By Olatunji OLOLADE, Associate Editor
THERE was a glade in the bed of the crater where Bisi Sopeju broke her jaw and twisted her ankle on Adetola road, Ijaiye- Ojokoro, Lagos.
Few minutes after she nosedived into sludge and got buried in road filth, Sopeju was hauled out of the puddle, off the path of a Volkswagen LT 35 commercial bus as it skidded towards her along the deathly course of the Adetola bypass.
“The motorbike conveying me was bumped from behind by the commercial bus driver who had lost control on the dirt road. I screamed at my driver (motorcyclist) to get off his path but like me, he was paralysed by fear.
The bus hit us and at impact, I was flung off the bike and buried face-down in the flooded crater,” said Sopeju.
For a few minutes, Sopeju was “lifeless”, but when she came to, her jaw was broken, her ankle was swollen and her weave had tangled with moss and tufts of grass.
That was in November 2018. It’s 2019, and that dangerous tract along the dirt road blooms in real time. Call it an everglade if you like.
It’s a misnomer, no doubt, that a glade could sprout in the middle of the road in Lagos, Nigeria’s presumed “Centre of Excellence.” That has to be scary. It is.
Sopeju could neither walk nor eat solid meals for three weeks or thereabouts after her accident. She developed a phobia for motorcycles and bypasses and was forced to join millions of commuters as they “roast in the heat and the sun” or “soak in the dampness and leakage” of rickety buses plying Lagos’ bad roads through scorching sunlight and torrential downpours.
Speaking from her Akera neighbourhood, Sopeju said: “Travelling on Lagos roads is akin to taking a mud bath. You also get the feeling you might be journeying into untimely death. It’s like riding in a tomb. I lost my childhood friend three years ago. A steel container fell off an articulated truck and crushed him to death with two of his colleagues who were in the car with him. They were returning from the office. That is why I prefer travelling on an okada (commercial motorbike),” she said.
Like Sopeju, Francis Usoro bemoaned the “dangerous state of Lagos and Ogun roads.” The staff of a Lagos-based firm lives in Akute, amid a dusty expanse shouldering Ogun from the Lagos border.
For most of Usoro’s 46 years, he has lived on an unpaved strip of road in Akute on a street that has no drainage. During dry season, he travels the length and breadth of his street and adjoining dirt roads, with a nasal mask and a thick handkerchief.
“I also avoid wearing white or bright coloured clothes. The few times I tried it, I was covered in dust and read earth before I got to the bus stop. The roads in my area are very dusty and rough,” he said. In the rainy season, Itoro navigates the craters of sludge and mud in a rubber boot rather than ruin his shoes in ankledeep slush. He narrated how taxis and buses avoid his neighbourhood’s dirt roads to pick up passengers, even during medical emergencies. “A neighbour of mine lost his wife while she laboured. It was hell getting her to the bus stop.
When we finally got her to the bus stop, she died struggling with birth pangs in the traffic,” he said. “Only motorcycles and tricycles can venture into our area. It’s terrible if you have to change apartments.
You have to plead and plead with haulage drivers to venture into your road even after you cough up a fortune to contract them. Some simply move their belongings on foot and in tricycles to the bus stop from where they are loaded on to a truck. It’s never a tidy process,” Usoro lamented. Sopeju and Usoro represent a minute fraction of Lagos and Ogun residents imperilled by a nexus of bad roads and bypasses.
Despite successive attempts at road repairs, the situation persists as residents of the two states are forced to travel and live in horrendous conditions imposed by lack of functional drainage channels and good roads.
The Lagos-Ogun conundrum DESPITE its official claim to the “Centre of Excellence” moniker, one iconic symbol of Lagos rural poverty has been the city’s dirt roads. Despite decades of paving over these back roads in the name of progress, many are still dusty washboard surfaces. Many Lagosians, irrespective of their location, attest to the prevalence and horridness of Lagos’ dirt roads.
Wale Alani, a resident of Ajah, argued that contrary to notions that the Lagos Island is home to beautiful road tarmacs and esplanades, the area is rapidly turning into a slum. “Save for a few private estates in Lekki and Victoria Island, this area is a glorified shanty settlement.
