New Traffic Law: The Challenge Of Enforcement

Since last week Thursday when the new Lagos traffic law was enacted, it has raised a lot of dust which is yet to settle. While some residents of the state applauded the law and said it would bring about sanity on the roads, others said it is too draconian. Yet others felt the law is too harsh on the poor.

We welcome the new law and disagree with those who said it is against the poor. We believe the law does not spare anybody. Is it the poor that receives and makes phone calls and even eats while driving? Or is it only the commuter bus drivers alone that drive against traffic? The rich also commit these traffic offences with impunity. The new law deals with all these categories of traffic offenders.

Worst hit by the new law are commercial motorcycle operators, also known as okada riders. The new law restricts them from plying close to 500 roads within the metropolis. And on the roads they are not outlawed, their operations are restricted to between 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Though many have heaved a sigh of relief that the new law was long over due and would curb the excesses of motorists and okada riders, there are fears that the new law could suffer the fate of other laws recently enacted in the state in terms of enforcement. Poor implementation usually rendered the lofty laws impotent. It is for the same reason that many believe the bane of the new traffic law may be poor implementation.

The new law may have put to rest the debate that the state government does not have a standing law on which to ban okada and address other traffic offences, skepticism about the ability of the government to muster enough will to enforce the law is thick in the air.

Lofty as the intention of the government is, it is left to be seen how far it would go in enforcing the law, considering how Lagosians hailed the rent law enacted last year only for poor enforcement to defeat its purpose. Landlords and estate agents circumvent the rent law and dare the government to do its worst since it is not the government that built the houses upon which it is imposing the rent.

To surmount the enforecement challenge, those who will enforce the new traffic law must be adequately sensitised to carry out their duties without fear or favour. They are key to the successful implementation of the law. Any compromise on their part would undermine the law and defeat its purpose. The government should for once prove skeptics wrong by effectively enforcing the law.