FORGOTTEN SPECIES

• Sad tales of the disabled, the elderly who go through hell to cross the roads
•Problem is being addressed –Govt

Animated joy took over Agbado/Oke Odo in Alimosho Local Government Area, Lagos on April 2, 2018. The sleepy local council development area (LCDA) roared to life as an unprecedented crowd converged on it. Elated residents and members of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) trooped out in their ankara ceremonial uniform emblazoned with party logo, drumming, singing, dancing and shoving one another to catch a glimpse of the then Governor Akinwunmi Ambode at the commissioning of 21 newly built roads and two bridges.

The roads commissioned included Ikola Road with bridge (7.2km), Aiyetoro Road with bridge (1.280km), dualised Raypower Road (2.7km), Amikanle Road (3.340km), Oko Filling Road (1.660km), Ogunseye Road (1.870km), Osenatu Ilo Road (0.700km), Aina Aladi Road (1.109km), Oluwasanya Road (0.636km), Igbehinadun Road (0.360km) and Community Road (0.750km).

Others were Isoto Road (0.730km), Palace Road (0.660km), Timothy Afolabi Street (0.745km), Peak Thomas Bright Crescent (0.490km), Baale Street (0.710km), Joe Ikebudu (0.460km), Bishop Oderinde (0.270km), Alhaji Ganiyu Salami (0.520km), Kadiri Adebambo Street (0.533km) and Church Street (0.710km).

At the ceremony held in four different locations, the elated ex-governor pledged to further develop other communities that were crying for government attention in the area. He said the inauguration of the road was in line with his vision to continuously transform Alimosho Federal Constituency into economic hub in Lagos State.

He said: “This is what is called dividend of democracy. We are making this Alimosho axis economically viable and also liveable. We don’t need to travel anywhere to earn a living. By opening up the whole network stretching 27.4km, we have brought economy back to this place.

“With the walkways, street lights, these communities are becoming safer and there is more to do. By expanding the axis here, you can travel without necessarily going to the main street and go to Ojo or Badagry. That’s what your vote was for and that’s why we are returning here, all the promises that we made and we are keeping them.”

But as beautiful as the new roads, totalling 27.4 kilometres, connecting Lagos with Ogun State and fitted with walkways, drainage system, laybys, service ducts, lane marking and street lights, among others are, they lack certain road crossing signs that can aid free movement of disabled persons (the crippled or the lame on wheelchairs, the deaf and dumb and vision-impaired persons, among others) and the elderly, as well as guarantee their safety.

Hence, a few hours after the ex-governor got himself accolades for urbanising the community through the upgrade of roads and bridges, Pa Sanusi Idowu (74), a resident of Ikola, had a Herculean task crossing the road to observe the evening prayer in a nearby mosque. For about 20 minutes, the septuagenarian retired civil servant waited at the roadside as vehicles he flagged down in a bid to cross the road refused to stop. It took the intervention of a passer-by to stop traffic for the old man to move across the road to his destination.

Madam Beatrice Alao hardly goes out these days. The last time she went out and crossed the Obaemi Awolowo Road, Ikeja, she was almost crushed by one of the menacing operators of commercial motorcycle, popularly called okada.

Alao (79), who retired as a nurse in a public hospital in Ikeja, said of her experience: “I thank God that I am alive today. I was on my way to see a younger colleague of mine at the General Hospital, Ikeja, on May 8, and I pleaded with some passers-by to assist me to cross the road but none of them obliged me.

“When I saw that the driver of a Mazda bus was approaching, I waved to him and he slowed down for me, only for an okadarider to emerge behind the bus and almost knock me down.

“I have lived in Europe before and I remember there are different road signs for different categories of people, including the elderly and the disabled. None of such exists in Nigeria. It is high time such instructive signs and markings were put in place to caution motorists in order to avoid needless casualties involving the physically challenged and old people.

Hell for disabled commuters

It is not only in the Agbado/Oke Odo LCDA that road-crossing signs for the disabled and elderly are lacking. From the Mainland to the Island and other parts of Lagos divisions, lack of road-crossing signs and absence of facilities such as ramp in public or commercial buses confront this special category of persons and endanger their lives.

