President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to open the Oshodi Interchange and the 10-lane Murtala Muhammed International Airport road next Tuesday. Their opening will give motorists and other users a new road travel experience, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE.
FOR two years, contractors worked to get the facilities ready.
It came with discomfort for motorists, and other road users, but now they are set to enjoy riding on the roads after being inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari next Tuesday.
These projects are the Oshodi Interchange, the first multi-level and three terminal structure in the world, and the 10-lane Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) road, with five bridges, which will replace the two-lane road, which Governor Akinwunmi Ambode noted does not represent a smart city brand he is building for the state.
Despite the problem with some Lagos roads under his watch, the Ambode administration will be leaving behind some audacious infrastructure meant to reposition public transportation and make it more friendly to the over 22 million commuters that it serves daily.
From the removal of 10 roundabouts on the Lekki-Epe Expressway, to the laybys at some busy routes, such as in Ketu, Berger, and Oworo-Third Mainland Bridge, the two Jubilee bridges at Ajah and Abule-Egba, and the 28 roads and four bridges that opened up Alimosho Local Government, leading up to Badagry, Ambode has in four years taken development round the state – urban-semi-urban and rural areas – all in his bid to ensure even distribution of government’s presence, and to in his words, “put money in the pockets of the poor and those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.”
Speaking on the philosophy of his administration, Ambode said: “I want to touch as many lives as possible. I don’t want to know them, but I just want them to feel and see that there is somebody somewhere that is thinks and care about them.”
For a government that was birthed into the crunching recession, Ambode believes “the only way to exit inflation is to spend your way out of it,” and that he did, by spreading projects round the state.
Why Oshodi?
In ways that had been largely uncomplimentary, Oshodi had for close to half a century been known as the face of Lagos – all wrong and ugly purpose. To visitors, Oshodi is that fearsome and tempestuous commune where anything and everything goes. Yet, none can do without Oshodi, as it is the home to 54 transportation hubs, each of which is controlled by many transport unions, whose activities and officials, often work at cross purposes, resulting to spontaneous crisis and avoidable loss of lives.
Despite its unpredictable nature, Oshodi continues to serve as a transportation hub for local, inter-state and the Economic Community of west African States (ECOWAS) sub-region and have remained even in its organic state – a cash cow for the government.
Oshodi has a culture of violence. Hordes of street urchins who, most times, work as bus boys (bus conductors) and porters, swoop on buses entering Oshodi and in the melee, pick pockets of unsuspecting commuters and travellers, dispossessing them of their valuables.
It was home to a troubling population of the homeless, with successive administration since the Second Republic battling with the menace called Oshodi. From Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who built the headquarters of the state’s Transportation system (LSTC) there, to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who began the sanitisation initiative, and Babatunde Raji Fashola, who smoked out the ‘bad boys’ of Oshodi, mounted a street light on the corridor and militarised it with a Police taskforce that worked round the clock to rid Oshodi of its crime and grime.
Though Fashola also wrestled down the ubiquitous molue, which was Oshodi’s main stay and replaced them with the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) buses, which began on March 17, 2008.
When Ambode started a massive demolition in Oshodi to make way for the project in 2016, many took it as a huge joke. When the sod was turned a year later, same pessimism persisted on the project. Now, 90 percent ready, the project, with a skywalk the covering of which is almost completed, has become an engineering marvel.
From a violent enclave populated by street urchins, criminals, vagrants, miscreants and petty traders who have taken over the streets with their wares, a new Oshodi is gradually emerging that may be unparalleled in the whole of Africa.
Ambode leaves no one in doubt he loves big projects, the type that would leave the greatest social impact on the majority of the people.
“If my government is truly people driven, I should be able to do projects that affect them and also have the greatest impact on their lives,” he said. One of such audacious project is the Oshodi interchange.
Speaking on the Oshodi project, Mr Biodun Otunola, the Managing Director of Planet Projects, the contractor, said Oshodi, despite its huge potential, has been neglected by successive governments.
He said the interchange with three terminals, each sitting on 30,000 sq metres, when operational, would serve at peak an average of one million people. Initially, each of the terminals would serve 300,000 passengers daily and every hour, 300 buses would be departing from the terminals.
Otunola, who described the project as revolutionistic, said Ambode would be remembered for making available access to efficient, cheap, safe, and affordable buses, especially those at the lower rungs of the ladder who cannot afford to buy their personal vehicle.
For the comfort of the passengers, he said the three terminals, with multi-layer floors, would have lifts and elevators to ensure commuters can easily move from one floor to another. He further said this was aside all the terminals are linked by skywalk to ensure passengers could easily navigate the entire interchange, moving from one point to another with ease.
He said for passengers not to wait endlessly for buses, two layover parks were created with the capacity to accommodate 70 buses, waiting to load at every point. He also said there would be room for park and ride, the reason a park was created, in addition to a taxi park so that the buses coming from the layover do not obstruct free flow of traffic when they need to connect Terminals 1 and 2. He said two tunnels had been incorporated into the project, where the buses from the layover would be driven through to connect the terminals.
A revolution
Otunola said the idea behind turning the interchange into a tourist attraction is to rebrand Oshodi. For him, when completed, any person who visit Lagos and has not made a stopover at the interchange has not visited the state.
“This is because the entire place is built with the mind of turning Oshodi into tourists’ destination. This is why the adjacent Terminal 3 are shopping mall and a three-star hotel. A thousand light effects would also be installed around the interchange, which would be used to create effects, sometimes to reflect the mood of celebrations like Workers Day, Easter, Christmas and New Year and Independence Day.”
When completed, the project, he added, would not only be iconic, but the nation’s pride. While the interchange is funded by the state government, the hotel and shopping mall, according to Otunola, would be executed by the private sector.
The terminals are mutually exclusive, though commuters would move from one to the other via the skywalk or the escalators.
While Terminal 1 would serve those travelling outside the state, especially the west coast, Terminal 2 will service commuters heading to Abule Egba and adjoining places, and Terminal 3 would serve commuters heading for Anthony, Ojota, Lagos Island, Ikorodu and environs. All terminals have sitting areas, where commuters can buy their tickets, confirm their buses and wait for their vehicles in comfortable, airconditioned ambience, similar to the one available at the airport lounge.
All terminals also have shopping arcade, food court, and ticketing counters. They also have connecting escalators and elevators for the comfort of commuters. To further promote its 24-hour economy, the interchange would also be served by a 50 bed hotel and a shopping centre.
Ambode’s Chief Press Secretary Habib Aruna said the Oshodi Interchange would, ultimately, regenerate Oshodi, a development which would impact on the slum culture of the area and reposition its property market.
He said the government achieved the feat without recourse to a foreign loan, a development that speaks to the governor’s shrewdness as an accountant.
Quoting his boss, Aruna said: “If we have been able to secure the city, if we have been able to make life more comfortable for people, if we have been able to provide streetlights that make it possible for people to travel at night without fear, then the people have benefited from the Ambode government.”
The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, said the government has been upbeat about the project because it is 100 percent local content. “Nothing about this project is imported and all the engineers are Nigerians. The Oshodi Interchange is a loud testament to Nigerians’ capacity to hold their own and the Ambode government is proud to be a pioneer of this new thinking which underpins the Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive order on Local Content,” Bamigbetan said.
As he winds up, projects like the Oshodi Interchange could better be said to have summed Ambode’s persona, who on assumption four years ago, said; “I came here for a purpose to touch humanity. I have been successful in my career as an accountant. So, finding myself as the governor of a state, like Lagos is more or less like a divine call to touch humanity.”
There is no doubt that with such project, if maintained, the governor may have written his name into eternity.