Sign of things to come

It was the first day of the partial closure of the Kara bridge – Berger Junction section of the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway and it was a bitter experience for thousands of motorists. A trip that takes less than 10 minutes took hours. It was early Tuesday morning and for many residents of that axis the short trip from their homes to Berger became a long and tortuous one. I knew there was trouble as soon as I drove out of the gate leading into the Arepo community at about 7.13 am.

My heart sank as I saw the huge number of vehicles running away  from the main road. I instinctively knew that the Long Bridge was congested. That was the only reason motorists would leave the road to take the undulating and highly dangerous path which residents of Arepo and Wawa call ‘’alternative route’’. It is no alternative route, but so called for want of a better name.

If it were really an alternative route, construction giant Julius Berger, which is handling the rehabilitation of the road from Sagamu Interchange to Berger, would have made it motorable long before now. You take this path at night at your own risk. The path connects Wawa to OPIC at the intersection of the road leading into Sparklight Estate. In other climes, the path would have been made motorable and lit up for use during any emergency work on the expressway. Policemen and road safety personnel would also have been deployed there.

But as it is now, motorists are left to their fate on that unsafe path. Since they do not have a choice, they take it whenever the express is choked up. This was the case on Tuesday as they struggled to beat the traffic on the express caused by the ongoing work at the Kara bridge – Berger axis. The work, which began on Monday, would last 120 days. It was to start on August 3, but was shifted because of the conventions of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries as well as the Eid-El-Kabir festival.

Traffic was not too bad on Monday because the road had not been partially closed then. The real test for this 120-day exercise came on Tuesday following the closure of the road on Monday evening. There was chaos on the road the day after the closure. What could have caused this chaos barely 12 hours after the closure? It is easy to blame it on the impatience of motorists and what some people call ‘’road indiscipline’’.

I beg to disagree. That is not really the case even though, you cannot rule out that fact in some cases. What really caused the problem was bad planning by Julius Berger, the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing and the road safety agencies. Were they prepared for what happened on Tuesday? They were not. They had assumed that they could appeal to the sentiments of people and all will be well. They should have envisaged what happened on Tuesday. The episode should serve as a lesson to them because whether they like it or not, it will still happen again and again as long as the work is on.

Motorists did not do anything wrong by taking the route that bursts out at the OPIC intersection; they were only following the instructions of the ministry, Julius Berger and the road safety workers to take alternative routes. The problem is they did not prepare this particular ‘alternative route’ (is it even in their plan?) well for this four-month exercise. The route despite being dangerous has its uses for those living around that area. This is why Julius Berger should have worked on it before now because it is unmotorable whenever there is a downpour.

The firm just like the government  assumed that the people would find their way. They sure did and the consequence was what we saw on Tuesday. What happened on Tuesday is not good for anybody’s health. It is unthinkable to imagine that this is what motorists will go through for four months on that road. The Tuesday experience has shown that motorists are on their own during the road repair. There will be no help, whatsoever, from Julius Berger despite the postponement of the exercise for one month to ensure that everything, especially, the alternative routes, are in place.

Why was the exercise postponed when they knew that nothing would be done to minimise the people’s suffering when it starts? If they had started on August 2, we would have by now gone through the first month of suffering, while waiting and praying for the remaining three months to fly past. But now, we have four months stretched out before us to endure this unnecessary suffering all because a road is being repaired. No government in the world treats its citizens like this, except of course, Nigeria’s. How sad.