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This Lugbe - Airport Road Traffic Menace By Segun Simmons (SEGEGO)
It may surprise you to know that this piece started about four months ago, which goes to show you that this author kept waiting to see the possibility of a change in the existing status quo on the traffic situation of the Lugbe-Airport road. That is, believing that the people to whom our lives have been given custody will be responsive enough to see what the author is seeing everyday and as such create a change in the imbalance. The dysfunctional nature of things while still in the prime is easier to be nipped than allowed to go monstrous before embarking on the usual fire brigade approach. Must we wait until everything goes haywire before steps are taken to bell the cat? I worry for my country and the people. I wonder what more we do need in this country that God has not endowed us with. Anywhere, any day, Nigeria will stand any country of the world. Then, what exactly is wrong, why can’t we do it right?
Sometimes the challenge posed by our share carelessness and unconcerned attitude always leave so much to chance. The peculiar case of the regular traffic hold-ups that is becoming perpetual in the mornings and the evenings on the airport road is fast becoming a menace and very disturbing. At a time like this when the blue print of Abuja city could still be adhered to in terms of project specifics, something drastic has to be done with regards to the road in question. This is an international route; it is the link road to the Nnamidi Azikwe International Airport. Whether you agree with me or not, this is one major first eye contact for any one coming to the city from the airport regardless of the source of the journey. Dignitaries, diplomats, very important personalities (VIPs), and a host of other important people pass through this route regularly. As such it is reproachable and demeaning to be kept in traffic on a road as important as this. Sometimes projection may not be realised as determined and as such, the tendency is there to leave a little later than expected, that then, does not mean that one should be kept on the road endlessly.
What am I driving at? I am of the opinion that these people that God has decided to favour so indiscriminately don’t seem to really care about what God has so favoured them with. The lives of the people, the concern of the government, what exactly is it they do care about? I quote Alhaji Tijani. Adekambi, the President of the Federation of Construction Industries (FOCI) that “Government does not sign maintenance contract but prefer emergency approach to resolving these problems” on the problem with the third mainland bridge and the Ijora bridge that are on the verge of collapse in the This Day newspaper of June 22, 2008. Same attitude in every government’s project, meanwhile there are resources allocated for the maintenance of this project annually.
I was just thinking that sometimes the things that seem to be the concern of the citizenry are not always the major interests of those in governance? And it appeared that as much as the leaders have interest in nation building, one of the major challenges they have is that they never seem to be proactive, or permit me to say, that they are slow to action and are often very myopic in planning, in that they only consider the now ness of now not minding the long term expectations or challenges that may occur as the population grows. It shouldn’t surprise you that a great percentage of the people live in this axis and as such coming out in the morning to the city centre could be very discouraging due to the jam. The number of vehicles coming out from the Federal Housing Estate (FHA) to hit the road at the Lugbe junction, the number of commuters coming out in the morning to the road to take transport and the motorists that park indiscriminately on the road sides almost and often times on some part of the road constitute to this menace and confusion. Lagos is good enough an example to learn from.
The influx of people into Abuja is on the increase and very much at an alarming rate. According to information, though this may not be water tight, it is said that an average of six thousand people enter Abuja every day. Although, it is agreeable that if this is a true reflection of what is existing, then, it simply translates that the entire six thousand may not remain in FCT but quite a large proportion of the people probably stay back. That is to say lamely that the FCT is growing per second per second. If this truly is the case, then, something drastic has to be done.
The founding fathers were great people no doubt, but there comes a time when a new generation comes and automatically must build on what has been done by the fathers. The truth in this situation is that where the elders stopped in their research and work should definitely be the point at which the new generation starts their own research work, in order to perfect the little minuses and pluses that could be present. The servant leadership modem is suggestive of the ability to be able to hear and answer to the cry of the people. So, before this becomes a major crisis, it would be advisable to nip this in the bud. I think the FHA area of Lugbe and the junction are over due for over head bridges either for the pedestrians or flyovers for the vehicles.
The idea behind having Abuja as the capital city and the administrative centre of our beloved nation Nigeria is good, the same way as having our glorious Lagos as it were that time. The innocuous experience in the one time ever desirable Lagos is so saddening and almost debilitating in every ramification if you are ever unfortunate to miscalculate and go out at a very wrong time and enter into one of those traffic jams. In fact, is there really any particular time you don’t experience traffic hold ups in Lagos? The third mainland bridge with the original intent was to help escape the traffic on the Ikorodu road, this purpose is fast becoming defeated or has been defeated if you happened to ply that route in the morning or in the evening going or returning from Lagos island? I just think the failure on the part of the past leaders by not descrying the possibility of population increase in the port city of Lagos has brought this traffic plague to our lovely Lagos. If this kind of error was made in some decades ago, the point here is that we should do everything possible to avoid repeating the same mistake done by the precursors in this new place.
