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The continued neglect of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway by the Federal Government has left bitter taste in the mouths of millions living in communities, towns and villages along that corridor.
Beyond grinding economic activities almost to a halt, the expressway has made life brutish, short, fearful and painful. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE, who monitored the road, returned with sordid tales of its deplorate state.
It is not for nothing that roads, which constitute about 70 to 80 per cent ratio of the mode of transportation for people, goods and services, are acknowledged as economic enablers. For one, roads are catalysts for economic growth and development, as they fast-track economic integration by opening up the interiors and connecting the rural and urban dwellers in a seamless and symbiotic manner that promote economic integration of all parts of society.
Although, the Muhammadu Buhari administration claimed to have left its impact on about 700 roads across the country, apparently in a bid to leverage road transportation to catalyze economic growth and development, one such road on which it may have abysmally failed in this regard is the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, which remained, in part, one of the worst in the country.
The new Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway inaugurated by General Olusegun Obasanjo, was built in the 1980s by the Murtala Mohammed-Obasanjo military administration. A dual-carriageway, it is arguably, one of the most important roads in the Southwest.
It connects Ogun State to Lagos. It stretches from the Apapa Wharf running through Ijora to Western Avenue to Ojuelegba, Mushin, down to Oshodi, Ikeja, from where it gets to Sango-Ota and on to Abeokuta.
Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, an 81-kilometre-long (50mi) expressway is, arguably, among Nigeria’s busiest highways, playing host to a cluster of over 300 communities and linking the people in these communities with those living in metropolitan Lagos.
The road accommodates more than 250,000 passenger car units (PCU) daily (a unit of measurement frequently used for calculating traffic volume where a passenger car is taken as a standard vehicle), and constitutes one of the largest road networks in Africa.
It is one of the roads under the watch of the Federal Roads
Maintenance Agency (FERMA), an agency charged with road improvements and inter-states connectivity.
Reconstruction
Though the Obasanjo administration had suffered acerbic criticisms for abandoning the road between 1999 and 2003, the feeble attempts at rehabilitating the road by FERMA between 2003 and 2007, and subsequent attempts to rework the road by successive administrations since the late Umar Yar’Adua administration, has turned the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway to a cash cow of sort.
The latest reconstruction efforts on the expressway were flagged off on May 14, 2018, by the then Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who, among other things, said the government’s concern and intention was to help in reducing travel time of thousands of commuters and motorists on the road.
The rehabilitation contract was awarded at the cost of $61.3 million (equivalent to N22 billion at the time), to Messrs’ Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, and Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) Limited. The rehabilitation was divided into two sections. While Section 1 from Lagos to Ota was assigned to Julius Berger, section II from Ota to Abeokuta was given to RCC.
Though Julius Berger’s section of the work had been from Ile-Zik to Ota, on the whole, the Lagos end of the dual carriageway appears the most neglected and abandoned by the government. For those living along this corridor, it doesn’t matter who comes to their aid as long as the road is fixed.
Nigerians living on either side of the highway are endangered people.
They pray daily that rain should never fall and that no trailer should break down on the road any time they step out of their homes.
The ensuing flood that overruns the highway informed the first prayer while the second was informed by the tendency that an unforeseen breakdown signals an indeterminable man-hour they may lose to the traffic snarl. Many tell tales of having to sleep on the road in such situations.
Articulated vehicles keep breaking down or are involved in accidents daily, and rains keep pounding, further complicating the terror of the people and worsening the state of the road.
Though there are various sections from which the people face this horror, especially at the Lagos end, with one of such being the service lane at the Oshodi-bound section at Ile-Epo Market, which had totally collapsed, the highway’s major problem areas can be said to begin from U-Turn, few metres from Abule-Egba, a sprawling metropolis.
Residents claim that fatal accidents are five-a-penny on the road. So rife were these concerns that residents of Ojokoro Low-Cost Housing Estate at Meiran Lagos sent an appeal to the Federal Government to fix the road.
They cited increasing numbers of fatalities, especially on their section of the highway following the preponderance of motorists, especially commercial operators, to resort to driving against the traffic due to the failed portion of the road.
According to residents, the potholes and craters on the road had made the road impassable, forcing the drivers to drive against the traffic, contrary to the Lagos State Traffic Laws 2018 which results in forfeiture of the vehicle of the motorist that drove against the traffic to the government.
The severity of the law forces the offenders to be reckless on the road, speeding at will to avoid arrest, thereby exposing innocent pedestrians using the road to fatalities.
