because the day they don’t arrest him, he would use the money to cover for the day he is arrested.

We also got to know that the reason why they were not latching these containers was because, when the container falls, they do not fall along with it. The containers are ensured but they are not ensured. So, they would rather allow the container to fall, whoever it would fall on, as long as they are safe. 

These days, you realise that we still have containers falling everyday, but no more fatalities. Why, because it is twist-locked, so, when it falls, it is held to the body of the truck  rather than being thrown to other vehicles; so that is why fatalities have reduced.

-FRSC Sector Commander 5 –

Are you working in view of any targets in terms of containing these road traffic crashes?

In line with the UN .development action, we are expected to reduce fatalities by 50%.  And our strategy goal number one this year, is to reduce road traffic accidents by 50% and fatality-inclined crashes by 20%.

 that is what made us move from traditional means of reducing road traffic crashes to safe system approach. Safe system approach  means, crashes will occur, but lives must not be lost. That is why you hear of crashes these days, but no lives are loss, even in the western world.

In Sweden for example, you can record only 7  crashes per day, but in Nigeria ours, is tending towards 150 crashes.  So, the question is: how are they doing it that we are not doing it here?

-FRSC Sector Commander 6-

Our number three strategic goal is collaboration with our stakeholders. We can not do it alone, so we collaborate with other agencies and stakeholders. For example, rather than running after tankers and creating more hazards, we go and meet them where they are loading. And there, if you do not meet up to minimum safety standard, you cannot load .

Is it not better for me, than to be pursuing a tanker loaded with 45,00 litres of fuel

We became wiser and proactive, deciding to go meet them where they load.

On this, we had to collaborate with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); we had to collaborate with the National Union of Petroleum and Energy Gas Workers (NUPENG) and all the tank farms , that when the tankers do not meet up with the minimum safety standards, that they should not load them.

You talked about minimum safety standards for vehicles, by way of elaboration, what are these Minimum Safety Standards?

They include your lighting system,  wipers, tyres; okay, we are in the rainy season. You won’t deny that you have seen commercial vehicle drivers using towels to wipe their windscreen, even private vehicles.  

It is for these reasons that we said, let us collaborate with other agencies so that we can get it right.

The final one is that all the products of the FRSC are put in place to checkmate road traffic crashes are to be enhanced.  And that is no 4 strategy.

We have safety road  policy, driving school standardisation scheme, to build the integrity of our drivers license. That is before you can get our driver’s license, you must attend the driving school. Now we have introduced computer based test that when you get to the 25^th of your syllabus, you go for test to know whether what you are taught is still there. We have the road safety club concept where we try to get them while they are young; we have our National Road Safety strategy. It is a midterm approach to solving the problem of road safety in Nigeria; the vice president is the chairman

-FRSC Sector Commander 7-

It is huge, it is continuous, we might not be there yet, but when you look at where we are coming from; from the days of three quarters of Daily Times recording obituary, to where we are now, you will agree that we have made a lot of progress.

What would you consider as the most challenging aspect of your job as Sector Commander in Lagos?

The most challenging aspect of the job is human conduct. I don’t have problems with the road.. because the government is doing roads allover. And why I say I don’t have problem with the road is the road cannot use itself.

I was travelling one day to Ibadan, and when I got to Sagamu and I met a crash, I waited, assisted in clearing the crash. As a I was about leaving, a voice came from nowhere, saying, ‘officer, I have a complaint to make’. I looked round and didn’t see anybody. I wanted to enter my car, the voice spoke again: ‘officer, I said I have a complaint to make’. By the time I looked back, I noticed that the voice was coming from the road.

It said, help me ask the man that got involved in the crash,  how come he did not drive the way others that did not get involved in the crash, did?. People have been driving on that road till 3pm, how come they did not get involved in a crash? ‘

It is not about the road, it is not about the vehicle, it is about the handler. We have terrible drivers in Nigeria. And it is not about not knowing what road signs are; it is about conduct and morals. When People say you have not given enough advocacy, I ask, do I need to tell you that it is wrong to go against the traffic?

-FRSC Sector Commander 8 –

As a toddler, they taught me then that  when I get to the traffic light,  . red means stop, but somebody will get to the read light and beat it. I know we have other people who see road signs as decorations, to them, Sanwo-olu is beautifying Lagos. When they see narrow bridge ahead, they say: wao, this sign is fine, and enter that bridge with speed, not knowing that it is telling them there is a narrow bridge, slow down.

