Lagos- Ibadan Expressway

WITH the rains with us, and promising to more frequent and heavier, we do not need to look into the crystal ball to predict we are in for really a prolonged time of agony, of pains and of failed appointments. April 30, the promised day of delivery has come without relief. When last year this column first intervened in the predicament of the commuters on the all important road, I wondered whether Julius Berger can behave the way it has done on the LagosIbadan Expressway in Germany and not get sacked and bombarded by a barrage of suits against it and against the government. Why is it impossible to work on the road under floodlights as it done in saner climes? The extra costs it would have required we can say have gone with the health impairment and missed appointments in hospitals or business meetings caused by the road reconstruction! The thought of travelling on the road is nightmarish on its own. You can’t use Lagos Ikorodu bursting out at Iperu to link with the expressway nor can you use Lagos- Sango Otta- Abeokuta Road! What do you do, you resign to fate. Government officials hardly use the road, so they are alienated from our harrowing daily experiences.

The Lagos- Ibadan Expressway is the busiest in Africa with more than 250,

000 vehicles plying it daily. People living in places abutting the road spend not less than five to six hours every day. Some leave home at 5.30 a. m. and reach his office at 1.15 p. m. Someone told me that going to Ibadan took him 6 hours and 7 hours on his way back to Lagos. And the government does see it as work that has become an emergency!! When will Nigerians heave a sigh of relief on the road?

My mailbox has been inundated with letters of complaints largely by residents of the area which I will run next week, joining Channels Television in commendably spotlighting the unspeakable experiences on the road.