Governance for the People: A perspective from the Lekki-Epe Expressway Hassle
By NigeriaPlus August 26, 2010
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State
It looks like the Lekki-Epe Expressway is in the news again. This is good news. Perhaps awareness is growing. Not awareness of the state of the road (we all know what the road is like) but the awareness by more and more people that they deserve better; the awareness that is making more and more people want to show how affected and grieved they are. We now know that there are many who have been waiting for the proverbial “who” to bell the cat and lead voices to cry out in the effort to be heard.
Again, at the risk of sounding redundant, I speak as always from the point of view of us citizens, us humans; us normal, thinking, feeling, everyday, ordinary, men or women; us whose major desire is to live a decent life, give our children a decent existence, contribute to the development and growth of our city by earning a living and thereafter, reaping the benefits of being functional members of our society or community. I am one of us; I depend on the one-and-only Lekki-Epe Expressway to get into and out of my community, one of the many communities that need the very long stretch that is the Lekki-Epe Expressway to thrive.
Today as I left my home for work, I noticed to my horror that the only link through which I could cross over to the other side of the expressway had been blocked without prior warning. This must have happened overnight as I tossed and turned in my sleep worrying about how to handle the traffic situation the next day. Of course, it ranks up there in the list of to-dos, right next to school run, market, hospital, errands and bank visits – how to face and deal with the traffic situation on Lekki-Epe Expressway. It is a major force to be reckoned with. Refuse to reckon with it and you will suffer great losses to your person and to your plans – business or otherwise.
As I progressed with my journey, after I had recovered from the shock the imposed longer journey gave to my system, I observed that this “road-block” continued until the Mobil Round-About or what will now be known as the 4th round-about. In other words, anybody coming from Lekki Phase 1 towards Ajah, would have to drive the entire distance from the Conoil Fuel Station to the Mobil roundabout in order to make a U-turn to return to any destination before the Conoil Station.
What is the purpose of this illustration, you may ask? Well, you see, on a normal day, in a normal situation, that distance would be insignificant. I say this because, if everything was as it should be, driving to or from Lekki/Ajah would be a breeze. But this is not the case here. There is hardly any normality in the current situation. If anything, abnormality is the present status because a journey which should ordinarily take 15 minutes or less, may now take you anything from 4 hours to 7 hours on the Lekki-Epe Expressway. Now, tell me, is that abnormal or what!
Here then is the purpose of my write up.
Governance is responsible for the welfare of the people. Governance here refers not to a particular person, but to the group or hierarchy who took on this responsibility when they swore to an oath. I realise that this responsibility may sound foreign in Nigeria, but the rules of governance, just like the rules of fatherhood, are the same all over the world. That a country decides to ignore or break the rules does not make it any different. That one ignores a fact does not remove the fact from it’s reality. That we deny the existence of truth does not make it non-existent nor does it make the truth a lie. Truth remains truth no matter how we try to pretend it does not. What does my write-up-turned-preaching aim to do? To show that the government owes us at Lekki, as indeed every part of Lagos, some responsibility.
A majority of people just want the basics. Not all of us aspire to amass wealth or store up treasures on earth. Many want to travel light on this journey that promises to end someday. As it is today, many wish that the journey would end sooner so they can finally enjoy the promises of the after world. But the reality is that, whilst we wait for the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, we still have to exist here. The painful reality is that we are not living out the charge to “live the will of God on earth as it is in heaven”. Can we just get the basics; the barest-minimum entitlement due to us for the unique qualification of being born here? The basics like good roads, clean and potable water, and electricity? And some respect too. It is utterly disrespectful and uncaring to be blocked in, with no prior information and with no evidence of thoughts of alternatives.
I have followed the debate on the banning of bikes (popularly known as Okada) on certain routes in Lagos. Primary among the issues is the fact that more day light robberies are committed on account of the presence of so many bikers. Really? I don’t have the statistics but if I did I would probably ask what the police are doing about it? Am I defending the notion that Okadas should remain? Not at all. But you see, in the present circumstance, I actually depend on the Okada to get me and my sick child to the hospital in an emergency. The condition of this road I speak of is such that no vehicle on four wheels can save my life no matter how fast or luxurious it is for the simple reason that the traffic situation will give no chance for assistance to come from a motorist or even an ambulance. They cannot get to me and I cannot get to them.
I personally abhor Okadas in Lagos. Many of the riders are not trained to ride a bike and have no clue of traffic regulations or road usage. They are a menace, I agree but they are a necessary nuisance especially in a place where government seems to be invisible to the eyes but remains an idea in our subconscious and a name to use when we are in the mood to rant about our frustrations. How sad. When government is absent from our lives, we look to other means of alleviating our pain and sorrow. As an old Igbo adage would say, “It is something that led to something”. Today in Lagos, especially on the Lekki-Epe Expressway, it might only be an Okada that saves your life or gets you to that job interview or business appointment or school examination on time.