So, the major challenge I have in Lagos is human conduct. It is the humans that create the traffic; it is humans that make calls while driving , all strata, both, low, middle, high class. And there is nothing that distracts drivers as making calls while driving.

It is a human that puts the vehicle with terrible emission on the road, that is killing us gradually, and we think we are having fun in Lagos.   It is a human that sees a little traffic ahead and starts shunting left and right, blocks the entire intersection that  nobody would be able to go again. It is human that the law says use seat belt, and he says, ‘why should I stain my clothes?’. It is a human that drives truck without light –  I am not talking of the bulb; I am talking of the lighting casing not being  there – , and he would drive it into the night. It is human that drives vehicles round Lagos without number plate, so that when he hits somebody and runs, nobody would trace him.

It is human that when the law says do not go more than 100 kilometres per hour,  that decides to go 130/140 because the road is smooth.

If the road is bad, people complain it is spoiling our cars. On the other hand, the government does the road, and we are killing ourselves. So, what are e talking about.

-FRSC Sector Commander 9 –

So, when you look at it, in Lagos, my headache is not the road, it is not the vehicle.

We remove obstructions on monthly basis; it is a human that when the vehicle gets fault, a vehicle that when you beckon on somebody, they could help you push to the side, but they would wait there waiting for the mechanic to come, and others could go to hell.

So, it is all about morals. 80 per cent of our problems is morals, impunity.

The question is, why are drivers so recalcitrant in Lagos; could it be that the level of sanctions is low, such that they could pay easily, and do not bother?

If you say, FRSC sanctions are low, are LASTMA sanctions low, are Lagos State government sanctions low? I ask, because there is an offence we book N5,000 as penalty, but Lagos’ sanction (on the same offence) is N200, 000.

The political will is there, but people will always want to test the water of insanity,

-FRSC Sector Commander 10 –

What is the level of collaboration between FRSC and other sister agencies? We ask this question because overlaps in function could lead to friction?

The first statement I made when I resumed on the job, was that I did not come to Lagos to do competition; I came to Lagos to complement the state. And I am so lucky the Number One agenda of Mr Governor, is traffic management

So, if I have a governor that believes in the reason why I came to Lagos, what am I supposed to to? It is to work with the agencies, work with  the Vehicle Inspection Officers and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to achieve that, and the FRSC has been working with them to checkmating rickety vehicles on the road. Remember the recent partial closure of The Third Mainland bridge for 7  month; I was there with LASTMA. I have been working with LASTMA on Apapa corridor for the past three years now, and for this, we had to set up a task force. So, I have a smooth working relationship with them. The last time an incident happened, that a gas vehicle got exploded at Sheraton,  we had a joint press conference. so, it has been a good working relationship.

Certainly, training is key in the work that you do; what is your approach to it: do you do training on rolling basis or how?

We have training from inception that is taken at the academy when you are recruited. And we have capacity building – training on the job.

When coming in, you have an average of six months training before you are eventually graduated and become a staff. Then, on regular basis, we have training. There was a time I even invited one professional to deliver training on communication, since the way you speak as an FRSC operative, could either bring sword or cola. Imagine for example, you stop a man driving and he says, ‘look at my wife, she is in labour’, and you say, what’s my business’, you have not answered well.

-FRSC Sector Commander 11 –

Or you stop a colonel, and he tries to say , I am so and so, and you say, so what? That one can bring the sword. You can still stop anyone, with decency, even make somebody to pay appropriate fine for a traffic offence with joy:  for example, “Sir you have just committed an offence Sir. Are you a driver; may I have your driver’s license?

In my days on the road, people used to go to the bank to pay with smiles.  It’s all about courtesy, and the lack of it is another major problem we have in Lagos. Every body wants to claim right of road, meanwhile, nobody owns that right of road.

Basic traffic rule says that  when you get to a roundabout, the road belongs to the person on the left. But you discover that this man from the right ,would be there claiming right. It is especially the case with woman; they put sentiments. In fact, they turn their face away. Those are the things we see. All the same, Lagos has been a wonderful place, with wonderful people, wonderful government. You see that the entire Lagos is a project field because of the passion of Mr governor.

And when people complain, I do observe, that for me to turn an object into a beautiful cup, I must first create some inconvenience for it, that is what we are passing through in Lagos.

Look at the Lagos ibadan express: before Ibadan to Ogere became good, you remember what we suffered. So many people lost their lives, but today, all of us are enjoying the road.

We are suffering from shagamu to Lagos now, but one day, the transition of Ogere to Ibadan will come on,though it will bring a different kind of challenge again – over-speeding.

