Emmanuel lkpeama
The General Manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Olalekan Bakare-Oki, has commended media practitioners for their unwavering support in projecting the Agency’s image and activities throughout 2025.
Bakare-Oki made these remarks over the weekend during a comprehensive review of the Agency’s sustained engagement with the media,he praised journalists for their professionalism, objectivity, and civic responsibility in covering LASTMA’s interventions and policy directions.
He noted that their feedback has been invaluable in refining policies and strengthening operational frameworks.
He observed that feedback transmitted through media practitioners encapsulating public opinion, expert commentary and stakeholder insights has been largely positive, perceptive and constructively critical, providing the Agency with strategic intelligence that has supported policy refinement, strengthened operational frameworks and informed evidence-based decision-making.
“The media has remained an indispensable partner in our public enlightenment and behavioural reorientation mandate. Beyond the transmission of information, the analytical depth, constructive critiques and commendations articulated through media practitioners have significantly elevated our institutional thinking, policy discourse and reform processes,” Bakare-Oki stated.
He went further to acknowledged the inauguration of media practitioners as ‘LASTMA Media Mayors’, describing the initiative as a visionary and progressive engagement mechanism that has integrated journalists into the practical dynamics of traffic management and control across the state, thereby enriching reportage with firsthand insight, accuracy and contextual clarity.
“The Media Mayors initiative has yielded profound dividends. It has strengthened stakeholder engagement, enhanced transparency, promoted public trust and stimulating informed discourse on traffic management challenges and solutions,” he added.
The LASTMA helmsman emphasized that as the Agency enters a new operational year, the complexities of urban mobility in a rapidly expanding megacity demand a more resilient and synergistic partnership with the media particularly in driving behavioural change, encouraging voluntary compliance with traffic regulations and sustaining real-time dissemination of traffic information to road users.
Highlighting notable operational achievements, Bakare-Oki disclosed that over 1,800 LASTMA personnel were deployed under the ‘LASTMA 24-Hour Night Gangs’ initiative to proactively monitor and regulate vehicular movement during the highly charged 2025 “Detty December” period.
He explained that the continuous, round-the-clock deployment was instrumental in easing congestion along major corridors, curtailing nocturnal traffic infractions and substantially improving road safety during the festive peak.
Bakare Oki reiterated that effective traffic governance in a megacity such as Lagos requires a strategic convergence of efficient enforcement, active public cooperation and informed, responsible media engagement, stressing that enduring success is anchored on collective responsibility and shared ownership.
The LASTMA boss concluded by reaffirming the Agency’s unyielding commitment to transparency, professionalism and sustained stakeholder engagement, expressing confidence that the New Year will usher in a deeper, more impactful partnership with the media—rooted in mutual trust, constructive feedback and a collective resolve to entrench safer, more orderly and efficient road usage across Lagos State.
