The Lagos State Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps was recently honored with an award as The Best Sector Command and the Sector Commander, CC Hyginus Omeje was equally honored with a merit award for piloting the affairs of the Command in attaining the fit.

In view of these achievements, Naija Car Lovers visited the Sector
Command and her Commander to congratulate him and get his views on what the award was all about and also interviewed him on other salient issues.

Enjoy the engaging interview...

Naija Car Lovers: What was the award about?

Sector Commander: The award was about our performance in the 2015 Annual rating of Sector Commands. The tripod of this present Management of the Corps Marshal Dr Boboye Oyeyemi are Reward, Punishment and Consultation. They will consult, punish and reward when
you do very well. In keeping with the tripod of his administration policy, the Corps Marshal, decided that the 36 Sector Commands, including the FCT, should be assessed based on some criteria for rating. At the end of the 2015 rating, R.S 2.1 (Lagos Sector Command), emerged overall 1st, . As a matter of fact, that assessment is done quarterly. And Lagos Sector Command came 1st in all the quarters, ie, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters of the assessment, therefore emerging overall 1st for the year.

NCL : Has Lagos State ever won this award before?

S.C .: This is the first time such rating is being carried out.
Hitherto, you could say we know the top performing Sector Commands but it has never been officially gazetted as this. I recall that when i was in Anambra State, my Command was also tops, in our 2014, 2013 RS5 Zonal ratings but it was never formalized like this.Three sector commands made up the zone and my
command, Anambra Sector Command was coming 1st out of the three commands in the zone. But at the national level, we never had it like this, 2015 was the maiden edition. And we got this Overall Best prize.

NCL: You really deserve it because you must have done something
extraordinary for them to recognize your efforts because "uneasy lies the head that wears the crown".

S.C.: They recognized the fact that if R.S 2.1 came Overall 1st,
someone was actually piloting their affairs.Although we have laid down criteria, creativity and innovativeness was our guide as one must do things differently beyond laid-down criteria. Even if you did it within the laid-down criteria, again, you also need to have done it excellently well above every other person because there is a score for everything you do, for instance your projects or whatever initiatives you come up with are all scored.

NCL: How has it been running Lagos Sector Command?

S.C.; I must confess that it has not been 'rice and stew' (laughs),
because it's like one swimming in a bigger ocean. Looking at where I was coming from, Anambra State, where i had barely 6 component Unit Commands to take care of. In Lagos, we have 15 Component Unit Commands plus the Sector Command making it 16. So you discover that you have more challenges to tackle. The challenge is quite enormous. It is often said that Lagos is "mini Nigeria" so we just have to at our best in setting the pace so that others can
follow. And we thank God for his enabling grace that has enabled us to do what we could do so far since we came on board. I took over precisely in August 2014. So this is exactly my 2nd year as the Second Commander of Lagos Sector Command.

NCL: Whoa so you got this awards exactly on your anniversary month, congratulations.

S.C: Yes. I must confess it has not really been easy. I have more personnel to deal with, again, with limited resources, yet you are expected to perform and deliver. This requires a lot of due diligence,
prudent management of resources, both human and material resources. This is also a state that controls the media so one wrong step can just make a mess of all FRSC has been doing. So one needs to be on top of his game all the time.

NCL: What do you miss in Anambra State?

S.C.: Ah, if there is something i miss in Anambra State i will say I missed that sense of being at "Home". Anambra like the slogan of the State is "Home For All". One could say yes, I was really at home. You are in the midst of your people. At times, it is an advantage especially when you want to embark on grass root advocacy. And I made meat of this when I was in Anambra State. I came up with an initiative of domesticating road safety messages during the August mass return during which a lot of people (especially women for August Meetings) return home to the state. Theprogramme was such a huge success that after the first year of it in 2012
when I started it, the following year 2013, FRSC management, acknowledging its enormous impact made it a South-East affair. The then Corps Marshal put it down in writing that all other South-east Sector Commanders should replicate it. That shows the degree of its success. And why could I do it? This was because like I said, you are somehow "at home". You are in the midst of your people, you are communicating in the language both parties understand and they identify with what you are saying and you identify with what their feelings. I also enjoyed robust relationship with the governor and government of Anambra State. That saw us getting tremendous logistics support from the state government.
I however, thank God for the present governor of Lagos State His Excellency, Mr. Akinnwumi Ambode whose administration marked a turning point in FRSC' relationship with Lagos State. I thank God because my coming here was like God turning things around again for me. I came at a point in time that we have another new administration that saw Lagos State being on the same page with the Federal Government which was the key turning point in our relationship. And I must confess that the present Lagos State Government has been wonderful to the FRSC. Never in the history of FRSC has Lagos State Government extended logistics support to the Command except in my administration. Each time I remember it, i can't but just appreciate God for his favour.

NCL: I see great passion in you doing your job, what prompted you to join FRSC?

S.C.: Whoa, (takes a deep breath), i think it's all about service to
humanity. And that will take us to where i started. By profession, I am a professional nurse and a health educator. I hold a bachelors degree in health education and a Masters degree in same field.

NCL: Oh , really?

