Anyone who frequently travels on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway which also leads to the northern states and which branches eastward to Benin and the eastern parts of the country to Delta, Rivers and important cities like Port Harcourt, Aba, Calabar, Enugu etc. would know this is the arterial road that links the rest of Nigeria with Lagos. This easy access is very important in the overall economy of Nigeria. This means that the road should not be seen in its importance to the southwest alone but to the geo-strategic significance of the road to Nigeria.
Comparing the development of the road in the manner of Apapa gridlock should give palpitation to the planners of the development economics of Nigeria. Apapa is the major entrepôt of Nigeria in the sense that 90 percent of the goods coming to Nigeria come in through the port. This in itself is due to bad planning and lack of bold imagination of Nigeria’s leaders since independence.
I am not going to blame the British, our colonial masters who left this place 66 years ago. This is long in time for us as inheritors of bad colonial planning to help ourselves and not blame those who came for their own reasons and after having finished with us, left us alone when our leaders pushed them out perhaps because the nature of imperialism in this part of the world did not require physical presence before their economic rewards could still be realized.
I think I have made my point that power in the hands of innovative and imaginative leadership would have seen us make hop step and jump to what is required in these days of knowledge economy.
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From Lagos up to Sagamu and onward to Iperu in Ogun State on both sides of the so-called express road are to be found industries haphazardly located on both sides of the road. This development definitely makes the government of Ogun State happy and other Nigerians in other states of the federation probably envy Ogun State for attracting this bevy of industries which must be good for the internal revenue of Ogun State and the federation as a whole. But at what expense?
Now this express road where millions pass through daily is being turned into parking place like Apapa port. In this place, long articulated trucks turn anyhow against the run of traffic and many escape head-on collision through the grace and mercy of God. Admittedly, we have not reached the situation of Apapa where for lack of movement drivers spread mats under their vehicles and sleep their time away! This need not happen if we plan very well before action.
We should always factor into whatever action we take the sociology of the Nigerian people. Our people do not think about others when they drive on the roads. This is why slow moving trucks drive on the inner side of the road for fast driving leaving the outside part of the road for wrongful overtaking. Could it be our drivers get driving licences without test? In any case, many of the trailer drivers are absolute illiterates.
I honestly believe that the whole country needs to be taught the ordinary ideas of civics. Perhaps thieves in government need to be taught that stealing is not only bad but it is also a corrosion of the society. Why should a single person in society build a house for a single family at the cost of billions of naira and declare it open for poor people to gawk and look at while religious leaders are invited to pray for further prosperity of the owner knowing as we all do, that the mansion is a manifestation of the stealing going on in the oil industry while the people in the oil producing areas languishing in want and poverty?
I congratulate the president of this difficult country, Nigeria for having the vision to embark on the Lagos – Calabar road; he should also at the same time focus on the Badagry – Sokoto road which is equally important. Whenever these two roads are finished, whether in our times or not, history will celebrate those who execute a vision that many of us egg heads have had for a long time.
The Lagos – Ibadan express road linking the port city with the rest of the country remains in my own estimate, a scandal to forward planning and imagination. I shudder to think about what happens to our economy if the bridges over Ogun River were to collapse thereby cutting the road off from Lagos. If we plan for the above scenario, we should have put the road to Abeokuta and Ibadan to excellent and ready state and perhaps the Epe-Lagos alternative road in a state of readiness through federal government take-over of any of the sections of these roads not presently under federal jurisdiction.
I remember when I was in Germany as ambassador of our potentially great country, the German Chancellor Herr Helmut Kohl created what he called “the ministry of the future “and put it under a young lawyer to dream about the future and what would be needed to cope with it. I will like this innovative approach be made to the future development of Nigeria. For defence purposes we need easily motorable roads for the defence of Lagos in case of enemy seizure of the city and its ports. The Lagos – Abeokuta to Ibadan express easily recommends itself and so does the Lagos – Epe – Ibadan branching off in Ijebu-Ode to link the Benin and the eastern provinces of Nigeria. This is the way to plan for a future scenario that goes beyond our expectations that what we have now will always be up to the mark of securing the country against possible enemies. The way we do things now take life too leisurely. We must begin to think out of the box as they say.
To come back to where we began, efforts must be made to prevent the gridlock of Apapa being repeated on the Lagos – Ibadan road because of our search for local and external investment. We must prevent this by all means why we begin serious planning to having alternative link roads to the hinterland of Nigeria from Lagos and not put all our eggs in the fragile Lagos – Ibadan express way.
