Why has Fashola not visited Lagos-Ibadan Expressway?

By Austine Uche-Ejeke

It is a thing of shock and wonderment that triple minister of Works, Power and Housing and former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has not deemed it fit to visit the construction site at LONG BRIDGE on the all-important Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Many motorists and commuters are wondering what will make the minister in charge of works on the road not to have ventured paying on the spot visit and assessment of the site. This will make him feel the pangs of sufferings of motorists and the lack luster work in progress being displayed by the construction company, Julius Berger.

It is in the light of these frustrations that motorists and indeed Nigerians were irked by the outburst of Fashola when he said recently that work on the LONG BRIDGE will be concluded in four weeks time. They are wondering how Fashola can arrive at such a sweeping generalization when he has not been to the site and know the extent of work done so far!

It should be pointed out to the minister that this is the height of insensitivity and wickedness in high places to have sat down in his comfort zone of an air-conditioned office in Abuja where roads in the Federal Capital Territory is superb to conclude that the work will be concluded in one month.

From close observations and hindsight conclusion of work on that LONG BRIDGE will last for at least six months going by the pace of work on the project. The reason for this is predicated on the fact that the construction company handling the road is not serious in their work. Most times they are not site working most especially during the weekends. On the days you see them working you see a handful of staff doing almost next to nothing and motorists and indeed communities living within the long stretch of the road suffer it the more.

The most painful aspect of it is that it looks like the company is more interested in excavating the hardcore tar and sell to willing buyers. Investigations carried out showed that there is mad rush for the hard core tar that its sells as much as one hundred thousand naira for a 55 ton load! The big question now is who appropriates the money realized from the sales. Is it the federal government or the construction company taking into cognizance that the property belongs to the good people of Nigeria? Also should excavation and sale of the hardcore tar be the most pressing assignment of the construction company or the urgent completion of the work to save motorists the agony and plight of plying the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

It is also disheartening that upon all repeated calls, write-ups, radio announcements and Television presentation that some of the causes of the traffic on the expressway are the bad portions that are replete with potholes, craters and gullies. Therefore it may not be out of place to suggest that current work on the LONG BRIDGE be suspended and palliative work started from MOWE down to Berger area of Lagos, patching and filling up bad portions of the road for easy motoring. The same measure should be replicated from Berger to MOWE. For the avoidance of doubt and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, there are many bad portions at WAREWA, AREPO, MABGORO, IBAFO, MOWE and these need to be fixed immediately before any other thing.

These bad spots usually cause hold-up that armed robbers now capitalize to rob, main and harass innocent motorists on daily basis. As reported by one of the national dailies there was robbery incident at the LONG BRIDGE a few days ago as a result terrible hold-up that kept vehicles stand still for hours, thereby making it easier for the robbers to operate willfully.

If the minister of Works and indeed federal government is serious about completing work on the LONG BRIDGE and save lives and vehicles it should order the construction company to commence a twenty hour work on the LONG BRIDGE. They should not only speedy up work on the expressway but also open up completed sections to ease up traffic. They should mandate the construction company as matter of urgent national importance and necessity to grade the pathway road at the beginning of the LONG BRIDGE for motorists to be passing. This will help in decongesting the road and lighten up the traffic.

A clarion can is still extended to other stake holders and public spirited people to wade into this perennial bad situation on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Ogun state government that hosts most of the communities that harbour the expressway should come in to offer their own quota to see that the problem is resolved; residents of these communities are suffering and complaining. Most of them are threatening to move out of their residence in droves if this problem persist and is not resolved in the shortest possible time. If they carry out their Ogun state will be the sore loser as revenue that accrue to the state from these aggrieved people will go to another state.

In the interim traffic managers on Lagos-Ibadan express way should up their game by ensuring effective monitoring of the traffic on the road. The Ogun state traffic team should not just concern themselves to just forcefully removing stationery vehicles that just broke down on the road. They should be effectively involved in ensuring smooth movement of vehicle at all time. Also the federal road corps should reduce their concentration on chasing or looking for vehicles to contravene and extort money from. They should live up to their name by ensuring safety on the road. And one of the means to ensure safety on the road is through effective traffic regulation that will see that vehicles are moving seamlessly. Taking of one-way by motorists should be curbed in order not to aggravate the already bad situation by some callous drivers in collaboration with some law enforcement agents.

Motorists and indeed Nigerians are appealing to minister of works to abandon whatever he is doing and pay an unscheduled visit to construction site at the LONG BRIDGE. This will make them know that this government has human feelings and not insensitive. The feelers being gotten from motorists is that this government does not care a hoot about their well being who for months have been suffering on the failed portions of the road and now the terrible nightmare they are suffering as a result of the ongoing work at the LONG BRIDGE. The kind of ill feelings being expressed by both motorist and commuters on this road is not good to the ear particularly on a government that ascended power through the change mantra. Urgent measure should be carried out immediately to assuage the badly hurt people of users of this road!

Austine Uche-Ejeke, publisher/Editor-In-Chief, Agenda Community Newspaper, wrote vide eaustineuche@yahoo.com