Ambode Is Not Slow — Ayorinde [Information Commissioner].

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Lagos State, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, tells LEKE BAIYEWU about some of the challenges facing the Lagos State Government and how Governor Akinwunmi plans to solve them

Residents of Lagos are suffering from incessant robberies while stuck in gridlock across the state. Why has nothing concrete been done ever since?
The issue of security is largely a police issue. We should know for a fact that the state is under-policed. There are 33,000 police officers to more than 21 million people in Lagos; that is grossly inadequate. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had made this known by saying it there is an inadequate number (of policemen) to properly police Lagos. Even the Police Commissioner (Mr. Fatai Owoseni) has expressed some exasperation about the inadequacy. But the Lagos State Government is not folding its arms. The government has always supported the Nigerian Police because policing is a mutual assignment and the Ambode-led administration is supporting the Police through the security trust fund. There are a number of measures in place to ensure that Lagos is properly policed.


But why the sudden increase in robberies if the government has been working?

The traffic has been bad since few weeks ago but it is improving gradually and a number of people have attested to this. It was because of the rainy season; some of the roads are bad and there are construction works and repairs on a few section of the roads – on Victoria Island, and Ketu – including the perennial problem at the (Oshodi-) Apapa Expressway because of the gridlock that has always been there. Some people are now taking advantage of that to rob people and cause mayhem.

The traffic situation is not the only reason why robbery in traffic has increased. The Commissioner of Police, about two weeks ago, said the military is pounding the north-eastern part of Nigeria and this has resulted in having a number of people finding their way to Lagos. That is also a factor. If people are running away from the North-East,you will expect that a few of those people will come with very bad intentions and the Police are doing their best to arrest the situation.

It is not just as a result of people leaving the North-East, we know for a fact that the country is experiencing tough times: 27 states had to seek bailout, many states can’t pay salaries, many companies are declaring losses and it is obvious that Lagos is about the only state that is really functioning. The exodus into Lagos in the last six months has been the highest ever in history. The Commissioner of Police had also corroborated this fact. He said every other day, no less than 10,000 people come into Lagos, with 75 per cent of these people having no intension of returning. So, there is huge pressure on Lagos and the pressure is not being felt only in the area of security, we are feeling the pressure in the area of social amenities. Hospitals are filled up; there is a huge demand for public schools. You will also know this by the number of okadas (commercial motorcycles) that have entered Lagos in the last six months.

The feeling in some quarters is that Ambode has yet to hit the ground running since he came into power over five months ago. Why is administration working at a slow pace?

The governor is not slow in any way; he is a passionate governor. You will recall that one of the first things he said when he assumed office was to respond to some of the complaints that people made to him while he was campaigning to get into the post.

What were the complaints?
Part of the complaints was that law enforcement officers, particularly LASTMA (Lagos State Traffic Management Authority), which is in charge of road management, were overbearing; that some of them were extorting money – not all; there will be a few bad eggs. The governor promised that he would look into the complaints and he did look into them, which was why, in June, he announced that he would prefer that Lagosians be treated with respect and that the government should wear a human look. He didn’t intend that it (the new approach) be abused or translated into a situation whereby people were becoming lawless.

Now, he has clarified his statement by the announcement he made today (Friday) in company with all the stakeholders in traffic management, the commercial motorcyclists’ association, taxis and commercial buses operators, the Police, the Navy, the Army, the tank farm owners – everybody was in attendance at the meeting in Alausa. The governor had read a riot act to all of them; to say ‘we can no longer continue. Yes, I will be a compassionate governor but I can only extend compassion to those who respect the law.’

Therefore, people will see changes with effect from today (Friday). He has granted a three-month grace to tank farm owners so that the gridlock in Apapa will ease. Even though it is a federal government road, the traffic is caused essentially by the huge number of trailers and trucks that come to Lagos on a daily basis to load fuel. He told the tank farm owners ‘I will give you 90 days to expand your capacity and not to issue pick-up tickets to tankers that you cannot accommodate in a day.’ He took the decision in consonance with all other stakeholders and everybody pledged that they would comply.

You cannot judge a governor just by an aspect of his responsibilities. This is a governor that has paid N11bn to pensioners. Their pensions had not been paid since 2010. A lot of people, as a result of that, are happy. Since he assumed office, he has signed 2,500 Certificates of Occupancy; it means that the owners can transact business and secure bank facilities. It improves business. This is a governor who has restructured the civil service. People will begin to see the efforts that he is making this month. If it is only in the area of security and traffic management, people will see from next week (this week), the transformation in traffic management from Ikorodu up to CMS and Victoria Island. This is a governor that has announced that he will provide additional three helicopters to assist in traffic management and particularly in reducing the incidences of robbery and criminals escaping by ferries through the waterways.

The governor is up to the task; he is doing his bit and he is only asking Lagosians to also join hands with him to ensure that the challenges are tackled together. Lagos State as at one year ago, unfortunately, is not the same Lagos that we see today because people are coming in everyday in large numbers.

Some people have asked the Lagos State Government to first account for the two helicopters earlier acquired by former Governor Babatunde Fashola during his administration before acquiring another three for the same purposes. What has happened to the first two?
The two helicopters were bought in 2009. Anybody who understands how these things work will know that it is important not to keep them for so long. The Commissioner of Police, for example, said the last gunboat that was acquired by the Police in Lagos was done in 2009 and they can’t even find the spare parts for the boats anymore. The manufacturers of the gunboats are not manufacturing such anymore. And we are in 2015, going to 2016. Even if you buy a car, after about seven to eight years, you will begin to consider changing it. What the government is trying to do is to trade in the two helicopters and use them to get two brand new ones and an additional one.

Is it a swap deal?
It is trading. Sometimes, you buy a car and if it gets to a particular time you return it to the manufacturer to get the newer version of that same type of car. That is exactly the same thing that is happening to the helicopters. We will trade the two to have three because the situation at hand is that we have more oversight function in terms of security.

The PDP, for instance, alleged that the two helicopters earlier purchased were deployed for private businesses. Why is this so?
Nothing can be farther from the truth. Those who said that have yet to wake up from the defeat they experienced (at the 2015 polls), therefore, they have yet to understand how to react to reality. There is nothing like that. The helicopters were purchased since 2009; between then and now, the situation has become dire and additional hands are required to man Lagos. How come they are now raising unfounded rumours. It is baseless, it is not correct and it is not true.

culled from PUNCH