By Idu Jude

The job of Dr. Bello Abdul-Lateef, the Director, of the Directorate of Road Transport Services (DRTS) in the Federal Capital Development Authority is not an easy one. He confessed that it is one that sometimes attracts public distrust. Apart from ensuring that the transportation system in the capital city works well, with traffic offenders apprehended and punished in real-time, the directorate he heads is also saddled with the duty of ensuring that drivers are issued with licences and vehicle number plates in order to improve security in the federal capital territory. In this interview, he shares his opinions on how he is grappling with challenges associated with the duties he is called to perform and how he hopes to overcome and help curb crime with the aid of technology.

What is your leadership doing to eradicate the illegal proliferation of parks, especially on the road corridors?

We are opening up the existing ones created by the government and modernising them. Like what we did in Area 1, we were able to ensure that electronic boards block views on the road corridors. There are other ones on the other side of Area 1. If one goes there at night, it is well-illuminated. The reason is that it is only when passengers stand at the road corridor that vehicles go for them. We have had so many reports of criminal activities. You hear about ‘one chance’ robbing people who mistakenly entered their vehicles. People are kidnapped and so on. It is in order to checkmate this menace that the Directorate started opening up the motor parks. It is only when we make good use of the parks that we reduce those incidences of picking people along the road. In order to end the operations of those who pick people along the road, we have also deployed our men across the routes. For example, those who pick people along Julius Berger Bridge are apprehended even across other intersections. We are doing it to stop the proliferation of illegal parks. We not only get them arrested, there are also other things we are doing which I may not discuss here because of security reasons. But the bottom line is that we are doing many things to end the menace. There is no day we don’t dislodge up to 10 illegal motor parks across the city. What our men do is move around with operational vehicles and dislodge their settlements and get the operators arrested. We have prosecuted many of them. The government would do more to ensure that our mandate is achieved.

But some drivers and motor park touts allege that DRTS compromises gave rise to the continued existence of illegal park operations. What’s your response?

That’s not true. That’s how people come up with different unsubstantiated allegations. Maybe one of these days, I will walk with you around the FCT road corridors to unravel the truth. What we normally tell people is to bring their complaints because my office is open, 24/7. When such complaints are brought, we get to the root of the problem. This is because we are serving Nigerians. The present leadership in the Directorate focuses on service delivery. We do it in a good manner because many of us have our images to protect. As the Director, I have workers under me and I wouldn’t want to create an image that would destroy what I have built over the years.

What is the operational status of the computerized vehicle inspection machine?

The truth is that we do that after one year for private vehicles and six months for commercial vehicles. We are still in collaboration with Mr. Segun Obayendo, the CEO of Temple Resources who in the next seven years, had agreed to hand over the project to the FCT administration. Definitely, when government takes full control, there are going to be additional machines, depending on the latest technology equipment. As you know, we have started using technology. We have technical people who recommended one year test for privately owned vehicles and six months for commercial vehicles. This is the standard practice all over the world. We always go for the best and anything outside that wouldn’t be in the interest of the country.

Your organisation is a fund-generating organisation. How much can you say it has generated so far?

What I will tell you is that we are doing very well. We are meeting our targets. The FCT administration is happy with our performance. I don’t have to give you any figure now out of heart because I may make mistakes. But one thing I want you to know is that revenue generation to us is secondary. Our major aim is service delivery, that is, ensuring safety on our roads. When you hear any of your friends complain of our strictness, we are doing it for the safety of the public.

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May we know why your men on the roads suddenly have stopped using Google Apps in determining defaulters of paper renewals?

The App causes a lot of delays in our attempt to arrest traffic offenders. Before you finish, the traffic light has shown green. But we are installing cameras at road intersections. They will record the behaviour of every road user. When such is used, the offender would be shown the video of the offence he committed. The use of Google apps is now obsolete. The use of cameras will take adequate care of their inadequacies. As I said earlier, some intersections already have mounted cameras. Very soon, Abuja residents will experience new technology in the crime fight. It will no longer be the road users’ words against that of the officers. Some are already working. Soon defaulters would be given tickets to pay whenever they beat traffic lights. Banex junction, Kubwa road and two other places are being monitored by the same camera for different offences. That is to say that the new methods are already being installed and will soon be launched.

