On Wednesday, May 31, acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, ended the controversy between Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode and his predecessor, now Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, when he granted the latter the permission to go ahead with the total reconstruction of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), road in Lagos.
Those who have followed the development, would recall how Ambode, on March 8, cried out to the whole world about how the minister, was practically constituting a stumbling block to the road project, one of the components of his vision to make Lagos stand at par with other mega cities of the world.
Of course, Fashola, in his counter, with behind-the-scene engagements between Abuja and Lagos, depicted the governor as being economical with the truth, insisting that it was the need to go through the full process that caused the delay and not other sinister motive(s) as Ambode implied.
Well, other bits and pieces, odds and ends that followed thereof, not only went further to emphasise that all was not well with and within the camps of the two very significant and highly relevant personalities of the Lagos politics, but that the said road, was going to be a victim of the ostensible mortal feud.
Even with the later-day photo-ops of smiling faces of the two during subsequent meetings, many people still found it hard believing there is a significant thaw in their apparent frosty relationship.
That Fashola, was virtually missing in action, during the events that commemorated the 50th anniversary of Lagos State, when he was supposed to be one of the visible figures, only went to emphasise, the half-empty narrative, with the concomitant interpretation that the project was still caught in the crossfire of the fight of the elephants.
Perhaps, it might even be true that both have since truly mended fences, after that first apparent public spat, thus, leaving leave everything else in the domain of mere conjectures. But what cannot be regarded as such is the implication of the intervention of the acting President.
Ambode, had told his audience at the press conference that he had gathered enough money to get the project going and completed in record time and only needed the approval to get on.
Now, only those not conversant with the said road would be lost on what reconstructing it in the manner the governor suggests would imply. This is a stretch that could constitute a significant distress if not a fatal end for the uninitiated. For a motorist exiting the airport, a single mistake, made in a matter split-second-decision at the maze of its intersections, had actually led to a sort of point-of-no-return in some cases.
Some of the victims, had actually found themselves at Mile 2, in which case it took them some hours to make a simple U-turn or even as farther as Apapa, where, having been unlucky to get caught in its legendry gridlocks, they spent a whole day to correct the error.
Now, this is what Ambode wants to remedy, with his enticing option of a complete reworking, not only in concept, but in the actual facilities on ground.
Hear the governor: “The state currently has a design of 10 lanes from Oshodi to the International Airport with interchange and flyover that would drop towards the local airport. The contractor is set to go and everything as I said has been completed and we already have the cash, but alas we are having challenges with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. This is a Federal and not a state road. The Federal Ministry of Works believes that they should do the road, but they have not been able to do it all these years past.”
The fact that the governor has completed similar projects in the last two years, is a demonstrable evidence, which naturally would inspire confidence that the airport road might not be a mirage stirred by politics. Such projects like the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu link bridge at Mosan in Alimosho, the Ajah Roundabout connecting bridge and the Abule-Egba Bridge, as well as the Berger corridors, done within the period, readily come to the fore.
Much has also been said about the quality of the said projects, meant not only to solve the age-long legendry Lagos traffic, but ensuring that they meet the standards of the governor’s idea of a mega-city.
In fact, the complete illumination on these roads, one of its major features has ensured that Lagos is today, the only city outside Abuja, the Federal Capital City (FCT) where motorists could conveniently drive at night in virtually all the major roads without headlights, as seen in other developed nations of the world.
Naturally, when Ambode is cited in some quarters as one of the stars that signpost the change mantra of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in real and positive terms, many hardly begrudge him, as these landmark projects come into view.
Osinbajo’s intervention, therefore, should be a jolt in the arm to the governor in his bid to transform the state. It also strikes a chord that will change the music in terms of people’s expectation that the governor would hit the ground soon.
Indeed, it is a tempting option for many Nigerians to take sides with the governor were he to continue feuding with his predecessor for the singular reason that Lagos does not only enjoy a special status as a mini-Nigeria, where virtually all citizens maintain one link or the other, but a veritable international player, through which Nigeria is measured in the eyes of many foreign countries.
That Osinbajo, has cured the dog-in-manger factor in airport road project, assuming there was one, is therefore a significant development, but one to be applauded.
Incidentally, no one person has been able to build a country, or in this case, a state alone. The best such individual efforts have achieved, for which they enjoy their specific space in history, is to produce and provide the architecture and mechanism.
For the Lagos governor, the situation becomes even more pointed that he does not enjoy the latitude or longevity in office of the likes of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, Malaysia’s Prime Mahathir bin Mohamad or the autocracy and iron-fist character of South Korea’s Park Chung-hee, with which they brought about the transformation of their countries into modern day giants.
He has just six out of his eight years remaining through which he must accomplish his dream Lagos or step aside to watch. Within this period, he could actually put the state on such a galloping pedestal that the mega city project would emerge quicker and irreversibly, or stand aside and watch at the mercy of his successor what comes next.
Much suggests that the governor’s cup for now is actually half-full rather than half-empty. By the time the airport road project is added to the list of what is already in the kitty, there is no doubt that even if the mega city project is not achieved in full, he would have successfully nailed all the planks together to form a platform for its foundation or even erect the permanent structure, which would only need mere paintworks or shining to complete.
There is no reason to suspect any negative change in the picture as events unfold within the remaining period, if things do not go significantly awry outside what the governor could manage.
- Igboanugo, a journalist, writes from Abuja.
