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Fashola Launches Safety Traffic Advocacy
Feb 25, 2009 (Vanguard/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has said that relevant authorities have been directed to ensure strict enforcement of the state government zero-tolerance for gated streets in Lagos with effect from March 31, 2009, as well as curb the excesses of all commercial motorcyclists popularly called Okada as part of measures to ease traffic congestion in the metropolis.
Fashola made the declaration yesterday during the official launch of the Lagos State School Safety Traffic Advocacy Programme (LASSTAP) of the state Ministry of Transportation, for the 1,038 primary schools, 307 Junior Secondary and 308 Senior Secondary Schools in the state.
The programme held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, was the first step taken towards the eventual introduction of traffic safety education in school curricular in the state.
Speaking on the gated streets, Fashola thanked landlords and community development associations that have so far complied with the directive to keep the gates open from 5:30 a.m to midnight as a way of creating alternative routes to complement interconnectivity of roads and ultimately decongest the roads.
Commending men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) for their dedication to duty irrespective of the weather to ensure that traffic flows smoothly, the governor said the directive was given to solve the problem of traffic congestion in the state.
Fashola said his administration decided to buy into the programme because it believed the most effective way to shape the attitude of tomorrow's adult as a responsible citizen was to possivtively influence the development of his/her character as a child.
According to the governor, the critical role children play as change agents in society has acquired added significance in "our technology-driven world. In this age of cable television, internet, mobile telephones, the i-pod and other gadgets of instant global communication across vast distances and time zones, today's child is vastly better informed than we were at their age.
"This keen awareness of the world around them at a tender age can, therefore, be effectively utilised to help us achieve the necessary level of road safety awareness, which is imperative in a mega city where millions of people must transit from one point to the other on a daily basis," he said.
Speaking earlier, Chairman of the occasion, Alhaji Femi Okunnu, advocated a legislation to ban the use of motorbike for transportation once alternatives are provided in addition to barring students of school age and nursing mothers from boarding them to their destination.
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