Permit us to take this little digression: we have noticed that your men come out neat in their dressing; many people have also made same observation, and we would like to ask; Is it about the Sector Commander or has it to do with the kind of training that they receive?

Part of the training of the FRSC is that we should be very neat, that our turnout must be impressive. We do the dirty job but you are expected to remain clean. The first evidence of your cleanliness is your inner wear. If my inner wear is brown I should know that I am dirty. And it also goes along with the leadership too. I do tell my men, if I look the way I do, how do you think you should look? The truth of the matter is that it is part of our training, but we still have those, that can wear their clothes like for  one week and do not care. . You can’t be on the road when you are not neat. Except you sneak in, if i am going out and I notice that you are not clean, I send you out of that patrol vehicle. It is because the FRSC operative is the first image maker of the FRSC, not me.

If you did not come here, you wouldn’t see me, but on daily basis you see my men on the road.  So consciously, our men invest a lot in their inner wears. In fact, as you are talking to me, you are more attracted to this white than me, because it is clear.

-FRSC Sector Commander 12 –

So, our turnout is always like that, because we believe it is not just about Nigeria. That is why, I did not like the battle on the social media against uniformed organisations. I spent about three months fighting it. If you recall, I featured on some television programmes where I had to talk about it. I let it be known that,  (by castigating any uniform organisation) you are not destroying that organistion, you are destroying your country. People call from abroad when they see any negative thing about FRSC and they ask the question: why.

If a foreigner is coming into a country and he sees an organisation you have painted brutal, he gets apprehensive. IF it s FRSC, the first thing he sees about the commission is wickedness because of social media portrayal.

I have said, we don’t do administration on social media. If you have a complaint and you put it on social media, I won’t solve your problem. We have line and process of administration – write to me. We have system of investigating our men. With every sincerity, we don’t cover evil here.

People are usually driven by certain policies, that enable them do what they do, or see things in the perspective they do; what is you philosophy of life?

My philosophy of life is that everybody must be happy I told my staff when I first arrived here, that the best gift I have for staff is for them to wake up in the morning and they are happy coming to work. I hate people that create unnecessary tension  I hate people that make others feel less of their own values or integrity; I hate people that derive pleasure in seeing others in pain. I remember what Queen

Sheba in the Bible told Solomon: blessed are those that take this wisdom under you, because they are honoured under you. That is the kind of legacy I want people to talk about me. My staff are happy people.

-FRSC Sector Commander 13 –

You can still get what you want from people without necessarily being hard on them.

So summarily, be happy and make others happy, in every aspect of my life, that is what I do, that is what I believe in..

So, if I see a leader that creates pains for others, I hate them, with a passion. It is not about saying it, I have tasted leadership, and I have realised that you can get the best from your staff when they are happy.

.One of the issues that people would naturally expect us to ask about, is the drivers license; what are the clarifications and update on it.?

The issue of issuance of drivers license is a tripartite process, involving the FRSC, VIS and Motor Vehicle Administration. FRSC does not give license to people, rather, it is state governments that are clients to the FRSC.  That is, our customers are state governments not members of the public. So we do license and hand over to the government but because of our image, everybody tends to call FRSC. The process is simple.

Please, throw more light on this process you describe as simple

You remember, in those days, it was pamphlets, passports. Get your passport and send to Miss So and So, who picks up the passport and it does not matter whether or not the owner has legs or not, Miss So issues driver licence to you.

There was a governor that boasted one time, that he could get license for a blind person, and I tried it out and it happened. Nobody tested anybody. It was that bad, so we came and began an evolution. We started from somewhere to where we are now with the help of technology. We enhanced the Driving School under the Driving school standardisation scheme.

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We have driving schools that are qualified, that have been tested to meet up the standard  Now, Computer  Based Test (CBT) has been introduced. When you pass that, you go for the proficiency test. Our own is like a mock exam before JAMB (Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board), and then you go to VIS for proficiency test; if you pass, you go to make your payment.

After the payment, you come to FRSC we capture your data. We don’t even have much contact per see than to capture you.and that is strictly for security purposes, but people shout our name more, meanwhile, we are the last in the line.

-FRSC Sector Commander 14 –

At the time you are processing your license, we do not have any commission of  crime in mind but your data and bio-metrics are taken. The day crime is committed however, it is easier to get your details. So when you are through with that, immediately, you get your temporary driver’s license. And within two weeks, your original comes out.  You have licenses of three years expiry, and you have five years.