Residents and businesses are becoming increasingly worried as loss of man-hour in traffic becomes widespread in Nigeria’s commercial city of Lagos.
There is also the growing fear that the worse of the traffic strangulation might be in the offing as the end-of-year and Christmas festivities draw closer in a city already lying prostrate to congestion with all its attendant socio-economic consequences.
With an estimated population of 22 million people and a vehicular density of over 222 vehicles/km, but largely unplanned network of roads, Lagos, the smallest of Nigeria’s 36 states, by landmass, sitting on 3,577 km², faces myriad of challenges, including shortage of social amenities, housing, traffic robbery and road congestion.
But road congestion over the years had been made worse by the absence of reliable rail and water transportation systems which ought to serve as alternatives. Although efforts have been made by successive administrations to up the percentage contributions of rail and water transportation to the overall public transportation system in the state, very little has been achieved.
The state government in ten years has been unable to deliver a light rail system (Blue Line) it set out to construct since 2009, targeted to be completed in 2014. The Governor Babajide Sanw-Olu administration which came into office in May 2019, says it hopes to complete the first phase of the light rail in 2020.
The only passenger rail system that passes through the state is the locomotive run by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC). But most of the time, passengers, in a primitive manner, are seen hanging by the doors and roofs of the overburdened trains, while boat mishaps are regularly reported on the waterways. Concerned authorities, including the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) and National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) have continued to grapple with the issue of safety on the waters.
As it is, road accounts for nearly 100 percent of movement of people and goods in the state. But years of neglect and poor maintenance have left the roads in their state of disrepair; resulting to traffic snarls which motorists are forced to contend with.
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Indeed, movements within the metropolis have become a nightmare, as journeys of 30 to 40 minutes now take four to five hours in traffic.
Jude Nduka, a trader at the auto spare parts market, Lagos trade fair complex, on the Lagos-Badagry expressway is deeply concerned as the Christmas festivities draw closer. According to Nduka, end-of-year period comes with its peculiar challenges, but this, added to the poor state of the roads, will likely lead to a crisis situation in terms of movement of people and goods across the state.
“Given what we’re presently experiencing on the roads, I am afraid we might be having a standstill situation during the festive period when the roads naturally get busier than normal. My appeal is that the state government should intensify efforts fixing the roads and making them motorable,” said Nduka.
Nduka’s concern is shared by Sulaiman Akintola, who resides in Egbeda, Alimosho, but sells tyres at Idumota, on Lagos Island. In the last five months, Akintola has been shuttling between home and shop with a commercial motorcycle, ostensibly to avoid spending productive hours in traffic. But he sees the situation getting worse in the days weeks ahead.
“It is usually very tough during end-of-year festive season. It might be worse this year because of the poor state of the roads,” he said on Friday.
Akintola points to potholes-riddled Ikotun-Egbe-Cele road leading to Apapa-Oshodi expressway, lamenting the difficulty commuters go through in their daily journeys.
Equally disturbed by the intractable traffic situation are the state lawmakers who have advised the executive arm to do more to ameliorate the suffering of the people.
The lawmakers in a motion moved by Temitope Adewale, who represents Ifako-Ijaiye state constituency 1, during a plenary on Friday, linked the worsening gridlock partly to the palliative works being carried out on some roads, calling on the contractors handling such works, as well as the ministry of works and infrastructure, to reschedule their work time outside the peak hours.
The legislators, who believe that the law enforcement agencies are equally culpable, called on the police and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to dismantle their checkpoints within the metropolis. They also want officials of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) to up their game and safe man-hour being lost on the roads.
The lawmakers want Governor Sanwo-Olu to invest more on water and rail transportation to ease pressure on the roads, just as Adewale, decried spending four hours to get to his house in Ifako-Ijaiye from the House of Assembly complex at Alausa, on Monday, November 18, 2019.
The lawmaker suggests that the on-going palliative works be rescheduled to between 11pm-5am away from the peak hours.
Speaker of the house, Mudashiru Obasa, who, however, was full of praise for Sanwo-Olu for being proactive regarding the road maintenance, wants the governor to direct his commissioner for transportation to engage all those involved in road maintenance as well as security personnel on traffic duties to see the possibility of suspending work during peak hours.
Their concerns are shared by Hakeem Odumosu, the newly appointed Commissioner of Police (CP) in the state, who is seeking to review the approach by the traffic unit of the state police command in partnership with the ministry of transportation. Odumosu is also deploying additional 1,000 police personnel on the road to strengthen traffic management.
However, Frederic Oladeinde the commissioner for transportation, is disturbed that despite the state government continuous dialogue with the public on the need to be disciplined by obeying the traffic rules and regulations, the public is yet to align, as traffic offenders are increasing by the day.
He notes that as government strives to play her part by fixing the roads, the attitudes of motorists remain a setback in achieving free flow of traffic.
He laments that the robbers are taking advantage of the traffic situation to attack motorists, while some traffic officials have also fallen victims to attacks in the course of official duties, warning that anyone caught in this act will face the full wrath of the law.
