Insufferably notorious for missing set deadlines, the sluggish pace of work on the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway is exacting a heavy toll on road users and businesses. Since reconstruction resumed at the Berger-Otedola end of the expressway in Lagos in June, dissonance, gridlock, accidents, and robberies are reported daily. As Nigeria’s busiest inter-state artery, the government and its contractors should implement comprehensive commuter-friendly practices with clearly defined timelines, effective traffic management and security on the expressway.
Being a federal highway, the primary responsibility lies with the central government. However, as the road starts from Lagos and traverses Ogun and Oyo states along its 127.6-kilometre length, all four are duty-bound to collaborate to ensure less painful flow of traffic, provide round-the-clock security and alleviate public discomfort, especially while the reconstruction is in progress. Looking the other way while commuters suffer, businesses are crippled, crimes surge and residents of estates, towns and communities on the route are in distress, is sheer irresponsibility.
Undoubtedly, the nine-year-long anguish on the highway has recently escalated to a hellish nightmare for road users. A trip of 30 minutes or less has turned to a four- or six-hour ordeal. Frequent vehicle breakdowns, accidents, ill-disciplined security/government officials and individuals driving against traffic (‘one-way’) with sirens and robbery attacks compound the misery. Some pay with their lives; others lose their valuables.
Despite weeks of vociferous outcry — including a protest by the Isheri community — Ogun and Lagos states only responded with a bland statement on Sunday, absolving the contractor, Julius Berger Plc, of blame. The two distracted governors, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, and Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, blamed the gridlock solely on those driving against the traffic. That is a half-truth.
For clarity, it is a federal highway and the Federal Government, and its agencies bear legal responsibility for it. However, Lagos, Ogun, and Oyo states have a responsibility to support traffic management and initiate close collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, police, and other federal security and law enforcement agencies to ensure traffic flow and security. Their indifference and that of the FMW&H is unfair.
Curiously, Lagos that for years has demonstrated sterling response in traffic management, commuter-friendly road works, efficient emergency response and security support on federal roads within its own territory has suddenly become flat-footed as the Lagos-Ibadan project impacts the mega city. Sanwo-Olu should not lower the bar.
The Nigerian economy is reeling, governments are faced with deep revenue shortfalls, businesses are groaning, and unemployment is a high 33.3 per cent. The highway is the gateway to Lagos that accounts for 55 per cent of formal employment, 65 per cent of industry and most of the country’s maritime trade. In the absence of an effective railway system and with the alternative highways (Lagos-Abeokuta, Lagos-Ikorodu-Sagamu, and Lagos-Epe-Ibadan etc) similarly dilapidated, the speedy completion and ensuring traffic flow should be paramount.
‘One-way’ drivers are lawless and deserve severe penalties, but they are just terrible symptoms of the main problem. The Federal Government’s lack of basic governance ethos manifested it its failure to provide 24-hour traffic management and law enforcement during construction is the main culprit.
Military and paramilitary agencies’ personnel aggravate the gridlock by recklessly driving against traffic and blaring sirens; their irresponsible behaviour encourages other motorists to join them in disobeying the traffic laws. Rather than trivialising these lawless acts, the military and police high commands should investigate them, and bring the offenders to book.
The crux of the gridlock is the slow speed of work by the contractor, bad sections of the narrowed portion, poor supervision by the FMW&H, and non-provision of alternatives. Near total absence of round-the-clock security presence or traffic managers exacerbates the situation. One of the contentious portions is the end of the Long Bridge to Kara section, which is only 1.3km long.
Apart from systemic inefficiency, federal security agencies are stretched thin across the country. The three states should therefore provide all necessary support, deploy their traffic agencies and work closely with the FMW&H and the contractors. Lagos has a tested template for this; it should be replicated on the highway today.
The government should adequately fund the project and supervise the contractors. Since June, the section from the Otedola Bridge towards the old Toll Gate inwards Lagos is permanently so chaotic that motorists regularly spend the night on the road.
Traffic robbers take advantage to inflict injuries and rob motorists. It took a series of media reports before the police posted a few officers to the corridor for a few days. The number of security agents should be increased and sustained.
Without notice, Julius Berger blocks parts of the highway, causing much pain to road users. Worse, several timelines to complete the project have been missed. It is a similar situation at the Ibadan, Oyo State, end of the highway, being reconstructed by the Reynolds Construction Company. The regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has spent seven years reconstructing this road. This is too long; by the time it is eventually completed, some portions would have already gone bad.
In that time, competent leaders had achieved a lot. The National Highways Authority of India used 105 hours, 33 minutes, or five days (June 3-7, 2022) to deliver the 75km double carriageway from Amravati to Akola. It deployed 800 employees, who worked on the project with 720 workers from its consultants. It is an ideal that the FMW&H should emulate. The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has been a disappointment.
The Public Works Authority of Qatar constructed the 27.25km highway, part of Al Khor Expressway in 10 days in February 2019. Egypt’s President Abdel el-Sisi also delivered a megaproject, the Suez Canal Corridor Project on time between August 2014 and December 2016.
The chaos points to a systemic leadership deficit. Ex-presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan all failed on the project. In 2013, Jonathan re-launched it with fanfare with a pledge to complete it by 2017.
The delay is costing the taxpayer too much. The Yar’Adua administration awarded the contract for N87 billion; it went up to N167 billion under Jonathan, and from an initial N199.2 billion to N311.4 billion under Buhari. It is surprising that there is so much delay even after it was listed as one of three priority projects on which $311 million of the recovered ‘Abacha loot’ would be spent.
Inertia must give way to swift completion. The ministers of works and finance should give a detailed account of the funds released for the project, how much remains due to the contractors, and a commitment to meet the December 2022 timeline for completion restated by Fashola last month.
Buhari should accord it a priority because it is an economic livewire, vital to the movement of goods and services from Lagos to the hinterland. The bumbling National Assembly, which once recklessly cut back funding for the highway to N16 billion from the N31 billion allocated by the executive, should stop playing politics with the highway.
The woeful failure of the police to protect commuters reflects Nigeria’s primitive single police security architecture. With state police forces, it would be easier to arrange 24-hour patrol and surveillance by police teams from Ogun, Lagos, and Oyo states within their respective borders.
The Federal Government should install CCTV cameras and smart video technology on critical points of the highway; the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, deploy enough officers to the road. There should be fierce action taken against motorists driving against traffic. The federal and three states governments should jointly map out a strategy to instil sanity on the expressway.
