Babajide Sanwo-Olu: The Lagos transportation Envelope -By Lekan Sote

Everyone appreciates that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has prioritised traffic management in Lagos State. He extended the working hours, and doubled the allowances, of Lagos State Traffic Management Agency personnel.

He commenced the rehabilitation of the over-clogged Mile 2-Tin Can Island segment of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway that services the Apapa Port, as he got moral support from the Presidential Task Force on Restoration of Law and Order (Traffic Gridlock Resolution), led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

While signing his First Executive Order, Governor Sanwo-Olu told officials of LASTMA that if his own brother breached the traffic regulations, they should “tell him to call the governor to pay the money for the offence.”

The Executive Order also provides for the control of flooding, which compounds traffic congestion. The governor promised to repair LASTMA”s damaged vehicles and motorbikes, as well as provide raincoats and other working tools. They should be replaced.

He is thinking of establishing a commission to control commercial motorbikes and tricycles, as he warned some car dealers that the vehicles they park on the roads will be towed away. He got the Lagos State traffic regulations published and circulated. Some are complaining that though his government didn’t cobble that law, the fines are exhorbitant, even an overkill.

In 2011, Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Lagos, cited Section 36 of Nigeria’s Constitution on fair hearing, to declare that LASTMA had no authority to impose fines, which the Constitution vests only in the courts, although LASTMA has powers to arrest erring motorists.

Anyway, the Chairman of Lagos State Road Transport Employers Association, Mohammed Musa, has warned his members to adjust and comply with the requirements of the new sheriff that just came to town.

He declared: “Now that we have a new governor who has declared a state of emergency on traffic management, we want to warn our members to obey (the traffic) laws so as not to get into trouble. If anyone is arrested for flouting the (traffic) laws, the union will sanction such.”

The governor must investigate and urgently address certain allegations: Some mini-buses owned by military, police and LASTMA officers, which illegally drive on Bus Rapid Transit lanes, are not apprehended by security and traffic officers. LASTMA officers also cause traffic hold-ups as they lay ambush (especially on Ikorodu Road) to delay motorists whom they want to extort money from.

The governments of former Governors Bola Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola and Akinwunmi Ambode, had worked on the traffic in Lagos State. They widened the roads, installed more traffic and street lights, constructed link bridges, introduced the BRT, with big luxury buses dedicated lanes and bus stops, and added more waterways transport facilities.

Ambode further upped the ante when he began the reconstruction of, albeit uncompleted, but well-lit Murtala Muhammed International Airport Way and the upgrade of the nodal Oshodi. He also built the Abule-Egba flyover, several lay-bys for mini-buses and footbridges for pedestrians.

The former governors didn’t construct new roads, especially in Greater Lagos, the much talked about Fourth Mainland Bridge linking Ikorodu to Victoria Island and the Lekki area and made slow progress in turning Lagos into a smart city.

They also couldn’t complete the Lagos Metroline project, which was initiated by the Second Republic government of Lateef Jakande, but aborted by the jackboot military government of Gen Muhammadu Buhari in 1984.

When campaigning for votes in Lagos State in 2011, Buhari gave the after-thought explanation that he stood down the project because the Federal Government could not guarantee the N100m loan facility required for the job.

Anyway, word on the streets of Lagos at that time was that the “corrective” military government did not want to be seen to be acknowledging that any tier of the previous administration was any good.

Lagos State, with a population of 24 million, is the second biggest economy in West Africa, after Nigeria, and the sixth biggest in Africa. It was the Federal Capital of Nigeria and remains its economic capital. These realities compel the attention of both the federal and state governments in the matter of transport infrastructure for the Lagos megalopolis.

A research by JC Decaux Grace Lake Nigeria indicates that the average Lagos commuter loses 30 hours, or 75 per cent, of his working hours per week to traffic congestion. This assumes a 40-hour work week, from Monday to Friday.

Some cheeky individuals mischievously posted the following on the social media: “Lagos traffic will make you think that you are hardworking.” But you are actually sitting on your butt for a very long time. JC Decaux research explains that the Lagos traffic congestion is attributable to narrow roads, indiscipline of all categories of road users and congestion at the Apapa Port.  Some commuters say, in jest, that they will only agree that the increase in the number of vehicles on the roads added to the traffic jam, only when they have their own private cars.

But the traffic congestion is not only eating up precious time, it is also taking a heavy toll on the health of Lagosians. And the slow pace of movement of goods, like food, leads to spoilage and consequent high costs to consumers.

In a mega city like Lagos, transport is the way by which commuters, like students, workers, businessmen and goods, are moved from one part to the other. Transport, which simply helps you to cover space over time, is key and critical to the functioning of every mega city. So it is with Lagos.

JC Decaux is running digital billboards, like the ones you see on the Oworonshoki end of the Third Mainland Bridge. As you may have seen, they assess the level of congestion on different routes out of the Third Mainland Bridge and tell commuters how long it will take to get to certain nodal points. This and the facility that enables you to read the traffic situation throughout Lagos, via the Google map on your android telephone, are the signs that Lagos is going to be a smart city pretty soon.

Sanwo-Olu must recognise that more people are going to be coming to Lagos. He should brace himself; the countdown has begun. The non-natives, who are probably non-Nigerians, who ride commercial bikes and tricycles, are the most obvious evidence of the economic migrants.

Sanwo-Olu must plan for stand-alone hubs, like Egbeda, Lekki/Ajah, Okokomaiko, and Ikorodu, to have high quality housing, security, health care facilities, educational institutions, mega markets, like the Mile 12 Market at Kosofe Local Government Area, and viable enterprises that can provide employment.

The idea is for Lagos citizens to accomplish all their existentialist needs where they are domiciled and thus, substantially reduce the need to commute far from home. If the cause to commute is drastically reduced, the traffic congestion in Lagos will be minimal.

He also needs to find the will to complete the seven-Line Lagos Metroline, which has been subjected to excruciatingly slow pace of work. The completion of the project is taking too long. He must also get the Lagos Cable Car project going in a rapid manner.

Sanwo-Olu must urgently push the envelope of an integrated housing, rail, road, waterways, and cable, transport system for Lagos State.

Twitter @lekansote1