Issues In Lekki Expressway Tolling

Issues In Lekki Expressway Tolling

Suraj Oyewale

Sometime in 2007, mid-way into my one year mandatory NYSC service in the far northern state of Sokoto, I had come to Lagos to attend to some personal issues, when a call from my Area Inspector in my Local Government of posting came in, requiring me to be in the state the next day else I risked extension of service year. Lagos-Sokoto not being a trip you can make by road in few hours, going by air came handy as the only means of making the trip. As an Ibeju-Lekki axis resident that time, I knew I had to wake up not later than 5.00 am in the next morning to meet up with my 9.00 am flight to Sokoto given the distance between my residence and the Ikeja airport. Setting out of home earlier than 5.00 am posed security risk, leaving later meant I stood the chance of missing my flight, and I had to make a decision. I left home by 5.00 am with my brother, a banker on the Island, whose driver was to drop him at his office and drive me to the airport. But alas, by 9.00 am, four hours later we were just at Bonny Cantonment junction, no thanks to the traffic gridlock on the Ajah-Lekki expressway. Needless to say I missed the flight, despite setting out four hours earlier, defying the security risk at such odd hours.

The above is one of the many harrowing experiences we residents of Ajah/Ibeju Lekki axis faced years ago. You can then imagine our joy when works finally began on extending the road later that year. But four years later, just when we thought the near-completion of the road has brought reprieve, it is appearing that our plight has only been re-organised, not eradicated.

For the records, I have never hidden my admiration for the Fashola-led Lagos state government for its giant strides, especially in the area of infrastructure. I still hold this opinion, although I am aware that the project started during his predecessor’s administration. But there are a number of issues which I think are not gotten right in this Lekki-Expressway conundrum, laudable a project as it is.

First, the competence of the handlers of the project, Lekki Concession Company and Hi Tech Engineering, is very questionable. The project took too long that one begins to whether this is the first time such roads are constructed. Many of such expansive roads are being constructed in Abuja from time to time and it never took so long. Sometimes, you cannot but think that the construction firm handling the project is lost. The diversions are even more nightmarish. Sometimes, some portions of the road are blocked indiscriminately without proper coordination of alternative routes, leading to chaotic traffic snarl. At one of such crazy periods, I got to my Ajah home from my Victoria Island office 1.00 am, after leaving 9pm!

The attempt to start tolling early 2011 when the project was just half-way is another issue that makes one ask what exactly the handling company is up to. Imagine after paying the toll at the gates one goes forward to meet congestion again. What then is one paying for? The suspension of the starting period for toll collection then was therefore greeted with applause although it is difficult to disagree with the school of thought that holds that the suspension was due to political reasons, as elections were in sight then.

At last the tolling commenced on Sunday, December 18, 2011 and I was unfortunate to be among the first set of Ajah-VI road users that needed to ply the route this first day. Much has been reported in the media about the excruciating pains the users of this road went through that Sunday but it takes first-hand experience to understand the plight better. Coming from Ajah and going to visit a brother on the Island, I legitimately tried to avoid toll (yes, why should I pay N120 after paying tax to Lagos state government?), by making a detour to the so-called alternative route left of New Lekki Phase 2 roundabout, but it turned out to be from tolling frying pan to alternative route inferno! The route was crazier. And this is not for a poor car owner like me alone, even the big men in state-of-the-art SUVs were all trapped in the alternative nonsense, implying it is not about the money but the justification. After spending more than one manhour in that 400m stretch within Oniru estate, and burning more than N120 worth of fuel, I needed no adviser to divert back to the main expressway. And guess what? Even the expressway was more congested. The traffic queue stretched from the Admiralty toll plaza almost to Lekki Phase 1 roundabout. Ending the journey abruptly and returning back home from that point only became a fait accompli; after spending my weekdays in the Lagos brouhaha, waking up very early in the morning and returning home late in the evening Monday-Friday, undergoing such avoidable stress again on my weekends when I am supposed to be resting is definitely not for me. Aghast, I drove back home!

The question I kept asking in my monologue as I drove back home was: what has changed? Was this not what we were experiencing four years ago? Tolling is not an entirely bad idea; in fact, I believe in Public-Private partnership as a veritable tool we cannot ignore if we must develop our infrastructure but my challenge is, why do things that work so well in other climes fail in this part of the universe? Why do I have to experience this again? Isn’t someone somewhere envisaging this kind of quagmire at the planning stage of this project?

I do not have problem with a PPP-financed road construction but many things are just so wrong in both planning and delivery of this Lekki-Epe expressway. The graduating tolling fees of between N80 to N300 per gate, to start with, is far from having human face built into it. It gives rise to a number of issues. With the number of vehicles that ply that road(evidenced in Sunday 18/12/2011 traffic that extended to as far as bar beach in VI!), with a flat rate of N50, the investors will recoup their investment within few years and everybody will still be happy. Not less than 100,000 vehicles ply that route on daily basis and when the math is done at N50, that comes to almost N2 billion per year, exclusive of the humongous monies that will also be raked in from adverts and other business promotion activities on the road.

A flat rate of N50 will not only be convenient but also reduce the current challenge of finding change for toll payers that pay N80 or N120, which increases service time per vehicle, causing congestion and running contrary to the goal of the road expansion in the first place. N50 is not only affordable but also easier to present, being an available single note denomination in Nigeria.

There is also the issue of whether tolling is not double taxation, a point strongly hampered on by the PDP candidate in Lagos in the last guber elections. Well, these people may have point, but beyond political correctness, tolling is a system that is in place in other parts of the world, where taxes are also paid and compliance is even high. But in those climes, tolling doesn’t distort economic choices which is an essential requirement of a good tax system as propounded by foremost economist, Adam Smith. From the trend of things on this Lekki-Epe toll conundrum, especially the exorbitant prices being charged now and the nagging issue of terrible congestion at the gates, there is no way this will not affect economic behavior majorly for individuals but not totally out of place for corporate entities as well. A number of small business owners may be forced out of this zone. A number of legitimate businesses are going to lose customers and the cost of doing business may shoot northward. A crash in rate and better collection mechanism is the only way out of this impending economic suicide.

The handling of this otherwise commendable project is already denting the public perception of the hero that Governor Fashola no doubt is, but I think it is not too late for the state government to address these challenges. Until then, we will continue to ask: what has changed?