Sanity may return to Lagos roads from today, if the Lagos State Executive Council (Exco) approves the transport policy, which baring last minute hitches, will be presented to the Exco by the Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Frederic Oladeinde.
The Nation exclusively gathered that the policy, which took the state government four years to incubate, would be presented for Excos’ assent at the council chambers today.
Confirming the development to our correspondent yesterday, a top official in the Ministry of Transportation, who preferred anonymity, said the Commissioner for Transportation would present the much-awaited policy to the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu Exco at the Executive Council chambers.
He said: “I can authoritatively tell you that Dr. Oladeinde will make a presentation on the Lagos State Transportation Policy to Governor Sanwo-Olu and other members of the Exco at its meeting on Tuesday (today).”
The presentation, he said, would be a prelude to a formal unveiling of a policy that would guide operators and operations in the transportation subsector.
He said the policy would be a guide into what was in operation before, where the state is currently and what the government hopes to do in future.
The policy, according to him, “appraises what is there, what the government is doing, and where the government is going. The policy as a document addresses transportation holistically, looking at where we are on roads, and rail, air, water and pipeline and its intention on intermodal means of transportation. It also addresses what manner of vehicles should be on the roads/waterways, and professionalises the sector by ensuring that operators are only those certified to operate.”
“Once the Exco approves the policy, the unveiling of the policy will be a mere formality,” the source said.
The Nation, in its publication on April 11, 2023 had urged the Lagos State Government to release the document. The report was received by the Akinwunmi Ambode administration in May 2019.
The Ambode administration had in 2018 assembled a cross sectoral team of experts to put together a transportation policy to drive development in the sector.
In the article published in the Transportation section of The Nation, experts, who participated in putting the policy together, had expressed their disappointment at the continued delay by the government, which mainstreamed transportation and traffic management on its THEMES Agenda.
But speaking with our correspondent on the heels of the publication, Oladeinde had assured that the document was ready and would soon be presented to the Exco for final approval of the draft before the processes of turning it into a working document for the government were concluded.
-Thenation
