It is with great disdain that I write the piece this morning to complain again about the inhuman suffering that people who leave on the Mainland are going through every day. Every day we leave our homes in the morning or our offices at night, we commute with so much fear and terror and one would wonder if there is a way out for us.
A few years ago I wrote a piece about Lagos becoming a megacity and the terrors that already exist. Then, it took you six hours from the airport to Eko Atlantic, even longer than it takes from London to Lagos. This remains an unraveled mystery. One would have thought that about four years later, we would be talking about something different but we are still discussing the same things, and yet even worse, it takes you two hours to get into Victoria Island and even the Eko Atlantic. How will people visit this area?
The reason for this article might be seen as a plea to the government to look into traffic problems and the chaos it causes on the Mainland. The situation is now manic and about to get completely out of hand. It has being one crisis after another and we all have had bad experiences.
A few months ago I was robbed. And so have several of my colleagues and friends who work on the Island but live on the Mainland. The road to Badagry is in such a bad shape that it takes six to eight hours to get home; in the rainy season, it’s a disaster. Some people don’t even get home till dawn. It’s obvious that this crisis is destroying physically and mentally; it’s taking a toll on our health.
A lot of people have had to move out of this axis to find costlier alternative houses. Some of them also spend more on transport yet risk being robbed. I have heard passengers come down from their buses and trek for hours in the quest to get home. These are people who endure a lot daily to earn their daily bread.
A few days ago, I was speaking to a lady who explained that in the span of three months she had been robbed at gun point on a motor bike, robbed in a bus and ran into armed robbers on that axis on her way home. Once, amid the whole panic and chaos, she and others ran into a nearby house where they had to spend the night. And the stories go on and on.
Before inflicting on the citizens more pain with the ambiguous and outrageous bills for faulting traffic rules in Lagos, the roots of the manic problems of this megacity need to be fixed first.
It is obvious that the population in the state has increased and will continue to do so as more and more people move from the northern region and even neighboring countries.
Although we now have more people, which should translate into more taxes and revenue to help the government raise more funds to build more roads and provide the basic amenities for the state, the reverse has being the case. The Lagos-Badagry road has being in the same dilapidating state for over 12 years. Some wish the road was left the way it was before the destruction and abandonment of the project.
The number of roads and bridges has not increased and people still ply the same roads daily. Yet the trucks have taken over a lane, leaving the other lane for buses and private car owners, who now fight for the same space. A breakdown on that road means your business for the day is cancelled; you’re stuck till the truck is towed.
Before enforcing the new laws, please fix all the roads (make it routine to fill all potholes rather than wait for them to become craters that swallow cars); complete abandoned projects (finish the rail track from Badagry to VI) to reduce the number of cars and buses on the road; build bridges and bypasses; get the trucks off the roads (provide them parks); improve security on the roads, not just static cameras that hardly work and besides are unable to track people as there is no proper identification system in Nigeria.
Provide parks for the commercial buses to reduce the numbers that park as they wish on the roads causing traffic. Light up the streets and ensure that that there is tight security everywhere.
Repair and unclutter the drains and gutters so they flow better and prevent flooding (the Badagry road, for instance is always flooded due to poor drainage). Put in a place reward system for clearing the dirt rather than punitive a system –in other countries citizens are rewarded for submitting non-recyclable waste like plastics. Clean streets and areas should be rewarded and praised as a model to others.
Other better and safer means of transport means of transport, like the waterways should be encouraged.
Once these things are in place I can bet that we won’t have tax defaulters. It would be rather unfortunate if government can’t solve basic problems, but wants to punish citizens due to its own negligence.
It’s time the government reward those who obey the law and do good so others will learn from them. If they continue on the punishment route, people will always find a way of beating the system. In the past no one in their right mind would take one-way considering the huge risk on their lives, but right now the only reason they do so is because they want to get home alive and in time to be with their loved ones.
I sincerely don’t think this is too much to ask from a city where we give so much. I am extremely confident that if the government fixes these basic problems a lot will improve and people will do the right thing.
DANIELLA IFUNAYA
Daniella Ifunaya lives in Lagos