The roads are very bad. There are no drainage channels, thus we have to live with lingering stench and frequent bouts of septic tank spillage. “The town planning here is horrid. Many of the streets are dirt roads. Some of us park on the main road when it rains, pour streets get flooded for lack of drainages. We also have to avoid the quicksand and sludge that prevents our tyres from moving even in small residential clusters. I am seriously considering moving back to Agbado-Ijaiye, save the bad roads there, at least, the residents enjoy better urban planning,” he said.
While Alani moved to Ajah to assert his ascent the social ladder and stay closer to his workplace, many residents on the mainland have seen their lives drastically change, no thanks to bad roads. Sayo Lawal, for instance, missed what he considered a life-changing job interview due to the state’s bad road network. “I left home very early on the said day in order to beat traffic. The interview was slated for 11 am and I left my home in Magboro at 4.30 am. Sadly, I spent six hours in the traffic between my area and Lekki, where I was supposed to attend the interview.
They gave me no other chance,” he said. “Fortunately,” for the 32-year-old, he has found a “good job importing cars via a business arrangement with his cousin in the United States. It’s better. I do not have to worry about beating traffic to arrive at someone’s office. The only time I have to worry about that is when I have to visit the Apapa port to clear my vehicles,” he said. He said: “I almost gave up when I missed the interview but I have learnt that when there is life, there is hope.”
At least, Lawal enjoys the rare boon of a life filled with hope, the same can hardly be said of Kingsley Ejike, a resident of Magboro, who was swept away by flood resulting from a recent downpour. Ejike, a cooking gas supplier, drowned in a flood around Sparklight Estate axis of the Lagos-Ibadan highway in Ogun State.
The deceased owner of Kingsfield Gas at Magboro reportedly drowned on a trip to supply gas to some residents of Sparklight Estate, near the MFM church around 6.00 pm. Abimbola Oyeyemi, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), who confirmed the incident, said, “The person (Ejike) was riding a motorcycle and wanted to pass through Sparklight Estate, but didn’t know that the construction company, Julius Berger, while constructing the road, channelled water under the tunnel in the area. But because the area was flooded, he drove past the axis and the flood swept him and the motorcycle into the tunnel.
But local divers and the police recovered his body this morning around 9.30am and deposited it in the mortuary.” Then, there is the sad case of an unidentified 11-year-old boy who got swept away by flood along with one Wasiu, who was trying to rescue him, at Aboru in Alimosho Local Government Area of the state few days ago, in the aftermath of a down pour.
The deceased was one of two young boys who were reportedly sent by their parents to buy cooking gas but unknowingly fell into a drain through which water passed into the canal. “Three young men attempted rescuing the boys and succeeded in rescuing the older one, but one of the rescuers, popularly known as Wasiu Stubborn, was swept away while trying to rescue the other victim,” NAN quoted a source as saying. Lagos would also never forget in a hurry the tragic fate of the 12 casualties who got burnt to death in the June 28, 2018 petrol tanker explosion on the Otedola Link Bridge, on the Lagos- Ibadan highway.
According to the Lagos State government, 10 of the victims, including a minor, died at the scene of the accident, while two others died at the hospital. The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) also announced that at least 54 vehicles were burnt with the tanker. Nevertheless, a number of eyewitnesses, nearby residents and public believe that the reports on the economic loss and casualties are distorted by government and media When flood kills THERE is no gainsaying incessant rain in Lagos and Ogun states in the past one week has wreaked havoc and exposed infrastructural deficit in the two neighbouring states. While commuters suffer excruciating spells in vehicular traffic, wasting precious hours on cratered and badly flooded roads, flooding, a consequence of non-existent and non-functional drainage channels and bad roads, have claimed lives and destroyed homes and property in the downpour.
For instance, the downpour on Saturday, killed Jumiah Utache and her three children, Faith (9 years), Domino (2) and Daniel (1) in Magodo area of Lagos. The Utaches died after a hilltop structure crashed on their home at 48, Orisa Street, Magodo Phase One, Isheri Waterfront, during the downpour. Neighbours said the hilltop structure on Otun Araromi Street collapsed and fell on the Utache family residence, crushing the woman and her children who were asleep. The head of the family, identified as Emmanuel Utache, was also injured in the mishap. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) Dr. Femi Oke-Osayintolu confirmed the incidents. He said the agency had recommended full implementation of the existing law on collapsed building in the state which included seizure of the affected property.
