LASDRI Organises In-house Training For Quality Service Delivery, Foster Safer Driving Culture

OLORUNDARE ENIMOLA

As part of efforts to enhance delivery of quality training modules, with lasting impact on the motoring public, the Lagos State Drivers Institute, LASDRI, organised its annual in-house capacity building training for staffers in the quest to firm up their capacities to upscale the driving attitude of drivers coming to the institute for retraining.

The training held on Saturday at the Institute’s headquarters, was themed; ‘Equipping LASDRI Workforce With Training Tools For Effective Service Delivery ‘, which is aimed at training the trainers of professional drivers, equipping them with requisite tools, fresh guidelines and introductions to cutting edge technology deployed in Driver’s training to achieve global best output on the roads.

In her remarks, Mrs. Afusat Afusat Tiamiyu, the General Manager of LASDRI, said, “We are doing a train-the-trainer programme for our workforce. You know, we are into driver training, driver education and driver retraining, for us to have a safer driving culture on Lagos roads.”

Mrs. Tiamiyu stressed that a sane and safe driving culture will enhance a prosperous economy and Lagos State deserves an economy that is on the move from a driving culture that is safe, compliant and devoid of incumbrances from poor driving attitudes.

Adding, “our theme for this year; Equipping LASDRI Workforce With Training Tools For Effective Service Delivery ‘, is anchored on the fact that, it is what you have that you can give
out. As trainers, we want them to improve on the training methodology and exploring better ways of imparting the knowledge to drivers.

“This is even more important with the rising cases of road crashes in the State, leading to the death of many
innocents Lagosians. We believe as an agency, we are supposed to be a change agent, after our trainings we expect to see an improved driving culture that will aggregately resonate on the society, thereby reducing the spate of crashes, deaths and carnage on Lagos roads.
So, we are using the in-house training to reshape the mindset of our instructors to see the bigger picture of revolutionizing driving on Lagos roads.” She avarred.

Mrs. Tiamiyu noted that the issue of driving against traffic popularly known as; ‘one-way’ has become a source of concern to the motoring public and transport stakeholders alike, making the institute to package an important topic as part of the training module on defensive driving techniques, with the aim to properly equip them for onward transmission to participating drivers subsequently.

“If our instructors are able to pass these knowledge to drivers that come for our trainings, it will definitely resonate in changing drivers attitude on our roads. Secondly, we tailored another
training towards having knowledge and understanding of the Lagos State road traffic law and regulations of 2018, which will be transmitted to drivers as they attend our various training programme.” She said.

Mr. Olalekan Bakare-Oki, the General Manager of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA in his opening remarks applauded the initiative, describing it as the type of training the workforce requires for a better performance and efficiency, adding that training and the building of human capacity across the world will
engender optimal service delivery to the society.

He said, “If our staff at Lagos State Driving Institute are able to
manage, reset or rebrand the minds of drivers or road users across the state, it will reduce accidents and carnage on the roads. And by extension, it will engender economic prosperity for Lagos.”

On the level of synergy between LASTMA and LASDRI, the General Manager went on to say that the collaboration is sacrosanct, stressing that the agencies are the same and their work interwoven, pointing out that LASDRI is an offshoot of LASTMA, which is responsible for the wonderful collaboration in place and would continue. He affirmed.

Mr. Bakare-Oki, explained how the activities of the two agencies resonates well on the THEMES+ agenda of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, with the ‘T’ in the acronym representing Traffic Management and Transportation, saying, “this underscores the fact that Mr. Governor is highly committed to the movement of goods and services across the State and highly committed to the economic prosperity of Lagos.

“Globally, transportation remains the bedrock or the integral part of any
economic growth and development. That is why Mr. Governor is spending huge funds or has allocated a lot of funds into transport agencies.” He said.

He also threw his support to the resuscitation of psychiatric test for drivers, asserting that it is long overdue, due to the level of indiscipline exhibited by many drivers across the State, “so many people have been killed by drivers driving in the direction prohibited by the law,” he emphasised.

To the motoring public, Bakare-Oki said, “Traffic management and safety is a shared responsibility. People are therefore expected to do their parts. LASTMA and LASDRI are are saddled with the
responsibility of ensuring free flow and smooth movement of goods and services, but the public themselves are shirking from their responsibilities.

“Our agencies are raising the bar through capacity building trainings, with our staff well trained for better productivity, but the question mark is; who is training the public? We are engaged in massive and aggressive traffic advocacy. Is it yielding results? We even went
as far as going to parks, garages, talking to people. We do traffic advocacy on all our social media and traffic radio on a daily basis and so many others.” He stressed.

He went further to say, LASTMA, commissioned a toll-free line in 2024 for people to call and talk to them, affirming their desire to have feedbacks and have received over 7,000 calls that has been promptly attended to, ranging from complaints against LASTMA officials, traffic infractions or road crash cases.