By Nnamdi Ojiego

As parts of its determination to entrench discipline in Lagos roads, and to inculcate on the school children the culture of being good road users, the Lagos State government has concluded plans to take some students on transport education tour to the United Kingdom.

The trip which is part of the public enlightenment initiative of Lagos State Transport Management Authority, LASTMA, was to give the students the opportunity to see what obtains abroad and to appreciate the efforts of the state government in transforming the transport system.

The Senior Special Assistant, SSA, to the governor of Lagos State, Dr Mariam Masha disclosed this during the closing ceremony of Act 1 Kids Summer Camp, at the Freedom Park, Marina, Lagos.

She said the government was doing a lot to harness and nurture talents of school children by positively engaging them with various academic activities.

“We have different school projects, like school traffic safety advocacy programme, the young parliamentarian, and so on.”

She stated while explaining that the school traffic safety advocacy programme was a catch them young initiative to teach the students the need to have right road user attitude and behaviour.

“We believed that if we give them the knowledge at this age, it will become a part of them and they will know what to do as they grow older. They will also be the voice of communication for their own parents and older generation. This will stop over non-compliant that we see on our roads today.”

Masha explained that the planned tour to the UK is for the students to see transportation as it is obtained outside the shores of Nigeria, even as she disclosed that the children have already gone on a transport tour around Lagos to places such as BRT and Lag bus terminals, road sites to see on going works, water ways, and school of transport, among others.

The SSA however, commended the organisers of the programme, saying: “it’s very welcome to give kids things to do and keep them engaged positively instead of allowing them to roam the street or hangout aimlessly with friends. It will help them nurture what is inside of them.”

Also speaking, the Brand Manager, Nunu, Ms Bimpe Osanyintuyi, the sponsors of the programme, said they supported the initiative because, Nutricima Plc was interested in developing young talents, through its child friendly products.