Lagos-Ibadan Expressway And The Churches By Joe Igbokwe

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An urgent pressing matter in my home town, Nnewi in Anambra State compelled me to travel on Friday August 9 2013, afternoon after an engagement in Lagos. As I was about leaving the house around 1pm one of my brothers reminded me that the Redeemed Christian Church will be starting their monthly Holy Ghost Service and advised that I should find an alternative route by avoiding Lagos-Ibadan expressway. And because I did not know the state of Lekki-Epe-Ijebu Ode Road and Lagos-Ikorodu-Shagamu axis I decided to brave it to use Lagos-Ibadan expressway. What else can one do in a country where good roads has become an unachievable target?

Immediately I passed the old toll gate near 7up Bottling Company the crisis started. To get to the famous Julius Berger Bus Stop to make enquiries from any of the drivers coming into Lagos of what the situation was like took me almost an hour. I eventually got to Berger and crossed to the other side to get information on the traffic situation. The driver I met told me that I have two traffic situations to contend with along that corridor. One from the old toll gate to Mountain of Fire Praying Ground, and then another on approaching the Redeemed Camp. I was frightened and I looked at my watch and it was few minutes after two o clock. It took me another 30 minutes to get to a place I will make a U-Turn in front of OPIC Plaza. I headed to Ikorodu-Shagamu Road. Because of the traffic on Lagos-Ibadan expressway many motorists also took Ikorodu-Shagamu-Benin expressway. That was where my trouble started. With heavy traffic on a very bad road (from Ikorodu to Shagamu) you can imagine my predicament. To cut the whole story short I got to Shagamu around 4.30pm. I got to Nnewi around 10.30pm. A journey that would have taken me five hours on a good day took me ten long hours of pains and agonies. I was exposed to many dangers associated with Shagamu-Asaba expressway. I have gone and come back but yet to forget the troubles and dangers we expose ourselves everyday in Nigeria simply because someone fails to do his or her work or that someone is taking impunity to another level.

Millions of Nigerians have suffered untold hardships and pains since the early 90s when Churches started relocating to Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The late General AbduKareem Adisa once drove to the Redeemed Camp to complain that the Church must find a way to address this man-made problem but all to no avail. More than 20 years after the visit, Churches, companies, schools, universities etc have been relocating to Lagos-Ibadan expressway in droves. This is a road that was built in 1974 and it has remained same for 40years. A road suffering untold pressure from heavy traffic that it has become crate ridden and a death trap, yet pentecoastal chruches struggle to add to the pressure of the road by relocating to the road. What is the motive for this predilection to be sited on the Expressway?

My brother and his wife once slept on Lagos-Ibadan expressway as a result of Redeemed Camp Holy Ghost Night programme after a trip to Abeokuta. Few years back when members of NAFSAT did a night programme, commuters paid a heavy price on that road so much that NAFSAT took pages on national newspapers to apologize to Nigerians. Millions of Nigerians have tales of woes to tell in the last 20 years on Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

The purpose of this write up is to once again share my experience with Nigerians and to try to prick the conscience of worship centres on Lagos-Ibadan road. Do they feel for the commuters on that road? Do they know about their predicaments? Do they worry about the sufferings and pains? Are their actions fair to all concerned? Has there been any practical step to stem the tide? Has it reduced the pains, loss of man hours, loss of money, wear and tear on the vehicles? Is it not a sin for us to create big problems for others because we must God in a particular place? Is God not everywhere? When will this problem be nipped in the bud? I suggest that all the Churches and Mosques should stop the activities on Lagos-Ibadan expressway and allow branches to do it in-house until Julius Berger finishes expanding that road. Even after that these institutions need to show practically how they intend to manage traffic if the events must continue.

20years, even after the late General Adisa’s intervention on Lagos-Ibadan expressway, nobody has looked into the matter and called for solution. We cannot just continue to live like this. We must do something. We must not continue to bemoan problems but must have the political will and courage to address the frontally. The ball is in the court of our leaders.

eGuerrilla: Who is going to stop the continued encroachment on a major artery by these faith-based ministries?

deeptesting:

The question is did they build the church on the road? Lagos-Ibadan road ought to be dualized to at lease accommodate 10 vehicles on each lane and ensure that all vehicles veering to these churches or whatever maintain a single lane...Where else should they locate this churches? I wish Joe Igbokwe proffered a solution in his write up. It's simply the failure of the government to live upto its responsibility and they should be held responsible for the sufferings and death of Nigerians on that road.

eGuerrilla:

What kind of question did I embolden? Do you think an environmental impact assessment is only necessary when a church is sited directly on a major road? What is the role of a local town planning council if not to determine that a building is fit for purpose but also in consonance with the flow of traffic within close proximity?

