Tracking the Sanwo-Olu train

Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital and my state of origin, is quite a story. Having played football, hustled with drums, served as a Man O’War officer, laboured in Mile 12, etc, I left the state in 1995 and have never returned. Lagos of the 80s and early 90s was a mad enclave—a young man once burst a public pipe and started selling water, and people queued up and paid without qualms–but there may have been a method to its madness. To live in any part of Lagos, you had to be made of steel. The city wasn’t made for the faint-hearted. Pickpockets operated with smooth precision and sympathy for victims was interlaced with imprecations on the stupidity of careless people. There was a lot of money to be made in Lagos, and quite a lot to spend it on and return to your homestead and family in faraway lands, thoroughly bankrupt.

“Ketu Ojota Mile 12! Yaba Oyingbo Eko!,” the conductors would blare in their unmistakable, crooked voice forged in marijuana smoke, and you jumped into the Molue or danfo that never quite waited for anybody. The conductors never had ‘change’ and would always warn: “Wole pelu change e o, enter with your change!” Often we (my dad and I) were at Idumota as early as 5.30 a.m. He was a business man, a well-known supplier of soap to the police, and we knew nearly all the police formations of note in Lagos: Lion Building, Yaba, Police College, Ikeja (an Igbo woman sold eba with fantastic egusi inside the college, very close to the gate), etc. Teenagers did not cut off people’s heads to make money in those days. And, for all the madness—bad boys could suddenly kick your shoes off your feet and claim that you had borrowed it from them!—there was pipe-borne water everywhere. The khaki boys did not joke with water.

Since the return to civil rule in 1999, the Centre of Excellence  hasn’t quite attained the requisite height. For instance, a city of its status should have an underground rail system. But there’s been quite some change in the last few years and, per T.S Eliot, it’s not worth forgetting. I notice that while his predecessors weren’t quite committed to the O’dua Group because of their false conception of Lagos exceptionalism, Sanwo-Olu has warmed up to the group, which claims to be undergoing restructuring to enhance its performance, achieve sustainable growth, and transform into a world-class conglomerate in no distant time. To him, though, the company must explore new areas of opportunities. That attitude is, I believe, quite the correct one to have, because the South-West states have a lot to gain from regional integration schemes. In this connection, it’s remarkable to note that last year, Sanwo-Olu and Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State signed an MoU on joint development of infrastructure in borderline communities between the states.

Without doubt, it is profitable for Lagos and Ogun to collaborate to achieve greater industrialization and cost-effective development, taking advantage of the recently signed Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA). The potential gains are enormous, including efficient port logistics through better coordinated call-up systems where Ogun provides holding bays/parks for trailers heading to Apapa ports in order to reduce the traffic congestion in Lagos. Collaboration is crucial in physical planning and urban development, slum regeneration, environmental challenges such as flooding, dredging, waste management and pollution control, and cooperation in revenue and tax management, especially in the border towns. There’s a lot to gain from efficient and effective enumeration and data sharing of citizens resident in border town areas, together with efficient and regular remittances of personal income taxes of Ogun residents working in Lagos State.

In August last year, Sanwo-Olu bolstered the fleet of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) with 102 units of locally-assembled compactor trucks and 100 units of waste bins. His objective was to reduce turn-around time in waste evacuation within the metropolis. The trucks were assembled by LAWMA technicians in conjunction with the Dangote Sinotruk Manufacturing firm and were designed to facilitate the clearing of waste from generating points to transfer-loading stations. Quite commendably, they took care of the perennial challenge of liquids dripping from waste trucks. The launching of locally assembled waste disposal trucks is pivotal to creating a cleaner and saner Lagos. I notice that the state-owned compost facility in Odogunyan is being revived and new transfer-loading stations are being provided to facilitate the effective disposal of solid waste. However, I charge the Lagos governor to move from assembly to manufacturing. There’s a lot to gain from this.

The foregoing observations have however only been made in passing. My focus is the modest shift to rail transport. I do not begrudge the “Ketu Ojota Mile 12!” exponents of their existence, but the mad rush associated with rickety buses is not a sign of modernity. Nor is the regular road rage by rampaging okada riders. Like many Nigerians, I believe that Lagos needs major interventions in the transport sector to actualise seamless movement of millions on a daily basis. To achieve this objective, Babatunde Fashola rolled out mass transit buses and created lanes for them, to national applause. But if developments since then are any indication,  that move merely scratched the surface of the problem. The best thing to do is to emplace and harness the gains of multimodal transport.

In this connection, it is great news that Sanwo-Olu plans to stick to the fourth quarter 2022 completion target for the red and blue line rail projects, a vital part of the framework for reducing gridlocks and ensuring interconnectivity in different parts of the state. When completed, the 37-kilometre red line rail project will link Agbado to Marina, while the 27.5-kilometre blue line rail project will run from Okokomaiko to Marina. Recently, the governor headed to Winconsin, United States, to acquire trains for the projects. I am aware of the history of the trains: I need no sermon from naysayers. I only urge Sanwo-Olu to actualise the proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge and set the stage for underground rail. That would be so lovely to see.