How has it been since you resumed office, what has been the experience? It is a worthwhile experience coming down here to see what is happening after being here earlier, there were lot of differences observed. Being that one is coming from a well experienced background- I am one of the pioneers of LASTMA in Lagos State, the atmosphere is different. By and large what I met here was nothing to celebrate, but I was able to come up with a programme that changed the mindsets of officers on ground. Before we had people that did not have passion for what they were doing. There was no clear programme. There is a conventional schedule of work for traffic management, that is, there must be no cut out period any day of the week. I had to do a sort of orientation to make them know what they are here for.

And when you look at the lawlessness as regards traffic regulation, many people do not know the rules that govern usage of motor ways including pedestrians. And like the saying ignorance of law is no excuse, that is why we are trying to give orientation to the people. We sponsor jingles on radio. There is also the market people using the road/walk way. So, before we do anything, we invite the stakeholders concerned, that is the road transport union, Okara riders union, the tricycle operators union, market men and women association, we sit down .and I tell them that we give them a period of time to adjust and that if they fail to adjust we will employ the full scale of the law to make sure they comply. I advise them to have meeting with their members so that no one will say he/she is not aware of the rules. I sometimes go to their meetings to address them or invite key members and we sit down to discuss on the way forward. So, basically, they cannot say I have come to intimidate them or that government has set the agency up to generate revenue, I keep telling people that traffic management is not about revenue generation. If you know the amount that government is expending on KWARTMA compared to what we are generating, the gap is very wide. They think because we are fining them we are generating revenue. No! By the time everybody is operating within the confines of the law, we won't have anyone to arrest. If you don't commit offence we cannot arrest you. The fact is if arrest is on the increase, then I am not doing my job because it must get to a certain level that I am impacting on the mindset of the people to obey rules and regulation that govern road usage. If I am getting that result definitely compliance will go up and disobedience will come down. If I arrest you for driving against traffic and you are penalised, the stress of going to pay at the bank for offence as many times you are caught will force you to comply. Same with Okada riders who flout the rules.

What has been the level of compliance in that regard because we see many Okada riders going about without crash helmet?

This year we have intensified on the issue of crash helmet. We had meeting with the executives and they agreed that everyone of them must wear crash helmet. They even advised that we should have crash helmets here so that anyone that is caught will be fined and forced to buy from us before leaving our office.

(Cuts in) So have you started doing that?

No we have not! We have problem of paucity of fund, but if we can get someone to supply us, give us a price and after sales come and collect money, we will start to implement it.

Recently there have been face-off between Okada riders and KWARTMA officers. What is the major cause of this and what is being done to eliminate this problem?

The major cause of this is that the Okada riders are not ready to obey the rules and regulations set out by the state government. They say the fine is exorbitant. They have a misconception about our operation. What they don't understand is that the law was set out by the state House of Assembly and signed by the executive governor. It is in that vein that alteration of manufacturers' specification attracts fine of N2,000. If you don't put on your crash helmet, the fine is N2,000 and if you drive against traffic the fine is N5,000, if you park your car or motorcycle on the walkway, it attracts the fine of N2.500 or ride on walk way, the fine is N5,000. One offence I am allergic to is 'one-way' because it is a major cause of accidents on our road that has led to loss of many lives.

To your question, the problem is basically misconception, that is when offenders are given ticket of N 1,000 or N2.000 to go and pay in the bank, they will be spreading rumour that we asked them to pay N5,000 or more and that was the genesis of the crisis at that time. And because we ask them to obtain their particulars and insurance papers; you would find out that most of them riding motorcycles would just purchase receipt. So, if we arrest them and ask them to update their particulars, in the course of updating it, the amount would go up, so they flared up on that. But at that time when we had serious clash with them, it was as a result of wrangling within the rank and file of the Okada riders, they just transferred aggression on us. They accused my officers of extortion but since I took over, fine has never been collected in cash, offenders pay to the bank. I challenged them that if anyone had paid and was not given receipt or paid cash to any of my personnel they should show up. At the end of the day we were exonerated. I called a meeting of the executives and they dissociated themselves from that action. Since I took over it was only that once we had that problem and I was surprised because I had rapport with the executive, I usually have interaction and meetings with the executives. So, the internal wrangling was the problem and we were able to lay it to rest.

