Last week, it was like hell was let loose in Lagos State as
the Centre of Excellence was locked down in heavy traffic. Across the
length and breadth of the state, it was a bad week for commuters and
motorists as they spent several hours before getting to their
destinations; so many spent over 6 hours in a journey of 30 minutes. The
heavy gridlock witnessed on the major roads, as well as inland roads,
brought unbearable hardship for Lagosians, who blamed their woes on bad
state of the roads and torrential rain.
As one of the most congested cities in the world, it is on record
that about 40 per cent of cars in Nigeria are registered in Lagos.
Almost every major road in the city experiences traffic gridlock of
various forms and magnitude.
Mildly put, some road users spend close to one fourth of their day in
traffic, and these motorists have continually beckoned on government to
work towards mending the roads in order to reduce the sufferings of the
people of the state.
From the Mainland to the Island, to the densely populated Ikeja,
Ijesha, Isolo to the highbrow Victoria Island, Lekki and Ikoyi, the
embarrassing sight of dilapidated roads confronts you frontally, with
many potholes disturbing the movement of vehicles as well as goods.
Similarly, Mushin-Ikotun Road, which is a long and narrow stretch
connecting commercial and residential areas in the state had remained
perpetually on lockdown.
A motorist who pleaded anonymity told Sunday Sun that every evening
and when workers are returning from work, it is often a huge challenge
navigating through Jakande Estate gate area to either Ikotun-Egbe or
Ijegun.
Huge pothole at the estate gate area and a big crater at the NNPC
junction area, hold down vehicles and prevent them from navigating
easily through the road.
Repair works that were recently carried out in between Ile-Iwe Metta,
Aye and Ire-Akari had been washed off. Same for Kogberegbe junction,
Pako Roundabout, Jakande-Gate, NNPC Junction, Iyana-Ejigbo, Powerline
bus stop, Agodo, Ile-Iwe and the descent inwards Ikotun roundabout. The
narrative is not any different commuting from Ile-Iwe Ejigbo inwards
Oke-Afa and Ajao Estate.
Crater-sized potholes and gullies have surfaced in most roads in the
state and have prompted slow traffic and signposts a caution to most
road users who are now vigilant as they ply these roads. Traffic robbers
often take advantage of the dilapidated roads to dispossess motorists
of their valuables and those who try to resist them end up with bloody
mouth and sometimes serious life threatening injuries.
The ever-busy Ikorodu and Oshodi Apapa expresswas are not any different.
Failed portions dot most bus-stops, hindering free flow of traffic
and some of the potholes are so dangerous on the road that unsuspecting
motorists could easily jump into them that could result in the vehicle
somersaulting.
From time to time, people have questioned the whereabouts of the state government and even the local governments.
According to Cosmas Igwe, a resident of Ajegunle in the Ajeromi Local
Government Area of Lagos, the bad roads in Ajegunle is the worst in the
entire Lagos State, especially as it has slowed down businesses and
raised the cost of living.
Igwe, a commercial motorcyclists, said: “The situation is terrible,
you cannot even ply this road safely everyday without encountering one
incident or the other, there is no day one vehicle doesn’t get in this
gully and get trapped.”
Similarly, Usman Husseni, another commercial cyclists, said that the
deep gullies on the Cardoso-Mba road have prolonged the journey to
Boundary Market in the heart of Ajegunle and also to Apapa.
He said that the fare for the journey has also increased, “but the
suffering is too much that every day when I get home it will seem as if I
had worked in a construction company, spending the whole day carrying
sand and concrete.”
A commercial bus driver, Adepoju Boluwaji, said: “This road is the
worst in the community. It has been like this for long and government
has never cared to do anything about it, despite what we suffer,
especially during rainy seasons. For more than 10 years now, Julius
Berger (JB) construction company has been carrying out palliative on
this road, but they have refused to do anything this time around. We are
suffering here. I urge the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to
come to our aid, just like he has been doing for other areas.”
For Lucky Imasuen, a commercial motorcyclist: “Our passengers do
complain that we charge them high, but they fail to understand that this
bad road is the cause of it. We urge the concerned authority to work on
this road, or is it when one of these container-laden trailers fall on
this road and kill people that they will fix the road?”
Indeed, the containers have been falling and killing innocent
Nigerians, another residents told Sunday Sun, pointing to several
incidents in the Kirikiri area of Lagos where bad roads and
container-laden trucks had in a way imprisoned the residents.
