No politics with roads
The Lagos State
government has embarked on various road rehabilitation across the
state, with the state’s Public Works Corporation taking advantage of
the dry season.
However, the
rehabilitation efforts are mostly measures designed to temporarily
soothe commuters’ woes, which raises the question – ‘Why not embark on
outright reconstruction?’ Virtually all the respondents interviewed
said they were grateful to the government for remembering that they
were still in existence. Yet, they are the same people that have been
made to bear the brunt of all manner of taxes and levies from both the
state and local governments.
Some of the roads
have degenerated into death traps due to lack of maintenance, like the
handler of the rehabilitation works on the Ayobo-Ipaja Road rightly
said. The entire stretch of the road becomes a whirlwind of dust
particles, with no rains to moisten the ground. Anybody with some kind
of respiratory ailment journeying through that route during this dry
season could easiliy choke to death from inhaling the dust.
For some residents,
the ongoing road works are some sort of “eye service”, intended to woo
the electorate, since the elections are just around the corner. The
suspension of the tolling on the Lekki-Epe expressway quickly comes to
mind. As it is now, the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, needs
to do much more than putting a temporary stop to the tolling plan if he
wants to bag an appreciable number of votes from Eti-Osa and Epe local
governments in the next elections.
And a recent
revelation by Ganiyu Johnson, the special adviser to the governor on
works and housing, that more roads within the state are going to be
concessioned has not helped matters. Incidentally, some of the roads
Mr. Johnson mentioned that would be considered for concessioning to
private firms – the Berger-Isawo, Ajegunle-Agboyi-Ogudu, and
Mende-Opebi Roads – are already existing roads that the concessionaire
would, at most, rebuild and upgrade; a move that may result in another
Lekki-Epe Road tussle. More has to be done to convince a people who had
been driving on a road free of charge to start paying over a N100 on
the same road. What had become of their taxes?
Proponents of the
concession arrangement have argued that it is now the way to go,
especially as the government cannot bear the cost of infrastructure
provision and maintenance alone. True enough. As a matter of fact, the
private sector plays an integral role in the physical and economic
development of any city. But something seems to be wrong in the way the
state is integrating the sector into road matters.
The government may
be justified in tolling roads if it has fully developed alternative
means of transportation – rail, water, ground, and even underground.
This will afford those who cannot afford a particular means to go for
cheaper alternatives.
Many places in the
city are in urgent need of alternative access routes. For instance, a
concessionaire could construct a new highway which can serve as
alternative to the ever congested road to Ikorodu town. Given the
population of the area and considering the number of people intent on
moving into such area because of the land space available there, any
concessionaire is bound to make profit from such road.
Commuters from
places like Lagos Island would then be left with the single choice of
spending four hours or more between Anthony and Ikorodu on the
free-of-charge Ikorodu Road or paying their way through an alternate
route and getting home in far less.
In all, the poor
state of many roads, coupled with the blocked drains, arguably
constitute a dark patch on an otherwise commendable administration in
Lagos. This needs to be tackled as a matter of urgency and not
political convenience, in the current dry season.
The people do not only deserve a change, they need to see the change and benefit from it.