In a chat with our correspondent, the Director of Federal Highways, Southwest, Federal Ministry of Works, Mr. Adedamola Kuti, said the government had not abandoned the highway.
He said it had expanded the scope of the construction contract for residents’ good. He explained that because of the cost variation in the additional contract, efforts were on towards coming up with a comprehensive request in the form of an augmentation forwarded to the Federal Government.
Kuti said ongoing construction achieved 40 per cent completion before the contract review, adding that the increased scope of work necessitated repackaging of the project.
Hassan Abdullahi, a Vulcaniser, who had been plying his trade just after the Kola Junction for over 15 years, said he is considering moving out of Kola.
For him, sales have worsened in the past five years as the government seemed to have abandoned the road.
Mr Adeyemi Bamigboye, a commercial driver, who has been plying the Lagos-Abeokuta Highway for the past five years, said things weren’t this bad until four years ago. He said the Lagos end of the inbound Abeokuta was the worst hit.
He wondered why the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration’s ‘THEMES Agenda’ has done nothing about “a road as critical as the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway which has remained in such critical state.”
Unlike his predecessor, Akinwunmi Ambode, who frequently fixed the Lagos axis of the road, Sanwo-Olu did nothing, he continued. “Nobody came around here to campaign because there is nothing to show of the government’s presence in this part of the state,” he said.
To compound the problem, Agberos just recently jerked up their charges, not minding the crisis occasioned by fuel subsidy removal, worsening road conditions and general insecurity on the road.
Mrs. Esther Abegunde, who owns a hairdressing salon by Kola, wondered if those living around that axis are still in Lagos. She said between Meiran, Kola and Obadeyi, life is more traumatic.
This reporter witnessed her claim at Obadeyi, as a cement-laden trailer upturned at the inbound Lagos axis, blocking a section of the road that is almost cut into two.
A LASTMA route Supervisor, who spoke to our reporter in confidence, because he was not authorized to do so, said his “men are going through hell” trying to ensure sanity, especially along Meiran, Salolo, Kola, Moshalashi, Orile Alagbado and Obadeyi. He urged the government to come early to alleviate the suffering of the people of the area.
Read Also: Two injured in multiple accidents on Lagos-Abeokuta expressway
Residents said things weren’t as bad on the Lagos end until lately.
Between 2015 and 2019, the Ambode administration’s presence was felt on the road.
Though transportation experts would admit that all Nigerian roads are hazardous, a preponderant opinion is that the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway heavily populated by clusters of housing estates and commercial tenements might have claimed more lives due largely to the government’s neglect.
The closest the state got to bringing hope to the people along the corridor was the unveiling of a list by the Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (LAMATA) which had the Abule-Egba-Toll gate Road as a priority road for which it called for investors to partner in developing.
At an investors’ forum where it unveiled opportunities in the transportation sector, which was held last month, LAMATA assured the people that succour would come once they secure any investor on that corridor.
LAMATA said the government is not only thinking of rehabilitating the road, but it would also extend the Bus Rapid Transit to the Lagos end of the Old Tollgate to capture the close to 500,000 pedestrians that ply that route daily. From Obadeyi to Alakuko, Amje, Ajegunle, and the Old Tollgate, it was a tale of anguish.
Dr Funmilayo Aderanti, who shuttles between Lagos and Abeokuta where she works as a medical officer at the Ogun State General Hospital, said plying the road daily is taking a toll on her health.
According to her, she would be happy if the government would improve the lives of road users and make travelling on the road easier.
A development economist, Princewill Umunakwe said it is undeniable that the bad state of the road would be having adverse effects on the economy of the people on that axis. For him, he foresees a situation where many corporate citizens would not find that axis attractive despite the advantage of striding between the two commercially-viable states in the Southwest.
Wondering how the government could not see the nexus between transportation and economy, Umunakwe said the government can flip the coin and turn the fortunes of that axis around if it could make the road passable.
Mr Isa Egbeyemi, a Civil Engineer, described it as “shameful” that a federal road would be allowed to slip into that state of disuse due to negligence.
He said in line with the Executive Order signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari, local contractors with requisite competence would do better than the big multinationals whose antecedents have been less than salutary in the country’s construction industry.
The Ogun end of the highway At the Ogun State end of the Tollgate, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC RS 2.22) officers said their major headache is the Lagos end of the road.
