Right now, if you drive through Lekki-Expressway in Lagos, you would have noticed the construction work going on around that corridor. Three roundabouts are to be redesigned and the existing roundabouts will be taken out.
If you have driven past the Alade Market roundabout in Ikeja, you would also have noticed that the roundabout has been taken out and is also being reconfigured. The same thing is taking place at the Maryland interchange. All over Lagos, almost 60 roundabouts are being reconfigured to ease traffic, while all the potholes are being fixed.
 Several months back, one issue Lagosians complained about shortly after Gov. Sanwo-Olu came into government were the bad state of Lagos road. Being the ever listening and responsive governor that he is he took the problem headlong and did a good job of it. City People went round the state and saw how many of the roads in Lagos have been fixed. Going through different parts of the state, showed Public Works Corporation, High-tech, Chinese Construction Company (CCECC), Metropolitan Construction Company, Arab Contractors, Messers Julius Berger, and other contractors working on different parts of the roads. It is so because the government had focused on engaging stakeholders for collaboration and done its homework perfectly when the complaints were on. The government held collaborative meetings with banks and contractors. Banks were tasked to work out modalities that would ensure that contractors access funds and deliver on projects pronto.
Public Infrastructure Improvement Partnership (PIIP) agreement with banks that involve banks handling the rehabilitation of roads as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a significant dimension to the strategy. The government is leveraging on the private sector, which controls about eighty per cent of the State’s Gross Domestic Product as crucial in the government’s drive to bridge the infrastructure gap and to also build the smart city of our dream.
Access Bank has keyed into one of the ways to realize the state’s objective of making Lagos a 21st-century economy by partnering with the State Government in Infrastructural upgrading of Oniru Network of roads under a Public Infrastructure Improvement Partnership (PIIP) arrangement.
Pen Cinema Bridge is another massive infrastructural project the government is very keen at completing very soon. A drive through the streets of Lagos will also reveal that roads had been rehabilitated or ongoing in so many locations such as Mobolaji Bank Anthony; Sheraton section (Ikeja Bound), Ogudu road, Herbert Macaulay road, Ogunnusi road, Apapa road, LASU-Iba road, Iju road, Ajah Badore road, Ridwan Onifade/Ademoye Street, Arida Bus Stop before Ikotun Oduduwa road, and TOS Benson (Ebute Roundabout inward garage). Others include Cele-ljesha Link Bridge (Okota Road), Ijesha Lawanson Junction by Otun Oba Bus Stop and Ishaga Road by LUTH, Ondo Street Ebute Metta.
Cheeringly, respite has also come for road users and residents along Lagos-Badagry Expressway. Inspection of the dilapidated road was among the first duty performed by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The governor had lamented that the portion of the road from Orile to Maza Maza had been converted to markets, with heaps of refuse dotting the landscape. Yielding to the demand of the people, the government in July resumed the construction of the ten-lane Lagos Badagry Expressway.
Performing the flag-off of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, the State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by his deputy, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, stated that the return to the road not only mark the fulfillment of a promise made during the June 2, 2019 inspection to the people of the State but is also designed to bring relief to commuters who experience hardship daily on the road.
Though the road belongs to the Federal Government, it should be recalled that the notion to expand the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, a major gateway connecting Nigeria and other neighbouring West African countries, was conceptualized in 2009 by the Babatunde Raji Fashola administration to ease traffic in the region and upgrade the infrastructure from four (4) lane into ten (10) lane dual carriage.
Significant importance of the reconstruction and expansion of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway is the potential to draw more people to Badagry division to form new clusters of industries, commerce and logistics, and become new economic growth points. Lagos has resources, population and development plan that accommodate such.
Recall that the Ministry of Works and “Infrastructure recently issued a statement that Lagos State Government will, henceforth, insist on Standard Operating Procedure, SOP, spelt out in all construction projects. It has been observed that most road failures are largely the effect of using materials that are substandard which often cause speedy or early disintegration of most road projects.
This was not only in line with The THEMES Agenda of the administration; it was as a result of the ugly experience of the incessant failure of newly constructed structures before their lifespan expires. The experience confirms the fact that some contractors do not conform to the standard procurement process as Stage Certification and Approval before a project proceeds to another level, is always part of procurement Law.
So far, the right step has been taken by Mr. Governor. What is left is for the residents to cooperate with the contractors handling the road projects across the state and safeguards them at completion. It is also expected that the citizens reciprocate by willingly paying their levies and taxes and operating on the right side of the law. It is only when this is done, that the maxim: Igbega Ipinle Eko Ajumose ni (Growth of Lagos State is a collective task) become a reality.
With additional information from Musbau is Assistant Director, Public Affairs Unit,
Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.
