Lagos-Badagry Expressway: Rehabilitating ECOWAS economic heartbeat

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By Chris Paul Otaigbe
Taking a trip on the 70-kilometre Lagos-Badagry-Seme Expressway used to be a pleasure. The road which is part of the Trans West African Highway which stretches as far as Dakar, Senegal, was constructed back in the 1970s as part of the ECOWAS idea of economic integration of the subregion.
Under the transportation agreement in the ECOWAS protocol signed by the then16-nation economic bloc, each country was to construct her section of the highway up to her border where it will join with the section from the neighboring country. Thus Nigeria’s section, from Eric Moore, Surulere, close the NationalTheatre, to Seme border with the Republic of Benin, was constructed by the then Federal Military Government.
Upon completion, travel time on the Nigerian portion of the highway from Mile 2, the major motor park on that axis that serves both local and international passengers, through Badagry to Seme, the last town before Republic of Benin, takes between one and half hours to two hours depending on the traffic. It was always a smooth drive; but not anymore. What happened?
The population explosion witnessed in Lagos in the last few decades has opened up the area to new arrivals into the city in search of accommodation and economic activities. And as the human population grew, so did the vehicular population, leading to increased pressure on the road.
And with nobody seemingly paying attention to its maintenance, the expressway deteriorated, and a journey of two hours at most, now takes about six hours, minimum.
Travelling to Badagry from Mile 2 and vice versa is perhaps the most cumbersome in Lagos and maybe even Nigeria as a whole, considering the many traffic gridlocks one is likely to encounter.
An investigation by Kaftanpost showed that commuters on that axis spend more hours in the traffic than they do on their business or at their desk in the office. The gridlock is caused in part by the bad portions of the road as well as bad traffic management.
A Kaftanpost correspondent that recently travelled on that expressway discovered that the Oko Afo, Magbon, Agbara and Araromi are particularly terrible. Agbara to Badagry is not better as well. So also is Badagry to Seme border. The last three to four years of total abandonment of the road by the federal government has made the lives of the commuters using the facility more miserable especially with the stoppage of the expansion work on the road, from four lanes to ten lanes by the Lagos State Government.
The reconstruction which was kicked off during the Babatunde Fashola administration, was allegedly stopped by his successor, Akinwunmi Ambode for reasons many attribute to political differences. Though a federal road, then Governor Fashola decided to reconstruct the expressway as part of the Lagos mega city project. The work was slowed down in the four years after he left office.
However, the new administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has resumed construction and this could be seen on the Ijanikin, Iyana Era and Afro media, Okokomaiko sections where work is now on going. Similarly, construction has resumed on the section from the International Trade Fair Complex all the way to Volkswagen area, extending, to Iyana-Iba, which was most deplorable.
Several man-hours are wasted on the road, and more often, heavy duty vehicles break down, spilling their contents and aggravating traffic situation in the process.
In other cases, car owners and buses usually get stuck in the mud while trying to use the set-back of the road as escape route. 
Worse is the insecurity situation the development has brought to the residents and daily commuters on these roads, as miscreants lurk around to ‘assist’ any unfortunate motorist whose vehicle got stuck or developed any mechanical fault, for astronomical fees.
In the night, some of them transform into robbers, dispossessing motorists of valuables like cash and mobile phones at gun point. Men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, and Police Traffic wardens, apparently overcome by the monstrousness of the chaotic situation, find relief in nearby kiosks or any available hideout to cool off.
Consequently, most Lagosians coming from the Badagry axis into the Lagos metropolis prefer to use the commercial ferry transport which goes from Badagry to Apapa. It costs one thousand naira for the ride which passengers say is expensive but convenient. Unfortunately, however, there is no direct ferry service to the Lagos Island via Siemens except by special arrangement which would normally cost N1,500.
This unfortunate situation is however music to the ears of some people who benefit off the terrible, tragic traffic experience Lagosians living on this axis of the State are subjected to daily. Some of the beneficiaries include Ferry Operators, Okada Riders and Street Hawkers.
Reconstruction
Extensive reconstruction of the Lagos (Nigeria) portion of this trans West African expressway began in 2010. The rehabilitation and expansion project being undertaken in collaboration with World Bank, involves a 10-lane carriageway that will incorporate Light Rail Transport, LRT, on the median and also the Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, system.
Despite the fact that the road is an international route that links Nigeria with other West African countries starting with Benin Republic, it was abandoned by the Akinwunmi Ambode administration.
Lagos State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure at the time reconstruction work started, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, in his comment during the 2013 ministerial briefing on the activities of his ministry, as well as marking the sixth year of Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration, at the time, accused the Federal Government of owing the state government N51 billion spent over the years for the rehabilitation of federal roads.
When his attention was called to the plights of motorists and residents on Lagos-Badagry Expressway, Hamzat, emphatically, ruled out any form of assistance from the state government, saying, there was no budget for such in the fiscal allocation.
That was at period when the government at the center was run by the PDP while APC was the ruling party in Lagos and so the political differences between both governments took its toll on the road.
As  fate would have it, both Lagos State and the Federal Government are administered by the same Party, the APC.
Secondly, Hamzat who was the Commissioner for Works at the inception of the project is now the Deputy Governor of the State, while his boss and Governor at the time is the current Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola.
When the present Lagos State Government flagged off the resumption of construction work on the ten-lane highway, 10 years after it was conceptualized by the Babatunde Fashola administration in the state, it was some sort of homecoming for the current Deputy Governor of Obafemi Hamzat, who stated that the return to the road will bring life to the axis and relief to commuters who daily experience hardship on the road.
Managed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), the project covers specifically the Agboju to Trade Fair segment as well as the rehabilitation of the Eric Moore – Mile 2 stretch.
