LEKKI EPE EXPRESSWAY: Somebody left Awoyaya at 12 noon yesterday Sunday, 10th July and got to Ikeja after 5pm. There were so many bottle necks but the key ones were Awoyaya-Ologunfe, Abijo to Crown Estate, Sangotedo to LBS, Ajah to Northwest Petrol Station, just after VGC because of the construction work going on there, then from 6th Roundabout at Agungi to Jakande, from where the traffic was relatively smooth.

The main causes of these very terrible traffic logjam seem to be pools of water due to the heavy rain and no drainage, very deep potholes, more like craters than potholes, commercial vehicles and more importantly the AGBEROS collecting money from Commercial Bus Drivers, a good number of whom seem to be fed up with this daily extortion of money from them. These Agberos go as far as removing the Wipers of vehicles whose drivers refuse to pay. One even removed the Petrol Tank Covers of such Vehicles. More annoying is that these Agberos seem to have carved out territories for themselves and you encounter them every few kilometres within the same Local Government Area or LCDAs.

That Local Government Area System has been wiped out by State Governments throughout the Country is bad enough. Hence, ordinary maintenance of LGA Roads is now the responsibility of the State Government in far away State Capital, wherever that is. Given that situation, why wouldn’t we have the present terrible traffic situation all over the place in Lagos State, among others.

Last week somebody going to Lagos Island from Awoyaya for an event decided to go through Epe and Ikorodu judging by his the previous week on the normal Lekki, Victoria Island route. Yet the Ikorodu route still took him 8 solid hours. What kind of life is that in a so-called Mega City.

Solutions

The issue of the Agberos should be dealt with frontally, no matter whose ox is gored and no matter who encouraged it in which administration. A government of any political party that is not strong enough to address an issue just for the fear of losing political support is not worth being in government. As simple as that.

Secondly, Lagos State Government ought to be proactive and carry out major palliative road maintenance repair works, if possible at night with the necessary security cover to relieve citizens of spending long hours on roads for relatively short distances. It simply does not make sense.

One cannot but ask if a government like Lagos State Government has a Master Plan for the whole State at both State and Local Government levels? If it has, how come the State Government has failed woefully in addressing the road and traffic situations in the Lagos State Free Trade Zone that is home to 3 gigantic Capital Projects that any State Government would be proud to attract to its State? These are the Free Trade Zone itself, Dangote Refinery Project, the biggest in Africa and said to be the second biggest in the world and the Deep Sea Port, all in the same area in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of the State. Yet, all the 3 gigantic projects must have been on the drawing boards for years, with the State Government itself not only being a part owner of the Free Trade Zone but having to give one Licence or Approval of one type or the other. Shame on the State Government for not being proactive enough to envisage what the traffic situation would be in that axis. The State Government should have provided alternative Coastal Road to decongest the main Lekki Epe Expressway that is giving residents in the axis so much horrors now. Yet, if one projects the situation down the road it is likely to be worse, traffic wise.

The State Government must wake up to its responsibilities now and play its politics in this elections season in parallel.

Enough of this nonsense, please.