The deplorable state of the Lagos -Badagry Expressway and the existence of multiple illegal checkpoints are presently enhancing difficulties experienced by business owners, particularly bilateral trade between Nigeria and other Western African countries.
Lagos -Badagry Expressway is the major route or road leading to Nigeria’s biggest border station, which connects Nigeria to many other Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries including Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast.
A recent visit by BusinessDay to the road showed that the long stretch of road is presently covered with potholes such that going from Mile 2 to Seme, which formerly took about 2 hours, now takes a minimum of 5 hours or more, thereby encouraging long man-hour loss on the road.
Also, over 21 illegal checkpoints mounted by uniformed security operatives including Police, Immigration and Customs along the route, and numerous potholes and gulley that frustrate commercial activities along the road on a daily basis, were also sighted.
The security personnel, who force motorists to part with money, issue numbers to commercial vehicles after collecting between N300 to N500 from each of the vehicles to allow them passage.
This development confirms the outcome of a survey conducted by the Task Force on ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) in 2018, on doing business in Nigeria, which identified collection of illegal fees by government agencies and existence of multiple checkpoints as major inhibition to a smooth trade across borders.
ETLS survey further revealed that civilians usually manage these checkpoints as the point men used in extorting and collecting ransom from drivers of trucks.
“We are really suffering loses that include both economic and health loses due to the bad state of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. Formerly, it used to take me between 18 to 24 hours (one day) to get to Nigeria from Ghana by road but today, I spend nothing less than three days,” said Cletus Moses, an Abijan-based Nigerian trader.
According to Moses, the state of the road has had several implications as traders pay more as transportation fare to haul cargoes, which suffer delay before arriving destination and more to commute as well as to maintain one’s health.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government through the office of Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, (FERMA) last week, assured motorists of speedy completion of repairs on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway.
Nuruddeen Rafindadi, FERMA managing director, who flagged off the work at Igbo-Elerin area, gave the assurance during the start of the general maintenance of the Lagos-Badagry-Seme dual carriageway, Okokomaiko-Agbara sections at Igbo-Elerin on the highway.
He said government awarded the contract in May and was committed to making the portion under contract from Igbo-Elerin to Agbara junction motorable.
The 70-kilometer road repair works would commence from Kilometre 20 up to kilometre 32, according to Rafindadi. He said the contract was awarded to WIZCHINO Engineering LTD at the cost of N3,609,968,772.35, with a completion period of 18 months given.
The road had been divided into three sections to enhance the repair works, which are in progress close to Oko-Afo axis.
The first phase from Eric Moore in Lagos to Okokomaiko (Channel zero to 20) is being handled by the Lagos State Government; the second phase- Kilometre 20 to 32 (Okokomaiko- Agbara is being undertaken by FERMA, while the Federal Ministry of Works is to handle the largest chunk of the project from Agbara (kilometre 32) up to Seme Border.
Meanwhile, the Seme Border Customs command has raised an alarm, saying the state of the road had affected its revenue generation as transit cargoes now go through Idiroko border instead of Seme border because of the bad roads.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