The condition on the Lagos end, especially the last few metres to the Old Tollgate is so bad that motorists drive against traffic into the Ogun State end of the Tollgate and they have to turn a blind eye just to allow for free flow of traffic from motorists entering Ogun State.
One of the officers, Adinoyi Siaka Abdullahi, who said he just submitted a road audit of the state of the road from the Old Tollgate to Onihale, (just after the Ota Bridge), said the people have Dapo Abiodun to thank for the improved state of the road.
He said a month before the election, the governor caused the road to be repaired which brought so much relief to the people of the area.
On this road, the only thing that showed that Julius Berger ever worked on it was their vehicles stacked at Onihale, on the inbound Abeokuta carriageway and at Ijako on the Lagos inbound way. These two spots were far beyond the brief of Lagos to Ota, which the firm was assigned.
Between these two spots, motorists inward Abeokuta enjoy some respite and enjoy a very smooth ride on the wide road that has the complement of both tertiary and secondary drainage.
Shortly after Owode, heading towards Iyana-Ilogbo, motorists detoured again to drive against traffic as a result of a very bad section of the road.
The situation remained the same up to Ilepa I and Ilepa II, Pakoto to Fulham, where it got a bit better till it got to Arigbajo, where The Nation learnt, Larfarge had carried out remediation activity last year with concrete formwork, especially at Papalantoro.
Motorists enjoy the concrete road to Ewekoro, where Larfarge had its cement factory. From Itori, Dangote Cement took over with concrete road work, making access into Ibese where it has its own factory accessible to both its trucks and business partners and members of the host community.
The road was passable from there to Wasimi, Asipa and Ayedere, where Obasanjo Farms is sited. Shortly after the Farm, the road suffered another depression with residents alleging they are often attacked by robbers who waylay hapless motorists trying to get out of the web of bad road.
At Ayedere, accidents are said to be a common feature as a result of the bad road while drivers who drive against the traffic seemed to be the new normal. The road gets better however shortly before Ita-Oshin and Olomore, through to Brewery, where the roads bifurcate.
From the Ota end to Abeokuta, no sign of RCC was seen. The closest to any work being done recently was the signposts of SUKUK Funds handled by the Buhari administration in funding strategic roads across the country.
The 81-km long Lagos-Abeokuta trip would take about three hours.
Return leg On the return leg, riding could not be better from Brewery to Olomore, Ita-Oshin, Itori, Wasimi and Akinjole, where a huge ditch, which has been completely submerged by the pond, made that section impassable.
Motorists had to detour again and drive against traffic, a situation which the Baale of Akinjole, Chief Said Abiodun Akinjole, said has remained a source of concern to the first-class chief of the area and the Alawowo of Awowo, Oba Abdulgafar Olasunkanmi Tijani.
He said the town stopped further attempts to cause remediation on the road when the FRSC Commander stopped them on the grounds that the road is a Federal Government property.
Chief Akinjole, a retired NEPA official, who celebrated his third year on the throne, said much as the people would love to make the road better, they are being hampered by the directive to stay away. He said attacks by robbers are becoming very rampant, as innocent motorists fall prey to hoodlums who lie in wait at the bad portions.
He said he has lost a number of his subjects too to reckless drivers who drive against traffic in order to avoid the ditch adjacent to his palace.
From Awowo to Itori was smooth and the hard concrete road built by Dangote made travel a delight up to Ijako, where another bad portion of the road was experienced.
Communities such as Lala, Totou, Awowo, Wasimi, and Itori, along the road enjoyed some good road, till one gets to Lapeleke where, up to Papalantoro, the road was bad on the inbound Lagos leg.
A little into Ewekoro, the road became smoother as Larfarge’s effort brought another relief. But for small portions of bad sections, the road was smooth to Gudugba, Arogbajo and Pakoto, up to Onihale, where the Ota Bridge offered relief from going into the sprawling Ota metropolis, as one makes for the final leg of the journey to Lagos.
From the Tollgate end, inward Lagos to Amje, and Ajegunle the road again was an eyesore and has been responsible for a number of accidents, especially from articulated trucks which fall at random.
The return leg that took three hours into Abeokuta was prosecuted in one-and-a-half hours. But in all, up to the Abule-Egba U-turn, the road was smooth and ordinarily enjoyable but for the culture of reckless driving against the traffic prevalent in the area.
The reality is that a generation of Nigerians are being denied the fruits of democracy that good road implicitly ensures. The question on the lips of residents of this corridor remains: Can the Tinubu administration make a difference?
Peoplesmind
