Pain, agony unabated on Lagos-Abeokuta highway

Though the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway has been known to be in a deplorable state for a while, the section in Ewekoro Local Government Area has turned into a nightmare for road users. TUNDE BUSARI reports.

From Lafarge Cement factory through the popular Total fuel station to a spot called T-junction in Itori, the headquarters of Ewekoro Local Government Area, travellers on the Lagos-Abeokuta highway experience their most harrowing moment on their journey, thanks to the debilitating state of the road accommodating embarrassing potholes caused by erosion.

A common sight on the Lagos inward lane of the highway are ponds of sleeping water, which have since taken over the road and thus forced vehicles to share it with Lagos outward vehicles, thereby causing traffic gridlock and breakdown of law and order.

Apparently, to prevent anarchy, a team of soldiers has been drafted to the road, directing movement of vehicles and applying the stick when necessary. One of the soldiers who spoke with our correspondent but craved anonymity disclosed that their presence had deterred drivers from taking law into their hands in the face of traffic gridlock.

Regrettably, the soldier said Nigerians are deficient of attitude to willingly do right things unless they are compelled. The traffic situation daily experienced in Lagos, he referenced, is not as intractable as it looks if drivers follow simple traffic rules.

“But it is like everybody wants to put himself in haste and at the end of the day cause more problem for others. Before we came here, we learnt the situation was becoming worse. But now we are here, you can see the way they are complying to directive.

Lai Mohammed and fake news

Asked when they would likely leave the road, he smiled gently and said, “Did we send ourselves here in the first place? We are leaving here if instruction comes to that effect. The point is that we have a job to do and we must do it and we are doing it,” the friendly soldier said.

The offshoot of the headache of the road is seen on the business of commercial drivers who are currently lamenting of their increased visitations to mechanic workshops for maintenance of their vehicles. They are scared of their future should the road be left to further degenerate, saying that some of them would run out of business because of debt incurred as a result of financial loss inflicted on them by the state of the road.

A driver who gave his name as Akeem Sodipo at Brewery motor park in Abeokuta bemoaned the neglect of the road by the government with a verdict that he had stopped operating beyond Itori even though he admitted his decision had translated to liability to his daily income.

“In that bad circumstance we have found ourselves, the best one should do is to think of other ways of survival. So, I am okay plying only Abeokuta to Itori because even if one endures the poor portion in that axis, one is not completely safe of other bad portions up till Sango. Maybe the government would listen to you journalists. Our union leaders have tried their best but it seems government is not interested,” he said.

Also affected by the bad state of the road are business concerns located along that corridor. Owners and managers of these enterprises daily gnash their teeth over shortage of customers. The manager of Hallmark Hotel, a modest leisure haven sitting beside the road, Mr Adeogun Tajudeen, reminisces about the harvest of customers when the road was in a good state, confirming the hotel’s all-week round business activities.

“But since the road has been in this state, we have been struggling to survive. But I can tell you it has not been easy. You have been here all the time and I think you should have an idea of what I am talking about in terms of number of cars use in our park at a weekend like this. It used to be the centre of excellence but I now  realized that people who are supposed to attend functions and rest here after their functions prefer to transfer money to their supposed hosts because they cannot bear the pains being suffered by motorists,” he said.

One curious thing about the hope of having the road fixed is a statement reportedly made by the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola that the Federal Government would not refund states which fix Federal Government roads.

In September during his appearance before the House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee on Abandoned Federal Government Projects (Works) from 1999 to 2019, Fashola stated that the president had issued a directive due to humongous and sometime ridiculous refund which governors request for after repairing federal roads in their states.

“The states submitted a bill of almost a trillion naira when President Buhari was elected. He asked us to work out what was their entitlement and all of that. But the decision to pay those inherited debts, including the ones I contracted as governor of Lagos was with the caveat that I should tell the governors to leave his [Buhari’s] roads alone. Those were the directives; I was not the one that took the decision,” he said.

Fashola revealed that the ministry was uncomfortable handling 472 road projects at a time, adding that lawmakers’ demands and budget cut were the Achilles heel confronting his operation.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that until lately, efforts were in the pipeline by a production company linked with the multi-billionaire investor, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, to fix the failed section in Ewekoro Local Government Area. The project, however, was scuttled when the immediate past administration in Ogun State allegedly objected to the siting of the company.

“I don’t know how true the story is, but former Governor Ibikunle Amosu is always mentioned as one who did not allow Dangote to site his factory in that area to be able to repair the road. We know Dangote and his community service projects he does everywhere. I learnt that after he was prevented here, he took his company to another place and the place is being developed. Politicians should not reduce everything to their politics,” a driver who refused to disclose his name told our correspondent in Abeokuta.

Despite the perennial sufferings, Lagos-Abeokuta highway remains the best option for commercial drivers plying Ibadan to Ifo route. These drivers seem to have accepted the agonies and carried out their shuttles with one mind of not seeking alternative in the Lagos-Ibadan highway, which they unanimously described as unpredictable and a waste of productive hours.

A driver, Mr Damilola Temitope, recalled a day he put his vehicle on the Lagos-Ibadan highway and the sad story he told his colleagues on his return to the motor park the following day. The 43-year-old said since that experience he had never had a second attempt, insisting that the bad sections of Lagos-Abeokuta highway is better than the traffic chaos awaiting vehicles on the Lagos-Ibadan highway and on way to access Ifo through the Ogba, Abule Egba axis.

“I cannot advise my enemy to take the Lagos-Ibadan road if the person is going to Ifo or Sango. Lagos-Abeokuta road is far better even with those bad spots. It saves time and fuel. We can only wish the government will fix the road because no matter how better it is, the truth is that it easily damages our vehicles. And if you know how much we spend to repair these vehicles, you would sympathise with us and wonder how we make profit,” he said.

Aside Temitope, who insists he will not be deterred by the state of the road, young roadside hawkers also see a better side of it as they daily return home with bountiful sale recorded during traffic gridlock. They are seen slowly running after willing passengers inside vehicles. Drinks such as sachet water and beverages are sold like hot cake.

Nigerian Tribune