S.C.: Yes. And If you know nurses and their work, it is a humanitarian service. Nurses are on the top chart of servants to humanity. So when i found myself in FRSC, i could not but use my nursing expertise to reach out to crash victims. It was like still fulfilling my career quest but outside bedside nursing. That's why each time I carry out rescue operation I get job satisfaction. I could not practice my nursing in the clinic because at the time I entered there was no medical department unlike now that we have clinics that one could have easily fitted in. So all of us that came in then way back in 1992, we all came in and were trained as a
general road safety professionals dong all administrative , patrol operations, rescue operation and removal of obstructions within the context of FRSC mandate. That was how we were all groomed . So for me, it was an advantage as God already knew where i would exhibit that skill. As a professional nurse, you are a counselor, a psychologist among others. When i'm handling crash victims, I am be able to give them the psycho-therapy which i got from nursing and bring it to the road. I handle them more professionally and
more sympathetic too which makes the difference from what someone else without such professional background could do. When you also come to educating the motoring public, I also bring my background as a health educator to bare. As I said earlier, I read Health Education both at my 1st and 2nd Degree so it is still working for me. All these help me in the my road safety job and that makes a remarkable difference. When I am on air educating the motoring public with such a flare its because I am
an educator by profession.

NCL: I attest to that because each time i listen to you over the air, there is always something new from you or i learn things from a different perspective.

S.C.: Yes, that's because of my different professional backgrounds added to my experience in the job over have the years. You should also know that there is no University here in Nigeria that offers road safety as a course, but the FRSC trains all her new staff and you are meant to use your professional background to make your input into the progress of the Corps. Again, the passion is in-built in me because just like in nursing, you don't have a much room for mistakes while saving lives. In like manner in FRSC, as we battle
to save lives in our rescue and we do not have much room or margin for errors so you cannot but just do your job very well. I believe that the spirit of God in one also makes a great difference. Whatever we do in life is like sowing and reaping. Each time i am talking to my officers and men, i tell them that "the lion you
do not tame today will one day tame you tomorrow " Meaning that if you refuse to do this job the way you are meant to do it with passion and enthusiasm, one day those drivers you refuse to correct or refuse to arrest, there might be one of your own in that particular vehicle or on the road who might end up falling victim to such errant drivers. That's the understanding i have that
makes me do the job the way i do it. Again, looking at it from the spiritual angle, I see road safety as a ministry. Everybody must not be on the pulpit. But everybody can do the work of ministry in your field. Therefore, for me i want to create a ministry out of my responsibilities in FRSC. That's why you see that each time you see me on the road, or hear me on air, you see and feel that energy and vibe. I know that God willing if you do very well, those
lives you saved probably on the last day or even before the last day, God himself will say, "well done".

NCL: What is the state of your officer brutalized by a military man recently whom we heard had his eyes damaged?

S.C.: He went through surgery recently and has been discharged from the hospital. He still has a plaster on the badly damaged eye. But he is seeing with the other eye. He is now recuperating at home. It was a very unfortunate incident. I will just say that it was an unnecessary 'gangsterism' on the part of the military boys. From investigations, these are young soldiers that just passed out in June. They were said to be celebrating one of their own. I don't know what led to their having a scuffle with somebody. The scuffle didn't start with our own person, our own person saw what was going on and pleaded with them to stop the beating and instead take the man to the police station for a proper resolution or prosecution. One of the road safety Marshal's relations also ran out to join in the plea. But the soldiers just hit him with something and blood started gushing out. This now made the Marshal rush to the
police station to report the incident. The police came and the military boys wanted to even disarm one of the Sergeants. As they
sighted the FRSC Marshal among the police, they became infuriated that he went to call the police to come and arrest them and they descended on him and in the process, damaged his eye among other severe injuries he sustained. Again, when they saw that the damage had been done, they took to their heels. By
then, alot of people had gathered and chased them. One of the military boys who apparently did not know the road well was grabbed and stabbed on the stomach. It was some other people also from the crowd that went to the police station to report that someone had been stabbed and lying helplessly on the ground and
they went with a patrol van and evacuated him to the hospital. We thank God that he is alive and recuperating.

NCL: We hope the Corps will do their best to assist him.

S.C.: Yes, everybody in the system is insured so the right things will be done for him.

NCL: What laws do we have guarding men of your Corps from brutalization?

S.C. : Well, if you brutalize anybody, the law of the land is there. You will be charged normally. But on our own part, we are not authorized to brutalize offenders. If you do it, you will be charged with incivility to a member of the public. So if a member of the public also does it to any of us, that person will also be charged for assault and if it is in the course of carrying out official duties, obstruction to duty.

NCL : Please we need clarification on vehicle plate number, the new
vehicle plate number, when someone buys a Nigeria used car, what should he do to or with the vehicle plate number because the new plate numbering system is that the vehicle plate number is registered to him and the car. And we were told that this would help so that you can remove the vehicle plate number when selling your used car and still retain that vehicle plate number for your next car. But so far, that is practically impossible.

S.C .: It is not practically impossible. It is just that anytime you come up with a new procedure for people to follow, most Nigerians like quick fix. The vehicle plate number is personalized. When you are selling, you are meant to remove that number plate. The new buyer should go and get his own vehicle plate number and use it to go back to the database and input his own details and formalize everything. And the initial seller can use his retrieved vehicle plate number to register another car if he so wishes. That is the ideal thing. Part of the problem is a multi facile one based on the ignorance of the owner and the unwillingness on the part of motor licensing officers to go through the proper procedure.

NCL: Thank you sir for your time and congratulations once again to you and your command on your recent laurels.

S.C.: You are most welcome and thank you too.


Culled from www.naijacarlovers.com