Honourable Victor Enoghama is  Edo state Commissioner for Transport.  in this interview with UCHECHUKWU OLISAH, he  bares his mind on the accusation that  the  state government is fleecing local government accounts, the call for the scrapping of local governments, the challenges facing the transport sector and his vision for the  sector among others.

AS a former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, what would you say to the accusation that the state government is fleecing local governments accounts, particularly for capital projects?
The Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs is actually saddled with the responsibility of supervising the local governments. They maintain a Joint Allocation Committee (JAC) account between the state  and the local governments. When   allocation comes to the  local governments, there is what is called pre-JAC meeting; which  means  representatives of local governments  will hold a meeting with the commissioner  presenting the amount  that came into the  purse of the ministry and highlight things that are mandatory  that would be deducted from it i.e g teachers’ salaries  which are  deducted from  the  source.
Before I left  office,  the  monthly   package for  teachers in the state   was  almost  N700 million ;  pensions were   deducted  from the  source,  five per cent went  to the traditional rulers and one per cent to  NULGE’S training fund.  during the  JAC meeting, you have representatives from the  ministries like  the commissioners, permanent secretaries,  directors,  and council chairmen  present.  you also have a member from  the Revenue Mobilisation Commission  and  Office of  the Accountant General present.   With these, whatever you are doing is transparent. The idea of the state government taking money  doesn’t arise.

From what is on ground, it appears the  local governments do not have the capacity   of executing projects while some  think they   should be  scrapped. What  is your  view?
I don’t think so. I   I spent two and  a half years supervising the 18 local governments in the state . I  can tell you  that there was 200 per cent improvement looking at how I met and  left it.  today,  the local governments in Edo State have    built  schools, health centres  and even constructed  some roads.  In Uromi alone,  I  commissioned  at least  six roads between   2009 and  2010.  The local governments have constructed a  number of schools and had some  renovated. If you go round now, you will see that before I left the ministry 70 per cent of the local government funds was geared towards education. The   local government is the organ of government   touching the grassroots. Councils are there to  listen to and carry out what people  request for. They might not be pro-active, but they are trying.  Why would a country like America be operating four tiers  of government? They are operating it because they believe the more   you have these  tiers of government, the more  they are  closer to the people. For me, scrapping of local governments is not the solution.

What would you suggest as an alternative    source  of  revenue for local governments  since it appears they are solely  dependent on allocation from the Federal Government?
The problem we are facing in the local governments  is that some of the bosses,  l think are  either lazy or   don’t know what they are doing.Actually, as it is prescribed in the Nigerian Constitution, tenement rate, levy and fine  are sources of local government revenue. A local government like Oredo, Egor, Ikpoba Okha should not even  depend  on this so-called Abuja monthly allocation.   If  it is well harnessed, I am quite  sure they will be raking in N30 million to N50 million on monthly basis. They should take a cue from the state government. When we came in we were making N300 to N350 million. Now, we generate  over a billion. So there are lots of revenue  in the local governments that have not been tapped by the  councils.  if a local government harnesses  revenue  from the cemetery,  park,  tenement rate , it  will have enough resources.

Now that you are commissioner for transport, what  will you say are the challenges  faced  by  the   Ministry of Transport in  Edo state?
Since I came on board,  we have faced  series of challenges starting from the traffic unit, that is, the unit that controls the traffic officers. What we have discovered is that some of the personnel there  don’t report  for duty. What that means is that there is no structure in place, and there is no system  in place that actually regulates this exercise. And the first thing we must do is to try as much as possible to make sure that those  who  report  for work actually do their best. There  are  series of allegations that these officers extort  money from the public, are  arrogant and  not civil  on   the job. So, what I am trying to do is to educate them on the job.  though  they were trained, we have some of them who are too overzealous  while carrying out their duties. The role of a traffic officer is to make sure that  the  road is free of vehicular movement. But what you see  is  that some of these  officers  don’t know the difference between ‘No Parking’, ‘No Standing’, and ‘No waiting’. So, even when somebody is sitting in  his vehicle they will  tow the vehicle believing that the person is parking.   And I am trying as much as possible to educate  and orientate them that a traffic officer is supposed to be  a community leader. What we mean by community leader is that whenever you see  someone  who is  about going against the  law, you prevent the individual  from doing so. but what we see is  that   they  will hide and let the  offence  be committed so that the person can be fined.  This is not what is expected of a  traffic officer. A traffic officer is supposed to prevent an offence.

And  what  are the  challenges faced in  terms of general policy framework within the transport sector ?
First of all, like I have said,  for us to have some kind of policy framework for the transport sector in  the  state, the government must have to put some certain things in place. First of all, we have to have roads  and our streets  marked with the  ‘parking ‘, ‘no parking’ and ‘stop’ signs.  all these  must be in place so that  the drivers will know what to do and  what not to do. Another challenge is that of lack of private car parks. We don’t even have a central  motor part.
We don’t have those facilities that can designate an area where vehicles can be used as a garage or not. as a government, you must design a policy that will have to regulate all these amenities.

What  is your  vision for the transport sector in Edo State?
I am actually looking at how we  can bring in the  private sector into the  ministry to partner with government in terms of transport.  in essence we are looking at a way whereby the private sector can partner with us in the area of  issuing Edo State drivers’ license, and also issuing Edo state  plate numbers. the Federal Road Safety Commission is doing this on  our behalf  now, which is not supposed to be. Lagos state  now has  its own  private drivers’ license division and  issues   driver’s license. I think we should take a cue from this.

Given that there are no public or private parks particularly in the Benin metropolis, don’t you think it is unfair and premature to fine people when they supposedly park in places you now designate as illegal parking areas?
What we have done since I came into the ministry, if you have observed, in the ministry we came up with some roads. Let us take for example, Mission Road, I have published some of these roads in a way where you can park and where you cannot park. And in some of our roads we have some signs, and we are also in the process of making more signs that we can put on our roads to inform the general public where they can park and where they cannot park.  Right now, we have a few traffic lights across the city but you see some drivers, especially commercial bus drivers, don’t wait, they are always in a hurry and you know what happens when you beat a red light, there is a possibility you will cause an accident that will lead to loss of lives. No matter what you do as a government try as much as possible to educate the public you will still see have some people who  will not respect that law.

The public are of the view that you are doing enough to sanitize the transport sector but they are saying that you are too highhanded. Some said you boasted you can even impound and tow the governor’s vehicle.
The truth of the matter is that the comrade governor has told me if any of his own drivers driving him beat the traffic light, we should get the driver arrested and the driver will have to pay that fine. What that means is that nobody is above the law including the governor. I have had occasion of travelling with the governor, we approached a traffic light and he ordered the driver to stop. You must obey the traffic light especially when you are a government official driving a government car. What you are supposed to do is to show example to the public that this thing, we as government personnel we are respecting it and they should respect it. If you are harsh for Nigerians they will never know that you are serious in anything you are doing. We think that everything is government magic and there is nothing like government magic here because we need to be real with ourselves in a way that if you don’t stand your ground to enforce certain rules and regulations you will never get a good foundation.