My solution, if you must know, would involve getting those organisations to scale down their operations to the point where there is some semblance of harmony with the environment. I see no reason why innocent road users have to be subjected to major inconveniences, when the churches involved can easily adopt tele-conferencing solutions which would allow live-broadcasts to linked centres situated elsewhere.

The never-ending encroachment that continues to circumscribe the quality of life along that axis has to stop. It is as ungodly as it is uncharitable!

deeptesting:

Then in that context the appropriate authority before taking bribe and approving the building of this gigantic churches on highways should do their assessment or home work and not turn around to put the blame on the churches...on their assessment if this area is not fit for the purported church project do you think they will say no and refuse to approve the project plan? My point is the government and its agencies responsible for the control of this madness has failed and needs to wake up to their responsibility.

deeptesting:
My point is the government and its agencies responsible for the control of this madness has failed and needs to wake up to their responsibility.

eGuerrilla: Who is going to stop the continued encroachment on a major artery by these faith-based ministries?

AjanleKoko:

Spot on.
Case in point is Deeper Life building a gi-normous structure in a highly-congested residential area like Gbagada.
[size=16pt]Who are the Council officials who gave them approval to build that type of structure?[/size]

Ola one:
I wonder oo.

Winners Chapel was chased out of Bermondsey by Council officials. Well, that na Obodo Oyinbo

'Mega church' plans turned down



Plans to build an 8,000-seat Pentecostal church in east London at a cost of £70m have been turned down.
The Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) was moved from its previous Hackney premises because it was within the 2012 Olympic Park site.

Havering Council said the planned redevelopment would have caused too much congestion.

London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC) discussed the plans on Thursday evening.

Tolexander: All these churches should be heavily taxed so as to realise the resources that will be use to construct new roads and the maintainance since they are one of the major users of the road.

AjanleKoko: It's a tough one sha.
The majority of Nigerians have voted for church as their major preoccupation. And it's not like the churches are building on the roads itself. You could have built a major shopping mall or another Alaba market on that axis, and it would generate the same amount of traffic. What would you do then, close the market?

The government should just do what they should as government - charge the church occupants some sort of land use charge or tax, and use the revenues to expand the rods, build flyovers or something that can provide some sort of escape. Or even build alternative routes. You can't penalize people for doing church if they choose to. Just make them pay one way or another.

Interestingly, Igbokwe is an APC chieftain, and those are the two states in power in Lagos and Ogun. So he and his fellow politicians should put their thinking caps on. Shikena

Fhemmmy:

Heavily taxed cos their members are driving on the roads?

Fhemmmy:

Heavily taxed cos their members are driving on the roads?

Orikinla: Blaming the churches for the traffic gridlock is from an ignorant person.
The road is is not a modern road.

Tolexander: cos their members drive on the road in addition to causing hold up on the roads.

Fhemmmy:

With or without those churches, that is a heavily used road that leads to other states out of Lagos, the road ought to be widened and make sure it is not a death trap . . .

Accra, Ghana - Tens of thousands of people on Tuesday swarmed the church of a Nigerian prophet in Accra, Ghana, causing a huge traffic jam on an important road linking east of the capital.

Prophet T. B. Joshua, founder and leader of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), was scheduled to appear on Tuesday morning but well before dawn, thousands of people started flocking to the church on the busy Spintex Road that has industries, residential communities and links the east of Accra and the port city of Tema.

Hundreds of commuters who use the road were caught in the gridlock for several hours.

Police who were called in appeared helpless as they were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the crowd surging to the area.

Eyewitnesses said many followers of the prophet parked their vehicles about two kilometres away and walked to the church.

Sunnynwa: Joe IGBO kwe, those churches are headed by your hosts and you as a guest should not tell the host what to do in his land.

eGuerrilla:

If what you are suggesting is that fixing the roads will also resolve the underlying problem, you are completely wrong.
I have resided in three European countries where I have seen new traffic laws - in the form of road-markings - emerge, just to contain the disorderliness of traffic flowing from Nigerian churches.

The easiest way to address this issue is to implement stringent planning conditions. If a church grows beyond its approved capacity, it needs to move. Simple.

Source