At the maiden edition of Stakeholders Parley organised by the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Transportation, The Association of Venue Owners in Lagos State simultaneously charged Lagos State Government to embrace technology and make subsequent parley all encompassing in its resolve to ensure event centers do not constitute traffic.
Newsconnect reports that the President of Association of Venue Owners Adetola Akinola in an interview session at the event disclosed this to journalists.
Adetola opined that the stakeholders parley initiative organised by the Ministry of Transportation is fantastic because decisions without considering all stakeholders inputs would typically not work.
She also said Lagos state government should move beyond sharing numbers, that they should embrace technology and face out human intervention going forward.
In her own words, she said;
“The world is moving, the earlier we move with the world, the better for us. It just makes life easy for everybody. It is a good way to start, but we need to move beyond making phone calls. Let’s remove human intervention completely and guess what, it is possible. We have seen it work, so it can work.
“I would like to also request that there is still a number of stakeholders that I found out are missing in today’s meeting. The very good example is Lagos State Parking Authority.
We should ensure it shouldn’t stop here. Let’s have more meetings in the future and let’s make it all encompassing. Let us include all other stakeholders that are not at today’s meeting maybe they didn’t come because they were not invited and ensure we all sit together so that nobody feels that policies are just being dumped on them.
“We host event, we know the reality of hosting events in Lagos so we can bring to the table what works, what happens. We can also suggest ways that we believe things would work. I believe we are responsible person, we also believe in the greater Lagos campaign and plan. We are happy to work with Government of Lagos State to make it work.
“We do business in Lagos. Some of us have spent all our lives in Lagos, we have not even been to where we came from in a long time. So it is our desire to see Lagos work. We are happy to work with all stakeholders to ensure that we have a greater Lagos that we all believe in.
“With the Lagos State Safety Commission, we have embraced technology. So today we register all the events we host in Lagos without having to talk to anybody. I see today that numbers are shared, and all that. We need to move beyond sharing numbers , let’s go online, let’s do things online.
“So I think it is a good idea that LASTMA and Lagos State Ministry of Transportation is working with Safety Commission to also reach out to us”. She said
The chief host of the event, Special Adviser to Governor Sanwo-Olu on Transportation Sola Giwa said any mega city like Lagos state can only be governed by rule of law. Governor Sanwoolu is about rule of law and promote respect for rule of law. While you are doing your business, it is important you think about others.
He said;
“Your business should not hinder other people’s businesses. You have an event centre, you have an hotel, you have a club. Yes these are features of mega cities. Government is giving enabling environment for the businesses to prosper.
“However as you are making your business, other people must be able to use the road’. Giwa said.
The Director General Safety Commission Lanre Mojola said today’s meeting is basically to look at all those rules of engagement and also emphasize the importance of training all staffs of event centres.
In his words, he said;
‘They must have designated people that will be trained on how to manage traffic within their event centres. Appropriate designated spaces should be provided for parking.
“Also in terms of event safety, event safety must be granted for events above 250 in Lagos State”. He said.
The General Manager of LASTMA, Mr Olalekan Bakare-Oki made known that effective traffic management around events centres contributes strongly to the safety of attendees at such gathering and other residents in that area.
In the words of Mr Bakare-Oki, “The interest of other motoring public should be prioritized and considered while operators of event centre run their businesses”
“All hands must be on deck to ensure that sanity is maintained whenever there is any social gathering at event centres across Lagos metropolis.” He concluded
Present at the stakeholders parley were Operators/Owners of event centres, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Transportation, Hon. Toyin Aremu, top management staff of LASTMA, Commanders and Zonal Heads.