He said: “Investigations revealed that aside the heavy downpour, the obviously old building constructed with mud bricks, had been seriously distressed over time with visible cracks on its other yet-to-collapse sides. “In order to avert danger to adjoining buildings and other users of the environment, LASEMA has recommended strongly that its remains be pulled down, the debris removed and the property forfeited to the Lagos State Government as stipulated by law.” Perilous traffic THE tragedy persists outside the bloodied neighbourhoods of Magodo and Alimosho as commercial transporters crush commuters to death, driving against the traffic to escape heavier snarl-up along their legitimate routes.
In May 2019, a trailer driver crushed an official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Folashade Remilekun Arogundade, to death. The accident occurred on a Saturday in Apapa, around 5pm, when the deceased joined her colleagues and other agencies’ officials to clear the area of trucks and tankers, in a the wake of a presidential directive for the immediate clearance of Apapa Port to decongest the area and rid Apapa roads of gridlock. The trailer driver, it was learnt, accidentally hit Arogundade while reversing, dragging her back and forth against a wall and crushed her. The driver, The Nation learnt, ran away immediately he discovered that he had killed the LASTMA official. Subsequently, Arogundade was taken to the General Hospital, Apapa, by her colleagues. There, the doctor said she was “Brought in Dead” (BID).
The deceased left behind her mother, husband and two-year-old daughter. Due to bad roads, transporters hike bus fares with impunity not minding the impact on the purses of helpless commuters. A trip from NITEL Bus Stop in Agege to Abule Egba would cost N50 in a tricycle but since the rains, drivers charge as much as N200 citing bad roads and traffic. The bus fare from Oshodi to Sango is hiked from N300 to N800 by transporters leaving many passengers stranded through the night. Many of them cite traffic and bad roads, lamented Ifeanyi Dike, a steel fabricator. “But the high fares are not only the issue, travelling through bad roads and heavy traffic is bad on one’s health. I develop cramps just sitting for long hours in the bus.
The exhaust fumes from badly serviced cars make me sick too. I once had to hop off a bus bound for Obalende when I got nauseous and needed to vomit. “I feel sick from the fumes; hence when I have the money, I board okada, even in the rain,” said Dike. Living and cruising ondirt roads RESIDENTS and commuters passing through Ipaja-Ayobo, Agbado Kollington, Dalemo, Akera, Ijaye- Jankara, continually lament the deplorable state of the Lagos-Abeokuta highway linking their inner dirt roads. The Nation findings in the axis re- vealed dangerous gullies in Adetola, Olaniyi, Agbado-Crossing and other bypasses and streets spanning Abule-Egba, Ahmadiyya, Meiran, Ipaja and Ajasa- Command. The roads linking Ayobo with Itele, Iju-Ishaga, Ajuwon-Akute, Ojodu and Ajegunle, bordering Ogun State, are also pockmarked by gullies and potholes. And yet around the corner, at the point where the Lagos dirt havens mesh with Ogun State a different kind of ugliness subsists in Lafenwa, Aiyetoro, Olugbode, and several other communities along Itele road.
The roads are equally bad in Owode- Ota, Owode-Ijako, Agoro, Iyana-Ilogbo, Ijoko, Oju Ore, Ilo-Awela and Oke Aro. At Joju, Temidire and environ, mucky pools still stagnate in large craters even as chuckholes devastate Alagbole and Ajuwon roads thus making travel and habitation very difficult in the areas. “Because the roads in this area are broken at many places, there is no smooth ride for the motorists.
The buses, trucks, cars, three-wheelers and motorcycle have to halt after every fivesix minutes just to adjust with the road breaks and pot-holes all over. It has been repeatedly brought to the notice of the Local Government Office, but all efforts to get them to do something has been in vain, thus leading to using incessant traffic problem on the roads,” according to Adeogun Kafayat, a resident and commuter in the area. Residents of Abule-Iroko, Itoki and neighbouring border communities sharing borders with Lagos in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Council, Ogun State, are also afflicted road gullies and craters.
The road leading from Ajegunle to the Bible College junction, beside the moribund Gateway Hotel, Sango-Ota, and which ends at the new Railway terminus on Ijoko road, along the Ota-Ijoko- Alagbole Akute highway linking Berger on the Lagos-Ibadan highway, forces motorists to affect caution in dry season and is practically impassable when it rains, according to The Nation findings. Lagos and Ogun governors react OGUN governor, Dapo Abiodun, has assured the people of Ota, in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area that roads within the local government connecting the state with neighbouring states would be repaired to make room for connectivity and mobility within and outside the state.
