Government To Blame For Bad State Of Roads In Lagos

By Frank Osiele

The essence of every nation’s democracy is to give most freedom, most opportunities, most prosperity and most comfortable life, amongst other good things of life to the citizens. Hence, political parties are formed, elections are held to put into the saddle of leadership public office holders, whom the citizens entrust their trusts to be kept in custody by these elected public servants, also referred to as government.

The government on its part is meant to provide infrastructural facilities, such as health care services, housing, good roads, amongst others; but unfortunately, the provision of these facilities has become some kind of illusion.

It is this failure on the part of government at different levels that has led to the deplorable state of the roads in Lagos State.

It is difficult to understand:  the government generates humongous revenue, internally from the public, in addition to the monthly allocation  from federal government, so much so, that there should be enough funds to build new roads and maintain the old ones, but what do we see?, it’s bad roads, bad roads, bad roads in every nooks and crannies of the state.

And in places where the roads are perceived to be good, you would  find potholes in say about every 20 meters stretch; which makes a nonsense of its rating as being good;

Simply, take a drive from Iyana Ipaja to Mushin, Ikorodu to Fadeyi, Ijora to Badagry, Oshodi to Ikotum Egbe, amongst many others, the story is the same. In some cases, some of the roads are so bad that some of the potholes are like that of a well. Worse still, when it rains, the roads seemingly turn to rivers- and you’ll be forced to ask: “where do we go from here?”

The bad roads brouhaha, in my own opinion is caused by usage of inferior materials in the construction of roads; lack of professionalism on the part of the “so called” construction firms; conflict of interest on the part of the government; unnecessary dilly-dally of the authorities to nip in the bud a degeneration of the state of roads by acting swiftly. It is in this case, that a well-to-do member of the public will volunteer to fund the building of roads within his milieu, but will be prevented by the state from doing so, for reasons best known to them, hence, the roads start getting deplorable, invariably with its attendant traffic bottlenecks- what an irony. Without mincing words, bad roads in Lagos State is largely caused by monumental corruption, orchestrated and perpetrated by the state officials for selfish reasons.

As a matter of fact, a journey of say 25 minutes, may take you 4 hours, owing to bad roads. People miss appointments, job interviews, opportunities, due to traffic gridlock caused by bad roads. More often than not, the commerrcial vehicles cause untold financial burden on the commuters by acutely increasing fares, hinging their actions on the number of hours they’ve been held and will still be held in traffic hold-up, due to bad roads. Need I mention that bad roads have caused monumental damages to numerous vehicles, thereby causing them unnecessary expenses to carry out repairs on their automobiles.
In another dimension, many motorists as well as commuters have been dispossessed of their valuables as some unscrupulous elements take advantage of the traffic snarl to perpetrate robbery. The government has really failed woefully to fulfill their so called electioneering campaign promises; no thanks to corruption on the part of the government.

It is pertinent to mention that bad roads situation in the state, with its attendant traffic gridlock , has to a great extent made efficiency of workers somehow elusive, due to the stress they pass through on their way to work and even on their return journey home. It is this challenge, that make some of them to avoid lateness, caused by traffic hold-up owing to bad roads, by leaving their homes as early as 4:00 a.m , so as to get to their workplaces early enough, only to start sleeping or lose mental alertness, due to not having enough rest/sleep at their homes. Some usually resort  to boarding motorcycle (okada) just to beat the traffic logjam, and get susceptible to accident, which causes them injury and some extreme cases, death.

The Way Forward

As a way forward, the government needs to be resolute and sincere in carrying out massive repairs and construction of roads in the state by using the right (superior) materials , carry out due process in awarding contracts to firms that meet up with the prerequisite as lay down by the state, partner with individuals or organizations who volunteer to fund the construction of roads, reduce or perhaps eliminate any form of corrupt practices in government sphere, among other positive steps.