Though the Federal Ministry of Works working with Julius Berger is trying hard to fix Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, the truth of the matter remains that, that very important road linking the nation’s busiest seaport has collapsed.
Though the Federal Ministry of Works working with Julius Berger is trying hard to fix Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, the truth of the matter remains that, that very important road linking the nation’s busiest seaport has collapsed.
For the past 15 years or so, the clueless and moribund Federal Ministry of Works officials sat comfortably in their comfortable offices watching primitively as the busy road continued to deteriorate. Today the chicken has come home to roost and our leadership irresponsibility has gone full circle leaving motorists and commuters to suffer excruciating pains not only on that corridor but throughout the Federal roads in Nigeria. I had cause to visit somebody near Tincan Island today, Tuesday, October 18, 2011 and what I saw Nigerians going through pricked my conscience, and at once I told myself that we do not deserve this from those managing that critical road. I have written about this road few weeks back. I am still at pains to
figure out how we got to this sorry pass to the extent that all our Federal roads are in a total mess in the midst of trillions of naira we hear of everyday.
As I write this, Julius Berger is trying to fix Mile 2 part of the expressway but even that has compounded the problems. And if you ask me I would say that they are simply scratching the problems without addressing the main source of the problems. Oshodi-Apapa expressway requires creative thinking, maximum attention, and at best surgical operations to rescue it from the sordid state it is presently.
The presence of Diesel and Petrol dealers along that very busy road with their hundreds of tankers and tank farms coupled with the huge activities going on at Tin Island is enough to tell responsive and responsible leaders to rise up to the occasion and move back to the drawing board. Federal Ministry of Works should know now that what Oshodi-Apapa Expressway needs is a five or six lane way, and what is needed is total commitment, courage, drive and political will to accomplish this great task. First we need to clear the mess on that corridor, the truck dealers, the car dealers, local traders, illegal buildings and all forms of illegal encroachment and occupation that corridor has witnessed in the past 40 years. This is a huge task that must be done!
No serious investor will take us serious if we don’t create easy access to Tincan Island and Apapa ports. Roads are one critical infrastructure we need to jump-start the economy and I pray that we understand this. In a leadership forum in far away Ghana, we were told if you see a dilapidated roads somewhere, dysfunctional hospitals or schools, insecurity, etc. it is because somebody failed to do his job. The chaotic situation and man’s inhumanity to man we see in all Federal roads today is because some people failed in their responsibilities.
I submit that Nigerian leaders should try and prove critics wrong or disappoint them for once by getting things right. The Murtala International Airport link bridge on the Mile 2 – Oshodi near the Guardian Newspapers is crying for attention and very soon that link flyover will give way. For years I have watched the link flyover being washed away by erosion and nobody seems to be paying attention. I submit that Nigeria has no business with failure in the age of change.
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Joe Igbokwe
Lagos
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