According to Hamzat, Lagos State is handling Eric Moore to Agboju, FERMA will do four-lane maintenance to Agbara while the Federal Government has awarded Agbara to Seme as a six-lane Highway.
Mr. Hamzat further commended the co-operation of the Federal Government and assured that both State and Federal Agencies will be present along the road up to Seme border.
The Lagos-Badagry project which is approximated to 60km long from Eric Moore to Badagry (10km from Badagry to Seme) consists of two major intermodal transport schemes namely Lagos-Badagry Expressway project and Lagos Light Rail Mass Transit project.
Harrowing experience
While the construction is ongoing, the impact of the traffic continues to tell on the lives of the commuters who have no choice but to pass these routes to their homes and offices on a daily basis.
Some of them shared their harrowing experiences with Kaftanpost.
Anne Adelagun is a student of Lagos State University she said the Badagry road is in a terrible state obviously, however, the relevant authority that are supposed to attend to it are turning a bad eye.
“It is even more terrible when it rains because it leads to heavy flood. Some guys are using that for economic gains, whenever there is flood, they carry people on their backs and get paid, it is that worse.
“We are in an awful situation, the road leads to Seme border and there are multiple companies that pay taxes in that
area.” She said.
“My experience on the road, coming from FESTAC is very bad, coming from Mile 2 going to Badadgry, you will spend up to 4-6hours in the bus due to the bad road” said Bimbola Sodipo, an entrepreneur.
According to her., she has witnessed many accidents such as container’s falling, motor accidents, trailer, bike taking over cars and which many lives have been lost through these bad roads,  “the worst part of it is when rain falls, everywhere will be filled with water even bike will not be able to pass.” She lamented
Evelyn Igbadumhe is a graduate who has been staying in Old Ojo road for five years “to be candid, the road is terrible be cause you have to spend hours to plough the road especially in raining season.
Another thing again is hike in transport fair due to the bad road, we suffer this daily. The motorcyclist charges a lot from passengers and most people have no choice that to comply with any amount charged on them. We beg federal government to look into this.” Said Evelyn.
Another commuter, Blessing Fadapo, who is a graduate of Lagos state University, Ojo, said: “Well, my experience passing that road is nothing to write home about because of the bad road. I get to make use of bike whenever I am out and I am always praying that trailer should not fall on my head when am passing there with bike because lots of accidents are always happening there.
“The journey that shouldn’t take more than two hours can extend to five hours if care isn’t taken. Most times, residents have no choice than to patronize motorcyclists so as to get to their destinations on time.
“Students who love themselves and are rushing for lectures wouldn’t mind boarding motorcycle to beat traffic.” She said.
She added that motorcyclists seize this opportunity to extort their passengers by charging them exorbitantly per trip. She continued “This shouldn’t be, if only the roads are good enough.
There were several accounts of fatal accidents on this same road that led to death. Families, friends and residents had sustained serious injuries on this same road.”
Narrating his ordeal, Adams Olamide, a student at LASU said “there was a particular day I was trying to rush for an eight o’clock lecture in school. I left home so early that day to meet with the scheduled time for the lecture, but unfortunately when I almost got to Festac, the bus I boarded started developing an unnecessary fault. In the long run, the bus stopped working, so I had no choice than to take a bike since I was rushing for my lecture.
Getting to Barracks close to Iyana Iba market a horrible traffic started and I was getting late for my lectures so I had to instruct the motorcycles to increase his speed.
The guy told me to exercise patience so we wouldn’t experience any form of accident because the roads were blocked due to the traffic.”
But he failed to listen to his advice and so he threatened to drop from his bike since he refused to comply with her instruction.
Like one driving under the influence, the motorcyclist picked up speed and started overtaking cars, buses and even trailer until he got to a particular point where he lost control of his bike and we both fell into a terrible pot hole.
“With all the hurry, I not only missed my Lectures for that day and so many other days, I spent almost two weeks in the hospital…” he concluded.
Impact
As a result of decades of neglect of this very important road, critical to not just the economy of both Lagos and Nigeria but also the entire West African subregion, real time economic activities as well as tourism related businesses have been adversely affected by the bad road, in addition to the negative psychological impact on the residents and other commuters. The largest electronics market in West Africa, the Alaba International Market is located along this axis. The market draws buyers from across West Africa on a daily basis and is home to all major international electronics brands.
Billions of Naira/USD worth of businesses are transacted daily in the market. This definitely could be doubled if the road infrastructure is good.
For a place that has already gulped over 460 billion naira in rehabilitation funds, the nexus between infrastructure in terms of roads and the economy, appear to have been severed or damaged due to decades of indifference by past governments, as the economy along this axis is almost coming to stagnation.
As a critical aspect of sub-regional integration, the Lagos-Badagry-Seme expressway, which is the Nigerian section of the Trans-West African highway that links Lagos to Dakar in Senegal via Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, can be described as a cardinal pillar of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
An integral component of any design to maximally exploit Nigeria’s clear comparative advantage among neighboring West African countries, the road is the major link to free movement of people and goods between Lagos, Nigeria and the rest of West Africa and the African continent. The road is that important and it is in recognition of this fact that the Lagos State Government has deemed it fit to resume work.
However, it would be advisable that the State takes the rehabilitation of the road with a more business-like sense of urgency considering its highly strategic and sensitive status to the economies not only of Lagos State and Nigeria at large but of the wider West African sub-region.
Therefore, restoring the Lagos Badagry expressway to what it used to be in the good old days and also modernizing it to a mega highway, is tantamount to rehabilitating the economic heartbeat of the Economic Community of West African States.

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