Is there a clear delineation between your responsibility and that of Federal Road Safety Corps?

Well, it is interwoven because we are all enforcing same traffic rules and regulation. You will discover that the traffic management came into existence simply because the crime the police are pursuing is too enormous. You know the ratio of police to crime rate in this country. So, for police to have less attention on traffic, that was what formed decision by government to come up with FRSC. If you look around, how many traffic warden do you see? It is because of lack of manpower. It is for this reason that KWARTMA too was set up. So, we work hand in hand. Federal Road Safety are here and there because the lawlessness on the highway is not high, that is why you see them in town. We are complementing each other, our responsibilities are not conflicting.

Do you have adequate personnel?

You see, the paucity of fund is a major problem and that is why we are only operating within the confines of the state capital. People have challenged me on radio programmes that is it Ilorin Traffic Management Authority or Kwara. And I have assured them that we will spread our tentacles to other parts of the state. And by the special grace of God, His Excellency has given us the go ahead to add three or four more local government this year. I have been to Omu-Aran to inspect the place given to us by the state Ministry of Works for our area office in Irepodun LGA. I have called the Chairman of Moro Local Government because we are to move to Bode Saadu and also the Chairman of Offa LG to find a place for us. We have been informed that there is a place that we can use in Jebba too. Definitely we are moving, which will necessitate us to increase our personnel who will go to these areas.

You were one of the pioneer officers that set up LASTMA in Lagos, were you also part of those that set up KWARTMA?

What actually happened was that I was in Lagos. The advert to set up KWARTMA came up. I got calls from people to apply. I then applied for the position of General Manager of the Agency. It was given to a consultant and I didn't know any of them. So, later I think they did a kind of research about me in my working place and within my colleagues at LASTMA. They were happy that I applied. I was asked to draw a programme, which I did. I was also asked to find resource persons and I invited my colleagues from TRACE in Ogun, LASTMA, LASAGBUS. They came down to Eyenkorin for the training. I also helped in giving lecturers for free.

You were already doing well in LASTMA, so what was the motivation to come here? This is my home state. LASTMA in Lagos is a big thing. I have benefited a lot from that place; I have attended many courses overseas and I felt it is best to use this experience for my state. So, I came in enthusiastically that I want to serve. My initial motive was that I want to use this place to challenge LASTMA because I know what 1 have contributed to LASTMA and of course I know my onions. So that was what motivated me to come down at that material time.

To what extent have you been able to achieve that?

At that time there were constraints, so I had to go back to LASTMA because I was not driven away from there. I took a secondment letter from Lagos to come here to stay for two years, but because of the scenario on ground after two years, I had to leave. I was doing my job as the Director of Operations in LASTMA when another opportunity came in; the former CEO was appointed SA to governor and there was an advertisement again for the position. I applied again hoping that things will change this time around. There were about six of us that came for the job interview and I was picked to do what I know how to do best.

Do you have trainings that will enhance professionalism among personnel to improve KWARTMA, the kind of trainings that you also benefited from? Of course, we have put up series of trainings for our personnel. It will start anytime from March or April. The capacity building has to come in, we need to invite resource persons to train us on traffic management, patrol schedule, route modelling among others.

(Cut in) But there are no overseas training?

For now, the fund is not available, but there are courses that anyone of them can go for if he/she has little amount of money and government can support. I can remember that the course I went for in Sweden was sponsored by the Swedish International Development Agency. The tuition, accommodation and feeding were provided for. The only thing I paid for was my air fare. There are agencies abroad that can sponsor that I have link with; there is one in Coventry, there is one in Denmark. Everywhere I visit I establish a link. But it is only a serious minded person, who is committed to his work and has passion for this job that I can link to these agencies. Sometimes when I come back from the training government reimbursed me to an extent, having seen the value of the training. In your operation, do you have monitoring system that enables you to monitor your men on field?

