That the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Road in Lagos is a very bad advertisement for the country is not debatable, a greater shame is that the Federal Government of Nigeria has not deemed it fit to make it a befitting gateway into the country. How much, really, does the country need to upgrade to international standard the main entry point to its busiest international airport and in fact a regional aviation hub and bring it up to par, aesthetically, with similar facilities across the world? That eyesore of a road certainly reinforces the poor sense of priorities and ineptitude of those in power.
The road is a terrible blight on Nigeria’s image, a gateway so unfriendly, messy and unsafe ought to arouse a feeling of shame in the country’s leaders. And the question is: when will the Federal Government fully fulfill its obligations to Lagos as the former federal capital in dire need of special treatment to fix abandoned infrastructure following the 1991 shift to Abuja?
The federal authorities stand accused of despicable conduct by continuing to overlook the sorry state of the famous Airport Road especially as visitors to the country are immediately exposed to dirt, disorder and insecurity upon arrival in Nigeria. Fuel tanker drivers for whom a park has been created along the road have become lawless while they wait to lift consignment from a nearby tank farm without regard for the safety of other motorists. Containers from unlatched articulated trucks have also claimed many lives on the pot-hole infested road, while the unlit portions of the road give safety worries to many road users especially at night. An unpleasant ambience on all sides and parts of the road with commercial vehicle operators having little regard for traffic regulations is compounded by neglect on the part of the government. Passengers who failed to factor the traffic created by unnecessary bottlenecks on the stretch of the road have had to contend with missed flights. Indeed, the MMIA Road is a nightmare and an embarrassment Nigeria cannot afford to live with any longer.
If for upwards of two decades, a country cannot project in good light the road leading to its main airport with a view to showcasing its potentials in tourism, business and more, how can it manage anything else? The cosmetic patching by Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) is not what the road needs but an insult on the intelligence of Nigerians.
Lawlessness is also on display with a long stretch of the road now occupied by car dealers, puppy vendors, furniture makers and sundry traders who display their wares indiscriminately on such decrepit road with pot holes, flooding, a bushy median end without security run against decency in any society. Poorer or smaller countries comparatively still manage aesthetically a pleasing appearance. To start with, Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport, Accra as small as it is, does not present a visitor with the repulsiveness of the MMIA. Even the Gnassingbe Eyadema Airport in Lome, Togo and Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport in Dakar, Senegal trump MMIA. MMIA which opened to traffic on March 15, 1979 was modelled after the Amsterdam Airport, Schiphol, but has not even measured up to Schiphol’s standard.
If visitors into and out of a country gauge the country by the aesthetics of its entry and exit points, Nigeria would rank as a refuse dumpsite. This sorry state of affairs is attributable to Federal Government’s injustice to Lagos over the years by leaving the state to carry most of the burden of federal infrastructure, very much against the principle in General Murtala Muhammed’s speech as head of state on February 3, 1976 when Abuja was to become the new federal capital. He had said: “Lagos will in the foreseeable future remain the nation’s commercial capital and one of its nerve centres. But in terms of servicing the present infrastructure alone, the committed amount of money and effort required will be such that Lagos State will not be able to cope. It will even be unfair to bear this burden on its own.
“It is therefore necessary for the Federal Government to continue to sustain substantial investment in the area…which will henceforth be designated a special area. These arrangements will be carefully worked out and written into the new constitution.” This vision, of course, has totally been jettisoned since Murtala Muhammed’s murder 11 days later in a military putsch.
That the airport and the road leading to it which were named after the great General have since remained in the current decaying state, long after Muhammed died, should embarrass all leaders ever since.
The present administration should, however, act now and the promise by the current Minister of Works to build a multi-lane Airport Road should not be another propaganda.
The Federal Government has a responsibility to salvage the road and other facilities begging for attention in Lagos. What the terrible Airport Road and other poor infrastructure in Nigeria advertise is that Nigerian leaders may have access to cash but they have displayed no class. Lagos and all other cities deserve iconic monument that can give the country a positive identity. The time to build or restore such monuments is now.