Let’s talk about LASTMA. I am pretty sure that there are a few or more good men in that organ of governance with purpose and the commitment to execute the job they were given to do. But I think, maybe, the Lekki-Epe Expressway has defied any control or sensibility. Maybe the officials have thrown their hands up in despair and frustrations too. Whether you are in a car, on a bike or on foot on this road, I promise you, you will feel the brunt of the chaos and madness. The LASTMA officials seem as frustrated, disgruntled, discouraged and angry as the road users. They have left their jobs and taken on motorists, motorists have in turn left the vehicles and road and taken on LASTMA officials. It’s a free for all fight on a good day. Misplaced aggressions are the order of the day. That is not a surprise. Take a drive down that road any day during the peak periods and experience this yourself. Saturdays and Sundays are no different. If I were to ration
cars to the officials, I would reckon it would come to 1 LASTMA official to 200 motor vehicles on a road in various stages of bad-repair and disrepair. A road that looks like a scene from a war movie. A jungle under construction with heavily under-utilised machinery that take up more space than the do any work, boulders that ensure that if you are regular road user, you would have damaged your vehicle twice or thrice since the road works began, un-marked areas that ensure vehicles can broaden into 10 lanes on a 2-lane road, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Even with a Degree or PhD in road traffic management, which sadly many of the officials do not have, it would be almost impossible to control this mess BECAUSE, there are fundamental things that need to be dealt with before traffic control officials can be effective in bringing some order. Absent these fundamental things and you have chaos. Welcome to Lekki-Epe Expressway.
I know of many who now go by helicopter or by sea to their places of work, and so they should if they want to get anywhere anytime soon. BUT my question is this: Who will fly or ferry the poor? For these, the God they profess will only be seen or truly known through the hands and the heart of the government that provides for them.
It is with this heartache that I sincerely ask permission to be allowed to resent, resist, reject, rebuff, refuse, repudiate, reprobate, repel, decline and protest this toll that is about to be imposed on me. No matter how much is said to rationalise it, my humanity and spirit cry out with every breath it can muster: THIS IS SO WRONG!!!!! Let us have the service first, then ask us to pay. I am only morally justified to pay for a service that I enjoy, and not in anticipation of an illusory promise, one that just doesn’t look like it’s going to come to pass anytime soon.
© 2010 Kandibe Eya
Great article my sister.
It is appalling that the government cannot find some small change from their various million naira (and often abandoned) projects to say "this is our legacy" here is running water or permanent electricity.
Instead, they will gladly drive thier high value cars on bad roads and protect their houses armed to the teeth – what sort of society is that?
More grease to your elbow.
that trip is a trip from hell, but in typical Nigerian style, they rent and buy helicopters rather than spend the money on the road.
Nothing in Nigeria works and it says a lot about our country that after nearly 50yrs of independence, the so called Giant of Africa is playing second fiddle to the likes of Ghana and South Africa.
Interestingly, if the government siezed to exist today (apart from the cameroonians making a mad dash for our oil) everything would remain the same – ergo – we have no government. Only powerful men with expensive cars occupying government positions.
yes, please explain how it is possible to impose a toll for a service that has not been initiated?
eh?
@ Sam
isn't that tantamount to saying "I have this wonderful service that I want to implement to make things better for you. I can't tell you when it will be ready or even when it will start, but you have to pay for it".
@ chidi
lol – exactly.That's the problem with the country – it is so bad that you have to laugh.
while we are prone to laughter at what happens, you have to put things into context.
Nigeria's problem is not something we can resolve over night, so well done to the writer for highlighting something specific that can be targeted.
It is possible the country is so bad that our leaders do not know where to start, hence pointers like this are necessary.
That traffic jam that we have now become accustomed, when you really think about it, is a burden. In my family, our entire schedule is built around what the traffic may or may not be – even on weekends.
I hope this will be resolved quickly as it is tiresome and with no end in sight, unbearable, especially with children who have to get to school.
Dennis
Been dreading coming home tonight after 2 weeks of not waking up at 5 so I can be at work by maybe 8! Is there ever going to be any improvement in the quality of life in our country?
Thanks for cataloguing our common thoughts in your articles, who knows? Perhaps if we continue to complain like this, someone might take notice and do something.
The writer has captured, in graphic details, the torture that an average Lagosian who lives along or drives on this stretch of road goes through daily. A pity this is happening in Fashola's State because, he is just about the only public servant that I have seen in this country since I became of age.
I commute from Magodo to around Mobil House and once left the office at 8 p.m. only to arrive as usual, at 5:30 the next morning to find that all link roads from after B-Jays Hotel had been blocked with boulders overnight. I had to drive to Lekki roundabout to turn, and drive all the way back to the Civic Centre, through Adetokunbo Ademola, Ajose Adeogun, turn off to the Eti Osa Secretariat and the very bad roads around the richest Local government in the state, to get to my place of work. As you quite rightly put it, I am just a woman, law-abiding, trying to earn a living and paying my taxes. Taxes that are deducted directly by Govt from both salary and allowances at source because I work for a foreign company. All I ask for are just the basics, a little consideration and responsibilty from the people who have imposed themselves on us – nothing more.