I don't normally sit down in the office. That is why I have camera. What happened before was that there was no clear cut discipline by some officers. We have come up with rules that took effect from January, that each person on the field is supposed to be on duty for eight hours. So if I get to a duty post and did not find the officer on duty even when the traffic is low, I will mark that person absent. I want to see my officers standing doing the work, they should not be seen sitting down. I have asked people to call me whenever they see my personnel sitting down or absent from duty because I cannot be everywhere. I disguise sometimes, because they recognise my car, I move around with taxi or bike sometimes. I tell my officers that traffic management is not an office job, the road is my office and I will not allow anybody to mess up my office. What do you regard as your greatest challenge?

We try very hard to manage inter-agency crisis that is paramilitary, military situation. At the higher level it is fine but among the rank and file, that is where the problem is. It is uniformed personnel that disobey the law most times. In the army barracks, no one dares ride on bike without using crash helmet and army boys and their dependents ride bikes in town without crash helmet, and when they are arrested they would swear, threaten hell and brimstone. I warn my men that if they ride motorbikes without crash helmet in town even, I would arrest and fine them. There are also policemen who have Okada and don't wear crash helmet. Sometimes when you arrest non-operatives, some policemen would come to front for them and thus frustrate effort of our personnel. Another group is the political class, if you arrest someone who knows politicians, we will start to get calls and they would be threatening to facilitate their sack. Instead of appealing they would be harassing our personnel because they don't want the law to take their course. Another challenge is when everybody wants the road to lead to their house, that is incessant cutting of the road median. Five years ago there were many median openings because the traffic was not heavy then but now that there are more vehicles, we had to block some of them. But as soon as we are blocking one place, people are opening another place therefore making government to spend needlessly on this. Every filling station is cutting median for access to their stations. And when you make arrest people will come to beg. There is a case in court now that an offender was arrested only for him to get down from his car with his cutlass to pursue my men. He was overpowered and handed over to the police and subsequently taken to court, he was remanded in Oke-Kura for 12days before he was granted bail.

Thereafter his people started coming to beg. I said if he had matcheted my men that is how they will still come and beg so that he can go scot free. This is a problem, they don't want people to face consequence for their offence. Why was it that a particular area on Unity road was blocked, was it done to free traffic and why was it done without prior notice to the public?

It would have been done since last year, but the execution was delayed. Last year for about two weeks we placed traffic cones and made announcement about what we wanted to do. And we received lot of commendation. What we did was send request to Ministry of Works and had to send reminder when there was pressure on us by the public to concretise what we started. We were given go ahead and fund. We also want to do that of Coca road area to free traffic in that area. Like they are trying to do in Lagos, are you looking at the idea of a mobile court to summarily try traffic offenders?

We have applied and to the Glory of God the Chief Justice has given us a judge. So we are just waiting for budget approval so as to put it in place. So very soon we will have our mobile court. Maybe we will start with those Sunday Sunday traders who are recalcitrant to relocate and the traders that are selling on the walk way.

How has paucity of fund affected your work?

As far as we are concern, the state government have tried for KWARTMA, His Excellency has been very supportive of the agency. With the issue of expansion, if the scarcity of fund has really affected, we would not have time for expansion.

Are there some facilities that you need but because of paucity of fund you don't have?

'The facilities needed have been captured in this year's budget. We have equipment now that ranks us as the best, even above LASTMA. We have some equipment LASTMA does not have for rescue operation. We have giant tow truck, it is the only one we have in the north central. What are measures put in place to guarantee the security of your men on the field? On the issue of attacks, we have rapport with their (Okada) leaders on the issue of attacks and I told them that, if their men attack my men, I would not listen to any plea. We have accident insurance for our men. So if anything happens to them, they get taken care of.