Tag: Abule Egba

It is true, as the Yoruba people say, that tita riro lanko’la; to ba jina, a d’oge (the pain that comes with tribal incisions ultimately gives way to beauty when the wound heals). Perhaps nothing confirms this saying better than the Abule-Egba flyover commissioned by the Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on May 17. Please pardon me if I over-celebrate the Abule-Egba flyover. That is my area and bringing development so close to my doorstep, especially concerning a road that many motorists and commuters used to dread, is something worth celebrating. That ugly sight has given way to the aesthetic beauty that now defines the Abule-Egba axis. Not even the traffic lights could stop the bedlam there in the past, especially when there were no traffic officials or policemen. Even when these were there, there were occasions that they were overwhelmed and would just abandon motorists to their fate.

Governor Ambode had earlier in the day commissioned other projects, including the Ajah flyover as well as Freedom and Admiralty roads in Lekki.

One must commend the governor for these wonderful gifts. Truly, Ambode is not just coming, he has come indeed. Lagosians must see themselves as blessed. I have always said it whenever I write on the developments in Lagos, that these things are possible not just because the state is rich but because it has had successive governments led by men with great ideas who are ready and willing to translate these into reality. Which of the other equally endowed states in the country comes near Lagos in terms of development? And to think that Lagos State has more than 17 million people to cater for. How many of the other rich states have a third of these? The question then is, what are they doing with their money? Unfortunately, most of the leaders from such states try to block what is rightfully due to Lagos as a result of its huge responsibility to tend to the needs of people who come to the ‘city’ from all over the country. Many of them never return after tasting the allures of the city life that Lagos provides. In fact, many never planned to.

Lagos has been one huge construction site since 1999 when we returned to civil rule. The transformation is simply amazing. Such was the dazzling speed with which the state is being transformed that a woman, in the Babatunde Raji Fashola years who was coming to Lagos from somewhere in the east  refused to alight from the bus she travelled in when she was told she was at Oshodi. She could not believe the metamorphosis that has taken place there between when last she came and the time of her revisit. “My bikin, it is Oshodi?”, she asked in bemusement of what she was seeing, to confirm that she was not about being conned by some smart Lagos boys. Apparently, she had been told that’Eko o gba gbere’ (there is no room for nonsense in Lagos). Another person was said to have asked a similar question when she was told to get down at Ojodu/Berger Bus Stop where she was going the other day. She, like many others are still asking from where Governor Ambode got the idea of the kind of change he effected in the place. It is simply wonderful.

But one man whose name cannot be missing when the history of the new Lagos is written is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He is the architect of the positive changes that we have been witnessing in Lagos since 1999. It was under him that the state began to expand its revenue base such that his government was able to call the bluff of the bully Olusegun Obasanjo presidency that withheld its local governments’ allocation for over a year. The state made a bold statement that it could survive without the money and it did. Many other states would have crumbled under Obasanjo’s jackboots. Apart from Tinubu’s laudable legacy on the state revenue base, he has also been the deciding factor of the helmsmen that have governed the state after him. Without doubt, Tinubu took his eyes to the market to shop for his successors. And, whatever it is that is making Ambode to be going at the speed he is going in fulfilling his campaign promises to Lagosians, the most important thing is that Lagos and Lagosians are the better for it.

But there is something that people in Abule-Egba would be missing now that the flyover has been commissioned. This is the entertainment provided by some cripples at the Iyana-Ipaja end of the flyover when it was under construction that played their own kind of football there, right on the asphalt. (I don’t know what to call what they were playing, even though it was football but they were not playing with their legs; they played the ball with their hands on the improvised mobile seats that they sat on). It was fun; as they attracted quite a substantial number of spectators on the Sundays that I watched them play.

Indeed, this was one of the things that fuelled my desire to visit the construction site on those Sundays. The place is only about 20 minutes trekking distance from my house, and the curious part of me never let go; always wishing for the day the flyover would be commissioned. I made up my mind to make what I saw a part of my piece whenever the flyover is commissioned. It was really inspiring that the cripples did not allow their disability to deny them of happiness in their own little way, or even stop them from entertaining others. The spectators either clapped in appreciation of a superlative pass or goal by the cripples; or jeered when they fumbled. Their audacity to play on asphalt without minding whether they could get injured in the process was something else. Even those of us who can stand upright would think twice before taking some of the risks they took playing on such a hard surface. The commissioning of the flyover automatically ended the fun provided by those wonderful people forever, as the road and flyover have been handed over to the real owners, the motorists. But the cripples will be sorely missed.

One can only continue to urge Ambode on. The plan to make Lagos a true megacity appears to be on course. By the time some of the things in the pipeline are actualised, even the culture of people will change. The ‘Danfo’ driver that had been used to rough life and fighting with knives or broken bottles will suddenly find out there is no room for such in the new Lagos. People who defecate just about anywhere would begin to see sense in doing it at the right places. Those who are expecting the people at the Abule-Egba axis to turn the fountain there to public convenience would be disappointed when that time comes. It is only a matter of time. We will surely get there.

All said, however, Governor Ambode should honour his promise to rehabilitate the roads that served as ‘beasts of burden’ while the Abule-Egba flyover was under construction. One is talking about the inner roads in the axis to where vehicles were diverted when construction of the flyover was ongoing. This is the only thing that can elongate the life of the flyover and also encourage other residents to cooperate with the state government on other such projects in their areas in the future.

One can only wish that the Federal Government would continue the modernisation of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway from wherever the Lagos State government stops so that the road can relieve the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway of the burden of accommodating virtually everyone leaving Lagos for Ibadan, or other places in the country. This will go a long way in decongesting the expressway, especially whenever there are impediments on the road.