Every day is hellish for Animashaun Waheed, a grocery trader, as he seeks to cross to the other side of the popular Ogba Road in Ikeja after closing from his shop near the Retail Market. Waheed (35), who suffered polio when he was a five-year-old, usually waits for passers-by to take him across the busy road when going out to work in the morning or returning home in the evening.

Waheed is one of the estimated three million people living with disability out of about 22 million residents of Lagos State. Bemoaning his plight, he urged prompt intervention from the state government.

“Life has been a nightmare for me with regard to commuting from my home to my workshop every day. There are no special crossing signs and points for disabled people on this road. I have had to beg people to assist me in crossing the road as motorists hardly stop for me,” Waheed, who walks by using one of his arms to lift his right leg badly affected by polio, said.

He added: “Apart from the painful experience that goes with crossing the road, going in commercial or public bus to the market in Mushin to restock my shop has also been very difficult. This is because drivers are usually impatient with people like me to get on their buses, since most vehicles don’t have steps at their doors to aid us into their vehicles.

“The result is that I have to wait longer at motor parks and bus stops for drivers that would be patient to wait for my slow walk into their buses.

“Although the Lagos State Government is trying in terms of giving consideration to the disabled in its inclusive policy and programmes, such gesture has not been extended to road infrastructure and transportation sector. The authorities in the state should as a matter of urgency provide facilities like road crossing signs and roll down ramps for people like me to be able to access public buses easily without being helped.”

Stephen Ilevbare lives in Agege, a Lagos suburb, and has been a wheelchair user for many years.

He often uses buses to travel around the city, but that comes with untold pain. “It is a harrowing experience crossing the roads in town. Most times, I seek help from people at bus stops or from bystanders to take me across the road,” he said.

“Also, whenever I travel around town in buses. Most times, I prefer to use the popular red BRT buses, but the buses have no facility to help me access them.

“In western countries, the floor level of metro buses lowers by a few inches to allow drivers unfold a ramp to get someone like me on board. But that is not the case with buses in the state.

“Most times, I get frustrated waiting unnecessarily for people to lift me from the wheelchair into buses. At times, people would just ignore me or refuse to help because they are in a hurry to their destinations.”

Casualties

The consequences of this is that disabled and elderly people in the state have become highly exposed to risk with high rates of life-threatening injuries and sometimes death.

This was the case on November 18, 2018 when a hit-and-run driver knocked dead a teenage disabled boy in the Adeniji Adele area of Lagos State while crossing the road. Ibrahim Ganiyu, as the boy was called, was the son of the Chief Imam of Onirin Mosque in Epetedo area of Lagos Island, Alhaji Suleiman Ganiyu.

As the story goes, the boy, a deaf and dumb, was allegedly crushed to death by a Ford car marked KRD 437 EJ while returning from a field where he had gone to play football with his friends. Witnesses said the boy made hand gestures to the driver of the car to slow down so he could cross to the other side of the road but, unfortunately, he was knocked down and he died in the hospital.

“I am in deep shock. I can’t believe that my son is gone. I saw him before I went out for a ceremony on the day of the incident and now, he is dead. He died a few days after his birthday,” his bereaved father reportedly said.

“Those who witnessed the accident told me that Ibrahim, who had gone to play football with his friends, wanted to cross the road when he got knocked down by the car. I never knew he played football, because he was deaf and dumb.

“He took advantage of my absence by going out with his friends to play football. I have retrieved his corpse and buried him according to Islamic rites. I also told the police that I was not interested in pressing charges against the driver of the vehicle that knocked down my son.”

It will be recalled that on the eve of Christmas last year, a cripple on crutches, identified simply as Adewale, was allegedly crushed at the Oja Oba axis of Abule Egba area of the state. Although, the victim was initially rushed to a nearby private hospital where he was treated, he suffered excruciating injuries to his contorted legs and died a few hours later.

Sources said the unnamed driver of the unmarked Toyota Camry car ran into Adewale while he was crossing the road slowly because of his condition.