People seem to be confused about your men’s area of jurisdiction during operations, especially on the provision of vehicle plate numbers and driving license.

This is not peculiar to Abuja. It is a special arrangement. The internal revenue or tax board is there. The Federal Road Safety Corps is also there. So is the DRTS. So out of these three, once you pay your money to the tax officer, road safety will do its job, which is capturing the bio-data of prospective drivers. The group that does a bigger part of the job is the DRTS (VIO) in the FCT. They are the ones to train you and test you on how to observe road signs. They are the ones to determine whether one has passed the training or not. When one passes the test, they are the ones to endorse the document and also transfer it where the prospective driver will be captured in the system. In the Federal Capital Territory, the signature you see on the licence is the signature of the Director of Road Services. Sometimes, people do not understand how these things are carried out. The only major role Road Safety plays is to design the template for uniformity so that when you see the driving licence in Abuja, it is the same all over the states. They design and hand over to the states various states transportation units to make use of.

Let’s talk about the challenges connected with the issuance of substandard number plates. Who is to blame for this: the DRTS or the Federal Road Safety Corps?

The plate we give is not printed by us. The Federal Road Safety Corps does that for us. They design and print driver’s licences for the Federal Capital Territory. It doesn’t mean that we will not have ours when we want. The thing is that they render service and we pay them for the services provided. On the issue of the alleged poor quality of the number plates, I can tell you that it is the case of two people buying items from the same trader. While one has his own looking fresh, the other’s had gone bad already.  Then you ask yourself: are these people using this product the way it is meant to? We have inquired from the Road Safety Corps after several protests from the public and the answer was that some people wash their cars with non-recommended detergents that peel off the colour of the number plates. The way out is to use recommended chemicals to wash your car. Another way out is to come down to our office and pay a little amount of money and get your number plate renewed. People should stop fighting with officials when they are arrested for faded number plates. It is not wise because it has security implications.

In your opinion, has the establishment of DRTS lived up to expectations?

As an insider, I will not tell you that we are not doing well. We are doing well and from what you have been seeing, do you think that the DRTS is not doing well? Are you saying that they have remained the way they were in the past 10 years?  I have to answer you like an African. On a serious note, there have been a lot of changes from the business development angle. They are the ones who regulate the activities of the allied vehicle services. They regulate the activities of the mechanics, the auto dealers or spare parts dealers. They register and regulate them to ensure standards and people are happy. The last time that you came here, the PR office used to be a unit; it’s now a division. We are doing a lot to serve FCT residents.

What are the major challenges faced by your leadership since your assumption of office?

I should start with the one that is generally affecting every organisation. That is poor funding. This is because the kind of work we do is such that a lot is required from us. Without funding, we can hardly perform to the optimum level. With technology, anytime we are not getting it well people feel bad about our operations. They complain. But they wouldn’t know that we operate with a certain budget and that everything we do is within the budgetary allocation. So members of the public who feel that we are not getting it right are those who are ignorant of how the government is run. The second challenge is the lack of trust existing among Nigerians. Nigerians find it difficult to believe in the performance of their citizens. The general belief is that the government has failed in its promises across the board. They believe that when a sector fails, the government has failed all round. It becomes difficult for them to see through and notice the little that other sectors are doing. In Nigeria where it is all about the people against the government, the public trust is not there. No society grows like that. For example, in my own agency, it is difficult to always please everyone. As an organisation that mediates between the public and the government, we always try to say the truth as much as we can, to earn public trust because we keep working with the public. But no matter how much we try, there is the erroneous belief that our men are corrupt. We have had cases of public outcry on how our men extorted people. But at the end of the day, the investigation proved otherwise. There is no offence that would warrant any offender to hand money to any official along the road because everything is done technologically. As I said earlier, it is a lack of trust in public officeholders and when you see these things happen, it becomes a societal problem and hampers the growth not only of FCT but also of Nigeria in general.