Hon Hakeem Olaogun Dickson (The Mayor of Surulere), was a former Chairman, Surulere Local Government, Lagos State, and is currently the Director-General, Lagos State Safety Commission. In this interview with AZUBIKE NNADOZIE, Dickson outlines the measures being put in place to ensure safety for all Lagosians, both on land and on water. Excerpts.
Some weeks ago, you said, at a stakeholders meeting, that those who contravene the laws being put in place for safety on the Lagos water ways would be jailed, how would this be?
We are working round the clock, in collaboration with other agencies of government, to ensure safety for every Lagosian, both on land and on the waterways. But in recent months, there have been rising cases of avoidable accidents on the waterways, which have claimed many lives. A close study of the incidents shows that they are mostly due neglect and the recklessness of operators on the waters. There are boat operators, loggers and other people who use the waters for leisure and transportation. The rate of frequency of water accidents in recent times has made us to embark on enlightenment and consultations with all concerned with doing business on the waters. At the last meeting of the stakeholders, which held here in our boardroom, most of these bodies were represented. We had the Marine Police, LASWA, NIWA, ATBOWATON (Boat Operators), and representatives from neighbouring riverine states like Edo, Ondo and Delta. Some of the issues discussed include the perils that water users face and how to curtail them. The most dangerous of the menace are the activities of wood loggers who sometimes let their logs afloat, thereby posing a great danger to other water users. There is also the menace of dredgers who sometimes abandon their instruments on the waters after work, which also poses dangers to other users of the waterways. They often cause boats to capsize when they ride over them. Often, people die as a result. They also cause serious damage to the vessels involved. Other dangers include the interaction of boats on the waters. Boat users ought to be considerate to themselves. For instance, when a bigger boat passes a smaller one with speed, it could cause the smaller boat to capsize because of the waves it would generate. Those are some of the dangers we want to curtail and we will not hesitate to jail anyone found culpable.
When you came on board, where did you start?
When we came on board in 2016, we took a tour of the Lagos waterways, up to neighbouring states, to assess the situation on ground and thereafter strategised on how to tackle them.
A lot of anomalies go on on the waters. Most of the boat operators for instance, have no insurance; many have no safety measures in place. Some have substandard life jackets, which can hardly sustain users when accidents occur and there are casualties all over the place most of the time. Henceforth, boat owners, operators and managers would have to face jail terms when their negligence cause avoidable accidents on the waters. For instance, if the boat operators could spare a few moments, safety tips to the passengers, it will go a long way in insuring safety. But the Lagos State Safety Commission will not spare offenders. We are in office to ensure discipline and decorum of our waters and we cannot rest until they are in place.
Education and enlightenment would go a long way in letting the users know what they must do. What measures are in place to educate them on the safest ways to operate on the waters?
We invited some of the stakeholders about three times last year to come for free training but they refused. We have put in place the enlightenment of boat drivers and safety trainings, tips on safety and free training on safe boating. We are developing safety standards and code of practice and regulations. Currently, the boats are not registered and they have no registration numbers to use to identify and to track then when mishap occurs. That is why it is easy to steal other people’s boats. You do not know who owns what boat and there is no way even the Marine Police could arrest such thieves. The enlightenment continues. We have already had two meetings with stakeholders last year. This year, we have done two and we plan to do two or more before the year runs out.
Apart from the waters, how do you ensure safety on land?
On land, we also engage in enlightenment for environmental safety, industrial health, safety for human and material resources. But many of the companies are not willing to comply and we have been warning them. Apart from that, we collaborate with the labour unions to bring about the safety culture at work places. We work with safety practitioners, consultants and experts to ensure that we have the best standards of safety in Lagos State. Our target is to be like Singapore, which is now adjudged the best in the world in the next few years. We are full members of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the ISSA and the others. We are also collaborating with the DUVD from Germany, which is coming very soon to conduct free training on health and safety. We have plans to take the safety campaign to schools in Lagos. We want to enlist students as safety ambassadors. We want them to imbibe the culture of safety at a very young age. It is sad to note that there is no tertiary institution in Nigeria offering courses in safety and most practitioners are trained abroad. The capacity for development for safety in the country is currently very weak. In the next five years, I expect safety consciousness and practice to have permeated the lives of every Nigerian. We want Lagos State to lead in this area, although we have some competition from Delta State, which has sent its officials abroad for training. But we would not like to bring people from other states to come and head our safety departments here. We have to commit resources to upgrading our standards by ourselves.
What are your challenges?
Well, you know we are not a revenue generating body. We depend solely on the government for our funding. Funding is our major issue. We also have human capital issues. We don’t have sufficient staff to handle the safety challenges in Lagos, as much as we would like to, due to financial constraints. We also have office space constraints. I would be happier if we could move into a bigger space where we could carry our duties in a very conducive environment.
