21st November, 2011
The Lagos State government has begun the training of 2,000 officers of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, to improve their performance in traffic management.
The training, which began on Thursday, at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI building, on Nurudeen Olowopopo Road, Alausa, Ikeja, in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, will last for 10 days.
The capacity building workshop has the theme: Peaking Performance at LASTMA, and is geared towards improving LASTMA officers’ performance in traffic management.
The Lagos State Ministry of Establishment, Training and Pension is organising the training in conjunction with a Non-Government Organisation, Bailey Cole Consulting.
Flagging off the training, the Commissioner for Establishment, Training and Pensions, Mrs. Florence Oguntuase, said the training cuts across different cadres of LASTMA and enjoined participants to improve on their productivity through the workshop.
“Essentially, capacity building and development is to improve productivity and the theme of this workshop is how to do it better and do it right,†she said.
The commissioner urged the participants to take advantage of the training and improve on their duties so as to give government value for its money.
She appealed to them to use the knowledge gained from training to proffer solutions to traffic gridlocks in the Lagos metropolis rather than using the opportunity to make crooked money.
Speaking, Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, said LASTMA officers, in the cause of performing their duties were faced with opportunities rather than negative challenges.
He said that against all odds, LASTMA officers had demonstrated to be the face of Lagos by not resting on their oars in keeping the Lagos traffic moving with pride, dignity and honour.
Opeifa stated that the government, in its determination to ensure that LASTMA is kept abreast of the latest and best global trends in traffic management, had approved series of training for LASTMA personnel in order to serve as a role model to other states in the country.
He added that some states had established their own traffic management outfits tailored towards the laudable achievement of LASTMA in Lagos State and urged all law enforcement agencies to cooperate with LASTMA to serve Lagosians better.
The commissioner lamented that officers of the authority had often been attacked by motorists, with some of them sustaining severe injuries while some have even died.
He appealed to motorists to always see the officers as their friends and should not hesitate to complain to the authority whenever they are aggrieved about the operations of the agency rather than taking laws into their hands and attacking the officers.