Daily Independent Online.
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Thursday, July 08, 2004.
Peace returns to federal roads as Tinubu, Ogunlewe end
rift
By Victor Ebimomi
reporter, Lagos
There are indications that the incessant frictions
between the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and Lagos State agencies, the Kick Against
Indiscipline (KAI) and the Lagos State Traffic Maintenance Agency (LASTMA) may
have thawed as they are now working together on Federal roads which were formerly
at the centre of the frictions.
Daily Independent observed on Tuesday at Sabo and
Apapa that officials of both FERMA and KAI were both controlling traffic
without the normal skirmishes that usually characterised their meetings. In
fact at Sabo, an official of the KAI brigade who pleaded for anonymity
explained that they (KAI officials) had no grudge against their federal
counterparts and neither did they see anything wrong in working together on the
roads for the safety of Lagosians.
Also the presence of LASTMA was equally noticed in
some areas where they have not been seen for weeks after the Minister of Works
directive that state agencies should quit the federal roads.
At about 2:00pm on Tuesday, officials of LASTMA were
on duty at Ojota Bus Stop controlling traffic without betraying any apprehension
about the Minister’s order while a curious onlooker at Ojota was heard
asking whether the LASTMA and FERMA had sheathed their sword.
“The quarrel among these people will not take
Lagos state to anywhere we are the ones that will be at the receiving end. It
is better they settle it”, he later said. Reports have it that the two
actors in the Federa roads imbroglio which later culminated in incessant
face-off between state agencies and the federal one, Senator Adeseye Ogunewe,
the Minister of Works and the Lagos state governor Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu
might have buried the hatchet and embraced dialogue. It was reported that the
need for the duo to embrace dialogue was proposed at the National Executive
Council (NEC) meeting last week, which the Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
chaired.
According to reports, a joint committee of both the
state and the federal governments was proposed to be set up to resolve all
areas of disagreements between the two tiers of government.
Speaking with the press in Lagos last week, Ogunlewe
was reported to have expressed his willingness to embrace dialogue and
cooperate with any committee set up to resolve the issue.
“There is no need for the face-off. It must
end. The people’s interests must be protected”, the Minister was
quoted as saying.
