The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on a recent inspection of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, directed the contractor handling Section I of the rehabilitation to proceed faster, safer and operate with “a human face.” For the thousands of people navigating the 127.6-kilometre highway that has been undergoing seemingly interminable rehabilitation daily, this intervention is long overdue. Fashola and the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), must accord this economically important highway utmost priority and fast-track its completion as an integral part of measures to help the country climb out of recession.
Roads, said the World Bank, “link producers to markets, workers to jobs, students to school and the sick to hospitals.” But despite verbal assurances, the Federal Government has not accorded this highway, like other economically important highways, the priority and urgency it deserves. Fashola’s directive to Julius Berger Plc, the contractor handling Section I – Ojota to Sagamu Interchange – to apply speed and safety measures as the Christmas/New Year season approaches when traffic is expected to be higher, is viewed as coming rather late. The thousands who ply the road and businesses have suffered from its dilapidation, near-permanent gridlock, the many narrowed sections, frequent accidents, absence of traffic managers and the never-ending repairs.
As the country confronts its worst recession in three decades exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic-induced meltdown, it should urgently complete critical infrastructure projects to facilitate commerce, boost production activities and enable businesses retain and create jobs.
The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway saga reflects the country’s poor approach to infrastructure, the security and welfare of the citizenry. Started in 2013 by then President Goodluck Jonathan, it was to be completed in 2017. No serious economy spends nine years reconstructing its most important highway. China based its prosperity partly on building and maintaining roads. But only about 60,000 kilometres of Nigeria’s 200,000km of roads are paved and most federal highways are decrepit. Over N1.5 trillion over the next three years is required to fix the federal roads, said Fashola, whose ministry has 711 ongoing road projects.
Fashola told JB to fix “important sections; make them motorable, safe and free of congestion.” He rightly told the contractor to “give the construction work a human face,” adding, “We want a sense of compassion,” and urged the firm to apply palliatives to bad portions of the highway.
The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway jinx has to be broken. It is the main link between Lagos, the country’s industrial, commercial and financial centre; the main arrival hub for air travel, it accounts for 80 per cent of flights to West Africa, according to Internet Geography. Over 65 per cent of industrial concerns, 55 per cent of formal employment is based in Lagos. The Lagos-Apapa Ports account for 65 per cent of national maritime trade. Over 10,000 vehicles ply the road daily, said the Federal Road Safety Commission. Over 1.08 million vehicles plied the highway during the 2018/19 Yuletide/New Year period. Moreover, the highway down its long stretch is a veritable treasure of income-generating investments: housing estates, industrial parks with factories, farms and markets, petrol and gas refill stations. There are schools, universities and numerous faith organisations, poultries and quarries and other mining sites leading off the highway. Meanwhile, all other alternative highways linking Lagos are also in terrible shape, while rail, water and air transport infrastructure is underdeveloped.
The World Highways says, “Roads make a crucial contribution to economic development and growth and bring important social benefits. Providing access to employment, social, health and education services makes a road network crucial in fighting against poverty.” As this newspaper has vigorously canvassed, the rehabilitation deserves utmost speed. For instance, it is curious that the December 2022 completion date initially announced in 2018 was retained despite a commitment given to the American and British governments to deploy $311 million looted by the late Sani Abacha, now recovered for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Kano-Kaduna-Abuja Highway and the Second Niger Bridge.
This ought to have substantially solved the problem of funding and freed the three contracts from competing with other projects for scarce funds. Apart from a faster completion date, the government should deploy traffic managers and police to stop the lawlessness of drivers, combat the high rate of robbery on the road and eliminate the impromptu markets that have spilled onto the road, causing traffic snarls and accidents. The FRSC needs more personnel, vehicles and equipment. The order to provide adequate road signage and organise the reconstruction with consideration for commuters should be enforced. Inadequacy of these has caused so much anguish over the last seven years. There should be strict supervision of the contractors.
The government must change its attitude towards transport infrastructure. The Senate recently deplored the meagre N51 billion provided for road maintenance in 2021 as grossly inadequate. But, says the World Bank, “Poorly maintained roads constrain mobility, significantly raise vehicle operating costs, increase accident rates and their associated human and property costs, and aggravate poverty, poor health and illiteracy in rural communities”. India’s prolific road construction and maintenance programme – it builds 27km of highways daily – is cited by Brookings Institution as contributory to its success in fighting extreme poverty.
The reconstruction has taken too long. It has been haphazard, prone to prolonged periods of inactivity; passenger convenience has been minimal and traffic control and law enforcement patchy and ineffectual. Armed robbers operate freely and traffic is chaotic. Sadly, the long delay is contributing to the spate of accidents like the tanker that fell and exploded on Wednesday at the Magboro end of the road, causing hellish gridlock for a whole day. There should be no more delay in completing this highway, the Second Niger Bridge, Kano-Kaduna-Abuja, East-West Road and the Apapa Ports access roads as critical measures to surmount recession.
