Completing the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

FOR  the umpteenth time, President Muhammadu Buhari has restated the commitment of his administration to expediting action on the immediate rehabilitation and repair of a number of major highways across the six geopolitical zones of the country. In his national broadcast to herald the New Year, he listed a number of roads, including the Oyo-Ogbomosho; Ofusu – Ore – Ajebandele – Shagamu; Yenagoa Road Junction – Kolo Otuoke – Bayelsa Palm; Enugu/Port Harcourt dual carriageway; Onitsha-Enugu Expressway; Kaduna Eastern Bypass; Kano-Maiduguri , Abuja-Lokoja-Benin and the Suleja/Minna roads.

The president also issued marching orders to the Management of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to handle road repairs under a rapid intervention scheme covering the six geopolitical zones, and within 12 weeks. According to the president, a total of 44 roads are to be undertaken under the initiative. He also said 25 major highways would be funded under the N100 billion Sukuk facility, with each geopolitical zone benefitting by an equal amount of N16.67 billion. Curiously, he was silent on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, declaring only that the government had approved the commencement of work on the reconstruction of the Abuja-Kano road because of its deplorable condition.

The 127.6 km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway remains the major route linking Lagos, the nation’s commercial nerve centre, to other parts of the country. Sadly, however,  attempts by successive administrations to fix the 49-year-old road have been largely unsuccessful. The road has suffered from political intrigues and sheer lack of will. Yet the gains of completing the road, the busiest in the country, can hardly be quantified. These include boosting trade and travel, reducing auto crashes and the attendant loss of lives and giving a big boost to the government’s drive for internally generated revenue.

Regrettably, though, the project has recently generated a controversy between the Federal Government and the Senate in the face of public agitations and outrage over the continued delay in its completion. The initial budget  for the road was slashed by the National Assembly from N31 billion to a meagre N10 billion. The muscle-flexing necessitated the budget virement proposal. It was against this backdrop that the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Works, in September 2017, said continuation of work on the road depended on the budget virement proposal pending before the National Assembly, as the N10 billion 2017 budget was grossly inadequate to see the project through.

Indeed, contractors had suspended work before the release of the budgeted N10 billion. It will also be recalled that in the course of the raging controversy, the government approved the contract for the expansion of the road, and that of the Abuja-Kano Expressway, to the tune of N155.7 billion. The president needs to be reminded that motorists and other users of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway are nurturing high hopes based on his administration’s promise to ensure its completion. The project has been unnecessarily delayed. It has raised posers on the credibility of the government since the restoration of civil rule in May 1999. The New Year address by the president should have been used to further affirm the decisive steps being taken to actualise the project. That it was not is a big let down.