After years of neglect, the Airport-Oshodi road is to get a facelift. The redevelopment of the all-important road, kicked-off penultimate Monday by Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode through his Waterfront Infrastructure Development Commissioner Ade Akinsanya, will be completed in 15 months. The Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Media & Strategy Idowu Ajanaku writes the ambitious project.
The winning edge a leader exhibits, to stand tall, heads and shoulders above his contemporaries is predicated on his consistent capacity to translate people-oriented vision and dreams into concrete reality. Assembling a team of competent professionals, who also believe in that vision, is imperative.
Other facilitating factors include the driving desire to prioritise the projects and scale them within a realistic financial framework and time. The other is the involvement of the beneficiaries for their proper use and sustainable maintenance.
Interestingly, these attributes and more, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has amply demonstrated since mounting the pedestal of political power on May 29, 2015. The accountant-turned politician has to his credit several solid structures on infrastructural development that have endeared him to the hearts of millions of Lagosians over the past two and a half years.
But one new project that will certainly mark him out as a leader with his thinking cap firmly fixed is the recent kick-off of the long-neglected road that stretches from the Murtala Muhammed Airport to the ever-bustling Oshodi. With an eye on the future, as Lagos gears up to become the third largest economy on the continent by 2020, overtaking the combined resources of 32 others in Africa, he is fully aware that the advantages are profound, not only for Lagos but the entire country, Nigeria.
As the busiest airport road in sub-Saharan Africa that welcomes a variety of nationals – including businessmen, investors, entrepreneurs, political bigwigs, entertainers and tourists – from across the globe, its status ought to have been restored long before now. It should have been rebranded as a national pride, with a warm, welcoming embrace signifying the Africaness that Nigeria symbolises.
In its past state, it definitely left a sour taste in the mouth of an average first-time visitor to the country. It portrayed Nigeria as a country at war with itself! Indeed, not even the airport roads in the war-torn Syria or Beirut are as decrepit and deplorable. But, as a pragmatic leader, Ambode saw it and decided to light a candle, instead of blaming the darkness.
To up the ante, the state government disclosed that it will not adopt the Federal Government design made decades ago for the reconstruction of 10-lane Oshodi-Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road, Instead, the road with a distance of 5.7064 kilometres will boast of two service lanes, 20 lay-bys, interlocking stones walkway and five modern bridges; bolstered with two flyovers and three pedestrian bridges. Ambode, who was represented by the Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Mr. Adebowale Akinsanya, specifically noted these additional structures at a stakeholders’ meeting held at the Welcome Centre Hotel, Airport Road.
In retrospect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had made attempt to reconstruct the road during his second term tenure in 2003, but the then Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe, used the federal might to scuttle the ambitious project. He insisted that the road belonged to the Federal Government and the state had no business working on it. It was a similar situation during the Fashola years, all because the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party)-controlled the federal government while the CAN (Action Congress of Nigeria) and later the APC (All Progressives Congress) took over the mantle of leadership. What an aberration for a country in crying need of political and economic restructuring.
However, hope rose when the former governor, Babatunde Fashola became the Minster for Power, Works and Housing. Surprisingly, deliberate efforts were made to frustrate the state government’s genuine efforts to take charge as the minster became a cog in the wheel of progress.
His explanation then was that the Federal Government designed an eight-lane dual carriage way to be built with N2 billion in the federal budget. Governor Ambode was left with no option but to address a press conference to ventilate his shock at the turn of events. In fact, it took the prompt intervention of Vice President Yemi Osibanjo through an executive order to set the ball rolling for the project.
The good news now is that the state government is going to execute the same project using Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). And on completion, it will be a replica of the modern road network that leads to Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. With the advantages of changing the socio-economic landscape of Lagos metropolis, the image of Nigeria as well as easing traffic in the ever-expanding metropolis, it will eventually lead to an increase in foreign investment. Jobs will be created and the quality of life of the average Lagosian improved upon.
This innovative approach to governance through sustained urban renewal is in tandem with what Asiwaju Tinubu has said of the governor. He said: “Akinwunmi Ambode has reflected that he is clearly a thinker and doer. I want to say thank you because experience is a great teacher and I am experienced. I am on the spot and I have watched things in Lagos since my tenure ended.”
In June this year, the Word Bank, represented by its Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Joaquim Vieira Levy commended the massive and impact-making infrastructural development across Lagos State, under the Ambode administration. Levy used the auspicious occasion of the visit to assure that the state’s urban renewal and infrastructure development projects would continue to receive more boost from the World Bank to assist the Government deliver more on key infrastructural.
The World Bank chief decided to pick Lagos State as its pilot state for its sustainable development assistance scheme. The reason: because Lagos has demonstrated leadership in providing good governance catalysed by infrastructures that have direct positive impact on its citizenry. This is the truth.
For instance, one Nathaniel Ajayi, a resident of Abesan, a sleepy community in the northern part of Lagos, said of Ambode’s magic wand in transforming Lagos with projects that have direct bearing on the lives of the residents: “I was born in 1993 here in Abesan, I had always dreamt that one day the kind of development I see in Victoria Island, Lekki and Ikeja will take place here. Today our governor has made my dream come true.” Nathaniel spoke at the inauguration of the link bridge at Abesan to ease transportation headaches in that axis.
What more can one add, but to urge the indefatigable governor not to rest on his oars. Keep up the good job!
