By Lukman Olabiyi
Mr Ayodeji Peter Oyedokun stands as a beacon of leadership and innovation in the realm of road safety in Nigeria. As a former General Manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and a pioneering member of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), his impact on the country’s traffic management and road safety landscape is profound.
In a career dedicated to reducing road traffic crashes, Oyedokun has been at the forefront of major initiatives aimed at transforming the driving culture in Nigeria.
According to him, his tenure as the pioneer Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Drivers Institute (LSDI) saw a shift towards more structured and effective driver education, focusing on improving both the quality and safety of drivers on the roads.
Reflecting on the current state of road traffic accidents in Nigeria in this interview, Oyedokun draws attention to the alarming statistics that continue to plague the nation.
He notes that a large proportion of the road crashes are avoidable, and attributes alarming statistics of road crashes to reckless driving, poor road conditions, and driving under the influence, especially over consumption of alcohol by drivers.
Oyedokun, despite the challenges, believes that a change is not only possible but necessary.
In the past, people categorised those that joined FRSC as desperate job seekers due to job scarcity in the country. But you retired from the same FRSC. Why did you join the corps?
Now, let me first correct the impression that I retired in FRSC. I withdrew my service from the Federal Road Safety Corps when it was time. I got this job not because I was job-hunting. What happened was, after leaving the University of Ibadan, I had already taught for many years and I was at the St. Andrews College of Education, Oyo as an administrative officer before I got enlisted into the FRSC. I am choosing my words, because I never applied officially to join. I was invited.
There was a period – that would be around 1985 or 1986, I belonged to a club, maybe you may know which club it is, but I will not mention any club. The corruption on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway toll gate was very, very high at that time. So, I belonged to a group that did manual counting of vehicles passing the expressway to expose the monumental fraud that was going on at the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
We did the counting manually and in fact, we had to hide from the police inside the bush but the result came and made them cancel, maybe they threw away the bad eggs. But, during this period, something happened. I witnessed a life accident where so many people died on the expressway, where we were counting. I saw it.
Since that time, I have had that passion, reading about road safety, crashes, and all these things. Fortunately, Professor Wole Soyinka was now given the challenge to start the FRSC programme, and that’s how I got into the FRSC in November 1988.
So, you are a pioneer member of staff?
Yes. My number is 0013, number 13. It was passion that led me to become part of the personnel of FRSC.
After leaving the FRSC, you later became the General Manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA). How did that happen?
I never applied for the LASTMA job. After I left FRSC, I was in my house in Abuja when somehow, somebody got to me on phone that the then Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu wanted me to come and see him in Lagos. So, I came down to Lagos. When I got to Lagos on that day, he was not in the office by 8.30am when I got there.
The sector commander then that took me there was Kayode Olagunju. So, when we got to the governor’s office, we met the man in charge of the office. I told him, I wanted to see the governor. He said the governor was not on seat but would be around by 9:00 am, that we should go and wait in a sitting room till when he would come. I said I couldn’t wait.
He said if I couldn’t wait, then I should take my CV to the Ministry of Transportation, and to meet the commissioner there and give it to him. I said, okay.
The man that brought me was very angry. He said, you mean you can’t wait for the governor? And I said yes, because as at that time, I had something that was holding me and I must be home with my children.
When you have four boys and you leave them alone with a woman, you are not preparing for your retirement. So, that was why I left road safety in the first place. Also, I did not prepare to sleep in Lagos on that day.
So, I went to the Ministry of Transportation. Muiz Banire was the commissioner then and as we got in, he said, go and sit down there, that he would take me to the governor around 9.30 am. But I said, I couldn’t wait. I told him that I wanted to go back to Osun. So, Banire told me to drop my CV and promise that he would get back to me.
On that day, there was an accident on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and one of the personnel of FRSC was involved. The situation forced me to go to the hospital to check the person. It was at the hospital that Olagunju’s phone rang, and he announced to me that the governor had appointed me as General Manager of LASTMA and I must resume immediately.
Being an expert in the area of traffic management and also being an ex LASTMA GM, what do you think can be done to address chaotic traffic in Lagos?
I would disagree with you on the state of traffic management in Lagos. If you go back in history, there was a time that commercial drivers (yellow buses) were plying the Third Mainland Bridge one way. There was a time that you could not arrest Molue commercial drivers. There was a time when there was no rail. If we assess the level of traffic in the state compared with the past, you will agree with me that there is an improvement.
The state is doing more in traffic management and the level of inter-agency cooperation and collaboration on traffic management also attest to this, although, there is no way you can remove some chaos at a certain time because most chaoses are caused by human problems too. But I believe the state is trying and it is improving. But we still need to do more.
So, in what areas have you identified for the state to do more?
There is something very important, and I have been saying it for a long time, which is driving under the influence of something. It is a very important aspect of traffic safety. Based on experience, most of the road accidents do happen as a result of driving under the influence. Many people arrested confirmed this.
When I was the pioneer CEO of Lagos State Drivers’ Institute, we worked on the DUI (Driving Under Influence) Law. So, the aim was there must be a test on the use of alcohol behind the wheel. We need to organise stakeholders’ engagements for everybody to agree on what is the acceptable Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC). This can be done nationally. You call doctors, engineers and those who even make the alcohol.
So, we should all agree on a national blood alcohol level and the equipment to measure it. When a vehicle has an accident, we usually say brake failure or over-speeding. This is not enough. Even, if the driver is dead, the hospital can detect whether there is alcohol in his or her blood. By the time we try to put these things down and show it to the people, they will understand the impact of DUI.
The second one is speed. There are technological ways you can monitor speed and issue tickets to culprits. You may say you will not be able to catch everybody but if you catch one person and that person is brought to law, he will tell another person and that person will tell another person and everybody will know. These are parts of the way to check road crashes.