”The driver of the car was an impatient man. Instead of him to slow down for the physically challenged man (Adewale) when he signalled to him to slow down so he could cross over to the other side of the road, using one of his crutches, the driver still knocked him down and ran away,” said an eyewitness identified simply as Comfort.

Experts speak

A recent report by the United Nations indicated that 15 per cent of the world’s population are People Living with Disabilities (PWDs) with about 29.7 million persons of the number living in Nigeria. An estimated 10 per cent of the 22 million of Lagos residents are living with disabilities.

It will be recalled that a bill which outlaws discrimination against People Living with Disabilities in the country had been passed since March 2009. The law requires government and public institutions as well as individuals to provide convenient access for physically challenged persons.

The law reads in part: “Public building shall be constructed with the necessary accessibility aids such as lifts, ramp and other facilities that shall make them accessible and useable to persons with disabilities.”

Several years after its passage, the law has become ineffective as most places such as motor parks, hospitals, schools, hospitals, among others, have become inaccessible to people living with disabilities.

To this end, experts say that the authorities would need to pay special attention to the plight of the disabled in the state in its transportation system in order to make its all-inclusive policy truly successful.

A medical doctor-cum-social worker, Titus Jaiyeoba, said: “There are over 22 million people living in the state while an estimated 10 per cent of that population are PWDs. The figure is too huge to be ignored in the provision of key facilities for all residents of the state.

“Road markings are core aspects of good road infrastructure that aid mobility and efficient human and vehicular movement anywhere in the world. The absence of these jeopardise free movement of people, especially the disabled, given the chaotic nature of roads and traffic in the state.

“It is expedient for the state government to truly live up to its mega city status by putting strategic points on the roads special symbols and graphics to instruct drivers to observe speed limit and slow down on approaching crossing signs for the disabled and elderly on the roads.”

Another social worker and coordinator of Disability Action Initiative, Sunday Anakwe, said the provision of buses with ramp as well as the availability of audio-visual information on public buses would ensure better mobility for the disabled in the state, who often rely on public transportation to commute themselves.

“Public buses, especially state-owned Lagbus, should be fitted with ramps to enable cripples on wheelchairs get on buses. The authorities could also legislate the specific buses with similar facilities to be used for commercial transportation in the state to help PWDs.

Also, given that blind people are almost entirely reliant on public transport, the availability of audio-visual information on buses would go a long way to alleviate the difficulty experienced by people who are visually impaired.”

Anakwe,however, noted that drivers must be trained to specially handle such facilities for commuters who are PDWs in the state.

“It is not enough to put special road markings or crossing signs, ramps and audio-visual information on buses for people with disabilities, drivers must be trained on how to help passengers with disabilities and slow down for them when they are crossing the road.

“This would boost the confidence of PWDs that the ramps are going to be working, and that the drivers have been trained as to how to assist people with disabilities,” he said.

“The state government should find a means of installing crossing signs for the disabled on the roads so as to save them from needless hazards, including severe injuries and deaths,” said a resident of Ikeja, Abiola Dalley.

The state government however said that PWDs and the elderly have been integral part of it all-inclusive transportation system.

Speaking with The Nation, the Permanent Secretary of Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, Dr Taiwo Salaam said there are road signs installed in Ikoyi, Victoria Island, are being vandalized by misguided persons.

”Right from the time of ex-Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, we have synergized with other relevant ministries including Ministry of Works and Infrastructure to install road signs for the disabled and elderly in places like Ikoyi, Victoria Island, among others.

”We have some of these landmark facilities there,  and we are actually intensifying our efforts to replicate the facilities in other parts of the state, but it is going to be a gradual process. However, unfortunately, the problem is that people are spoiling the road crossing signs for the disabled.

Salaam also disclosed that new set of buses recently purchased by the state government are fitted with facilities such as ramps to enable PWDs access to public buses.

”The new buses the state government recently purchased have facilities that can aid easy mobility of people living with disabilities. The buses are fitted with ramps that would make the disabled get on the buses with ease.”

He added that it was the responsibility of local government areas in the state to replicate the facilities in their environment.

”The state government is working hard to install such facilities across the states, however, it’s the responsibility of the local government areas to provide them in their localities.”