By Nwakanma Chukwuma

With this year’s Lagos International Trade Fair presently in full swing, residents along the Badagry expressway and its environ are once again lamenting the heavy traffic jam usually associated the period.

The Badagry Expressway which serves as access road to Nigeria’s neighbouring states in the West African sub-region has long been notorious for traffic jams and is therefore regarded as commuters nightmare. The cause of this has variously been attributed to reckless commercial vehicle drivers and the poor state of the road. But it is further compounded this year by persistent heavy rainfall which has succeeded in washing away a large portion of the road.

So, even before the commencement of this year’s Trade Fair, residents of the area have been crying over the traffic situation along the route. For instance, a journey which ordinarily should take about one and half hours now takes about five hours. At one particular problem spot close to the Mile 2 Oke bypass towards Oshodi and Orile, the road has almost been washed away.  Another notorious bad spot is at Mile 2 near Durbar junction going towards Jakande Estate.

For some months now moving along the route from Orile to Badary has been a trying experience for road users, though Eric Moore to Orile Axis is currently under construction by Julius Berger Nigeria Limited. The Lagos State Government awarded the reconstruction and upgrading of the Bode Thomas Road in Surulere and reconstruction/expansion Badagry Expressway to ease off traffic problems.

* A familiar scene of chaos along Lagos roads

Apart from bad roads, Danfo drivers are particularly notorious for making life unbearable for other road users as they stop and park indiscriminately while picking or discharging passengers. As a result of this, bus-stops at Agboju,  Alakija, Abule-Ado, Trade Fair under Bridge , Volks and Iyana-Iba are often blocked by traffic caused by their recklessness.

Speaking with the Vanguard Metro, on the development, Mr. Michael Ugwu, a trader at the Article Market section of the Trade Fair Complex lamented thus: “The traffic situation along this road is very horrible. Some times we reach our home by 10 or 11 pm. The situation has become worse since the trade fair  started. Recently  my last son saw me in the morning and asked: ‘Daddy, why is it that you don’t sleep at home again?’ This because we usually come back late and leave very early in the morning”.

Mr. Kayode Lawal, a civil servant, also spoke in a similar vein. “There is always traffic jam stretching up to one or more kilometres. The most baffling thing is that when you get to the point you will not see the cause of the hold-up.  I also cannot understand why LATSMA officials who are supposed to control the traffic, often the wait until accident happens before reacting,” he said.

Another factor  compounding the problem is the numerous checkpoints mounted by policemen, the Nigerian Custom Service and other security agencies. Worse hit by the situation and who have been complaining the loudest are those who reside in Agbara, Okokomaiko and Badagry and environs and work in Apapa, Ikorodu, Ketu and the Island.  Apart from being an international route, the road also hosts the Alaba International Market regarded as the biggest electronics market in West Africa, the motor spare parts market, the ASPAMDA, etc.

Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who awarded the contract for the 48-year-old Lagos-Badagry Expressway to a 10-lane expressway, according to him estimated the cost at about N220 billion. He informed that the road design had been completed and will increase the prospective economic impact of the state and the country at large when completed. The reconstruction of the road project, which was divided into three, was broken down as follows: the Eastern section of the road, which has a distance of 7.20km  commenced from Eric Moore to Mile 2 is being handled by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, while phase 2 consists of the Central Section, which has a distance of 24.5km and will commence from Mile 2 to Agbara. The Western Section is 28.57km long and will commence from Agbara to Badagry.

The award of the contract had elicited cheer from residents who sighed with relief that attention was finally being given to the 48-year-old road first built by former Lagos State military administrator, Mobolaji Johnson after many years of neglect.It would be recalled that the Lagos_Badagry dual carriageway was originally constructed in 1974, and was taken over by the Federal Government in 1977 to serve as the Nigerian segment of the West African sub-regional link road to Seme border during the General Olesegun Obasanjo’s regime.

According to residents: “With the 10 lanes being proposed for the road, if completed the era of spending countless hours on the road will be over”.  It is said that but for the bad road and reckless driving, the distance between Badagry and Mile 2, all in Lagos, is insignificant, compared to the distance between Badagry and the boundary town of Aflao, Ghana. As things are going on with the contract, the newly constructed bridge at Mile 2 and Maza Maza has reached almost 65 per cent completion while the service lanes from Orile to Alaba is almost at the final stage.

However, with on-going efforts by the State Government to turn the traffic-busy and bumpy highway into a 10-lane expressway with provision for a light rail in-between the lanes,  the situation may change for the better for road users and residents alike.

But that remains a long-term solution as people continue to cry for an urgent remedial intervention to at least ease the traffic bottleneck usually associated with the area.