16th June, 2022
Nigeria’s Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has called for the inclusion of traffic education into the school curriculum.
He said it would help the nation to raise a generation of knowledgeable and well-informed drivers who would obey the country’s traffic laws.
Fashola spoke on Thursday as the lead speaker at the 10th anniversary Colloquium of the Lagos Traffic Radio (LTR) held in Ikeja, Lagos.
According to him, such integration was important for traffic management, particularly in Lagos where the narratives of traffic congestion was a critical factor, given the State’s status as the economic hub of the Country.
The former governor of Lagos said the theme of the colloquium, “Integrated Transport System As A Lifeline for Economic Growth,” was apt.
He pointed out that integrated transport system played a central economic role, “as a source of opportunities for investment, employment, businesses, and the value chain in the transport network.”
“I recommend that the government challenges the Ministry of Education (in collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation) to introduce traffic education into the school curriculum, drawn from the Highway Code and the Traffic Law in primary, secondary and tertiary schools in order to raise knowledgeable drivers that will obey traffic laws.
“It is my believe that if this is properly implemented, Lagos State would have produced a new generation of motorists who are more educated and aware of their rights and duties on our motorways,” said Fashola, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Hakeem Bello.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu described the creation of LTR as “a noble idea” which has proven its relevance in the past 10 years, saying the station has maintained a noble status as a “leader in its area of competence.”
Sanwo-Olu stated that the theme of the colloquium was apt and spoke directly to the goal his administration had been working strategically to achieve under the Transportation Management pillar of the THEMES Agenda.
“Our objective under this pillar is to transform the transportation system through an intermodal system that is efficient, safe and comfortable and befitting of a mega city like Lagos,” he said.
The Governor, who was represented by the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, said with the intermodal transportation system, the state had leveraged on the development of rail and water means of transportation and had continued to invest heavily in the same.