The resident, Kingsley Onyechi, lamented that, “government seems to
have forgotten us or may be this area is not part of Lagos. How do you
explain a situation when you are returning home and you are driving and
you cannot access your house, many residents have died in the precarious
situation and we are calling on government to return sanity here.
“There are ways business could be done here in an orderly manner,
look at our roads, deep gullies litter everywhere and yet we pay tax.”
Many Lagosians were of the opinion that the downpour of last week has
exposed the government ineptitude in road maintenance as the roads were
flooded, and drainages blocked, which led to traffic gridlock
essentially occasioned by unmotorable roads.
Lamenting over the bad roads in the state, residents have called on
the government to urgently commence works on them to lessen the burden
they face every day.
According to Adeniyi Daramola, a Lagos resident, “government should
not pretend not to know these roads, but if they do we can tell them
that some of the inner roads, which commuters could have used to cut off
the heavy gridlock on the expressway and some major roads, need to be
fixed.
“For instance, many motorists trying to connect Ikotun and Igando
areas of Lagos now enter from 7/8 bus-stop area to access Asa Afariogun
in Ajao Estate, through to Chivita and Canoe, then to Idimu area from
where they can connect Igando.
“But accessing Asa Afariogun through 7/8 on Airport road is difficult
due to many potholes littering the area and these potholes slow down
vehicular movement which cause heavy gridlock, stretching out to the
Airport road and keeping commuter on the road for a longtime. The same
with 7/8 to Isolo linking Iriakari Estate to link Okota road.
“If government can fix all the potholes between Asa Afariogun and
Canoe, as well as Isolo-Iriakari road, then they would have brought
relief to the commuters using the connecting routes thereby lessening
the burden of the people.”
Mr Daramola pointed out the need for government to fix the
Isolo-Mushin road and the Okota-Ejigbo road to ensure that residents in
these areas get relief.
A big gully near Isolo Bridge had prevented motorists from using that
road, another resident identified as Matthew Momoh toldSunday Sun.
According to him, motorists who could have easily go straight from
there to Ejigbo are now forced to return to the Asawani road, which is
also in bad shape.
He said that there is need for the government to quickly fix the deep
gully and reopen the road for vehicles connecting Ejigbo from there to
quickly pass through.
The other problematic areas are the NNPC Junction in front of the
Ejigbo LCDA, and the Iyana Ejigbo area, where vehicles have to slow down
to navigate the bad spot in these areas.
Responding to the cries of Lagos residents, the state government two
weeks ago declared a state of emergency on various dilapidated highways
and carriageways in the state.
Governor Sanwo-Olu ordered massive construction work on critical
roads and highways across the state, beginning from last Monday.
His media aide, Gboyega Akosile said in a statement that, “after his
final meeting with the contractors on Sunday, which lasted for about
three hours, Sanwo-Olu declared the commencement of major construction
work on the identified highways considered critical to the reduction of
traffic congestion in the state. The governor said all the eight
engineering firms had been given the mandate to immediately mobilise
their equipment on the sites and commence major construction works on
the identified roads.
“This afternoon, we have just concluded meeting with various
reputable construction companies and all of them have been given the
brief to immediately commence major construction work in various parts
of the state. The exercise will begin tomorrow with palliative work on
the selected roads, which are both on the Island and mainland divisions
of the state.
“The contractors have been given the mandate to start mobilising
their equipment to their respective sites without further delay. Their
activities must first give our people an immediate relief on the
affected roads so that there can be free flow of traffic even during the
rehabilitation work.”
To complement the major construction work on the highway, Sanwo-Olu
said that the Lagos State Public Works Corporation would be carrying out
repairs of 116 inner roads across the state. This, he said, would be in
addition to over 200 roads already rehabilitated by the corporation in
the last three months.
The governor said he was not unaware of the pain experienced by road
users in the past few days, which was compound by persistent downpour.
He appealed to residents to bear with the government while efforts were
being made to assuage their pains and bring permanent relief to them.
Special Adviser on Works and Infrastructure, Aramide Adeyoye, have
listed some of the critical highways and roads to be constructed to
include Ojota stretch of the Ikorodu Road, Motorways-Kudirat Abiola Way,
Apogbon Highway, Babs Animashaun Road, Agric/Ishawo Road and Ijede Road
in Ikorodu, and Lekki-Epe Expressway from Abraham Adesanya to Eleko
Junction.
She added that there would be massive re-construction work on a network of roads in Ikoyi, Ikeja GRA and Victoria Island.
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