Why Lagosians Want The Last Of LASTMA By Jude Egbas

In the eyes of many who have taken residence in Lagos; Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola(BRF), would do no wrong. A wave of infrastructural improvements spanning the length and breadth of a city sitting astride the lagoon, alongside occasional jolts of visionary leadership in a country devoid of some, has seen his popularity ratchet to the roof tops.

But in the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), an adhoc traffic management agency created by his predecessor in the year 2000, the Lagos state number one citizen is faced with a body that may well erode all the success stories of the last five years. Positioning themselves surreptitiously around the Lagos metropolis in unkempt yellow and bronze coloured uniforms, LASTMA has become a nightmare to most motorists in Lagos.

Surely, they must have been set up to manage traffic on chaos ridden Lagos roads at some point. But as three members of the body threw themselves before our official car after the Driver had unknowingly made a U-turn in a ‘No U-turn’ junction with the ‘No U-turn’ sign deliberately obscured from view by the LASTMA officials themselves, you realise this is a body which in typical Nigerian fashion, thrives very much on taking advantage of situations.

One of the three would hurl himself into the car uninvited, barking direction instructions to the Driver.

Once we had arrived at a secluded location, we were asked to “bring something”, to be let off the hook, or risk getting our car impounded at the LASTMA office where a N50,000 (fifty thousand naira) fine, we were told, awaited us. The bargain commenced typically, with a colleague leading the negotiations. We were no where near mid-way into the bargain when another bedraggled LASTMA  official( who looked like he could use a meal and who no doubt had followed us with his eyes from the point of ‘arrest’) came hurtling down the street corner, for his share of the spoils. It is a LASTMA routine, perfected over the years and made to punish, not correct traffic offenders.

Before this latest of traffic offences, I had twice been the victim of a LASTMA raid. They lurk around away from view, waiting for the motorist who breaks the ‘one way street’ rule. You look around upon ‘arrest’ and find the ‘one way’ sign hidden behind a cluster of signages in a part of town you are not familiar with on a rainy Lagos afternoon. One of the officials jumps into the car and orders you around asking impolitely in smattering English: ‘wetin you go give? Abi you wan go office make we write you receipt of N50,000?’ While he carries out his extortionist scheme in the car, another ambles by to keep an ear on the outcome of the negotiations. You peek at your wristwatch and realise it could turn out a long day.

So, you make for your wallet and bring out a sum. “Add something”, the official in the car orders again, a smile and a grimace fighting for some space on his razor-bump speckled face. You obey him and fish out some extra naira notes. He points to the ‘One way’ sign now leaning so close to the floor in the rain; a smirk on his face, mutters a few inanities and motions to the other official, who stylishly gets his share of the ‘booty’, as they jog back to their hideout in the rain to wait for the next victim.

On several occasions, I have watched as motorists who refuse to play the LASTMA ball are given a raw deal—pummelled as the argument gets heated with shirts torn and bras unbuckled while foul mouthed rants and invectives fly about in the heated Lagos atmosphere. LASTMA has become another arm of the unsightly street urchins otherwise called ‘area boys’. Always ready to pounce, they breed pusillanimity into the spines of everyone who uses the roads. If this is the legacy BRF would want to leave behind, then Lagosians would be willing to rewrite the pages of his administration.

As the gavel of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Lagos sought to cast a nullity on the activities of the militant traffic organisation some time last month, not a few Lagos residents took to the airwaves (via phone-ins) and the streets to express just how happy they were. But those jubilant cheers do appear premature.

LASTMA still carries out its extortionist agenda on Lagos roads, undeterred, the last time I checked. Commercial Bus Drivers who do not shut their doors are also easy pickings. A LASTMA official, whose name tag read Afuwape D, took over the wheels from a Commercial Bus Driver some time last week around the Maryland area in Ikeja for not shutting his door properly. A long line of buses had formed in the area too, all victims of the traffic Generals you don’t want to meet.

LASTMA as presently constituted, needs a complete overhaul. Should that appear unachievable, the Governor would do well to get these brawling bunch off the streets for good and find a more civil way to manage traffic in the metropolis or risk watching his reputation go down the drain.

Eko Oni Baje O!