Governor Abiodun who made this known while inspecting some roads in the local government that share close proximity with Lagos, said that the visit was in line with the campaign promises he made to lay emphasis on rural and township roads. “We appreciate the fact that one of the biggest advantages that we have is that we are able to provide services for neighbouring states, particularly Lagos State. A lot of people want to live in Ogun and work in Lagos and we promised that we are going to ensure that we do that so that our people can move between Lagos and Ogun with relative ease.
“So for us, connectivity and mobility is very important. We are starting with the connecting roads that connect us with Lagos state, and we have seen three of those critical roads,” he said. And at the backdrop of outrage over the deplorable state of Lagos roads, the state governor, Sanwo-Olu, has declared a state of emergency on dilapidated highways and carriage roads within the state. Governor Sanwo-Olu, who inherited the bulk of the near road collapse, gave the order that massive rehabilitation work on critical roads across the state must commence on Monday, October 14. Sanwo-Olu’s directive followed the conclusion of his series of meetings with eight multi-national engineering firms in respect of the road rehabilitation initiative. He said: “The contractors have been given the mandate to start mobilising to their respective sites without further delay.
Their activities must first give our people an immediate relief on the affected roads so that there can be free flow of traffic even during the rehabilitation work.” To complement the major construction work on the highways, Sanwo-Olu said Lagos State Public Works Corporation (LSPWC) would be carrying out repairs of 116 inner roads across the State, in addition to over 200 roads already rehabilitated by the Corporation in the last three months.
Despite the governors’ spirited efforts, many residents of the two states are yet to benefit from their much hyped rehabilitation projects. Residents and commuters along the dirt roads of Owode-Ijako, Agoro Road, Iyaba Ilogbo, Ogba Ayo, Itele, Lafenwa, Ijoko, Bible College, Toll gate-Ilo Awela, Joju, Temidire among others still commute and live in dire circumstances as the areas are yet to benefit from Ogun governor, Abiodun’s rehabilitation scheme. Likewise, residents of the Adetola bypass in Ijaiye-Ojokoro and environs, Olaniyi in Abule Egba, Dalemo-Akera, Agbado Kollington, Agbado Crossing, Giwa, Oja Oba in Abule Egba, Moricas, Olukosi, Super, Orile, Mulero and Iju roads in Agege, Oshodi, Ibeju-Lekki, among others are yet to enjoy the reprieve of smooth roads and functioning drainages among other infrastructural improvements promised by Governor Sanwo-Olu.
“Let’s hope they (government) won’t come to fill our potholes with sharp sand, cement and gravel as they are wont to do. It has become the norm for the so-called task force to come around in the wake of the governor’s promises to fill gullies and craters on our roads with sand. That is a half measure that never works,” said Kola Bamidele, a retired civil servant and resident of Danjuma, Agege. Bad roads cost Nigeria N1trn – Senate DUE to poor state of the roads across the 36 states, Nigeria loses ₦1 trillion every year, according to the Nigerian Senate.
The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) also calculated the number of hours people loss annually in cost, when they are being delayed on the road because of traffic and bad roads, putting it at ₦1.02 trillion. Senate Committee Chairman of FERMA, Senator Gershom Bassey, revealed this at stakeholders meeting on road maintenance put together by the agency. He said: “I think the first thing is to obey the law.
Clearly, there is a FERMA Act and the key issue in road maintenance is funding. This issue was addressed in 2008 in the amendment of the FERMA Act, which provided for additional sources of funding for road maintenance. “But the problem we have now is that, that law has not been obeyed by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, as it is supposed to ensure that a portion of the tax on petrol and diesel is credited to FERMA for the maintenance of roads.”
The Senate believes that enacting prescribed laws would be of immersed help in the maintenance of Nigerian roads Tunde Lemo, Chairman of FERMA’s Governing Board, stated that the capital for the maintenance of roads across the states was less than 1% of Nigerian’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He said it was less than three per cent of the GDP World Bank recommends as the least spending limit. Lemo added that more than 80 per cent of the trips made in Nigeria are by road, and 90 per cent of the travels are on Federal interstate roads. He went further to point out that the Federal roads in good condition are just 10, 0000 km while fair and bad roads are 13,300km and 11,600km respectively. According to him, it’s the reason why road density in the country is just 0.21 km/sq.km2. Photos: Olatunji OLOLADE & Biodun ADEYEWA