Too many things are intertwined in this particular situation in that failure in one aspect creates further confusion and sometimes fatality at other times because of lack of vision or the inability to project positively. I would like to consider just one location in Lagos the Apapa - Oshodi express way that the death toll recorded there for lack of overhead or pedestrian bridges in recent time has gone on the increase. This case of vehicles running over pedestrians crossing the express is not totally the fault of the pedestrians neither it is the fault of the drivers that over ran the victim but the inadequate planning on the part of the people who are saddled with the affairs of the states and its operations or who either did not know what to do or chose to look else where and refuse to carry out their task. Had they realised that a port city like Lagos cannot remain at the level they saw it when they began the building of the roads that along that axis there should be enough overhead bridges for the pedestrians. I am miffed at the way we carry on without learning from history. If Lagos could be experiencing this today, the fact remains that enough time to put things right is available to get things done in Abuja to be able to cater for tomorrow. Let us not embark on immediate projects and measures that would only meet the immediate challenges but projects that have posterity in mind. Abuja is going to grow big time and the earlier the right structures begin to surface, the better for all of us. As good as pulling down illegal structures are good for the development of the capital city which is on going, and in recent time wanting skyscrapers to spring up in some parts of the Abuja city all in the name of boulevard, it is very advisable that the Minister of the Federal Capital should look more inward and undertake projects that have direct positive impact on the well being of the people on the long run than elephant projects.
I came in to Abuja most recently but before now, I have always enjoyed my stay in Abuja because of the shortness of the time frame. I often savour the euphoria of being in a city that is organised and orderly. But since I began to live and work here, what I experience every day is fast making a mockery of the billions upon billions of dollars spent to achieve this status quo and more billions of dollars are still being spent to put the city in the class of great cities in the other parts of the world. There is a need on the part of the government in spite of how occupied or tight its programme could be to address the issue of transportation in Abuja. My experience on the airport road through the federal housing on Lugbe has not been interesting in recent time. I think it will be very advisable when some of our powerful people are travelling on that road to advise their security buttons to leave the sirens over heads alone for some time and travel the same pace with the other road users without the alarm or better still the noise. After all, as they claim the electorate voted them into power as such should be in league with them for a change and see what they go through regularly. May be some of our leaders will try and take a cue from Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state who travel with his electorate on Lagos roads without recourse to the use of sirens. Unless you are very smart, it would be quite difficult for you to know that Governor Fashola is passing.
There is a need for strong campaign on the part of the government to educate the people one on the fact that the green iron embankments on the airport road is first to demarcate the road and two, to beautify it and that the people must not at any time break or remove them. If at the point when strong campaign has been mounted, and the people refused to hearken to government’s campaign and enlightenment programme, allow penalty and punitive measures to be meted out to any culprit. But in the bid to be smarter than the people and as such the government embark on those ugly brick frames to partition the road, it undermines the beauty and purpose of the green embankment and simultaneously makes a nonsense of government’s effort.
My take in all of this matter is that something must be done soon on that axis of Abuja to avoid serious casualties regularly and to avoid an unending traffic hold ups every morning and evening on that road. This is not to say the challenge of Yayan, Kubwa, Maraba and a host of other areas in the city are not present. If at this time of the life of Abuja, traffic is already posing this great threat, I think the earlier Dr. Modibbo began to confer and deliberate with the right quarters, the better. Permit me to say at this point that the memory of El Rufai is still very fresh.It will not be out of place if the government can begin to think of having fly - over bridges for traffic and pedestrian bridges for the people living in those communities. We must not allow this fact to be lost on us that the pressure in those places is becoming too serious. The Government needs to intervene in this matter early enough.
Finally, the major cities of the world use light rails as shuttle, some tube, some metro lines, and others. If light rail is part of the original plan for the city, the earlier they embark on it the better. It is not a must that the people all live in the city centre but let the satellite towns be developed to the point that it will be worth living in order to decongest the centre. Something must be done very shortly. It is no doubt a beautiful idea to have the El-Rufai taxis everywhere but that won’t solve the transport problem at the long run, a coach of a light rail will commute times fifty of what a taxi will carry. Not to mention the pressure mounted on the roads with too many vehicles. I beg to disagree with some developmental project now. That is really not the need of the people. Leave your boulevard alone for now, do the light rail and ease the burden of your people. What really will you tell the people you were able to do for them in terms of welfare with all the benefits the office would have made available to you after your tenure. It is not all about how many cars or houses or investment that you have that really matters but what smiles you brought into the faces of the people.
Segun Simmons (SEGEGO) writes from Abuja. |