TRAFFIC is a way of life in Lagos, Africa’s most populous city. Home by some counts to over 20m people, it is among the most notoriously congested places in the world. The “go-slow” piles up long before dawn as businessmen in SUVs and traders in battered buses hit the overburdened roads. It lasts until well after dark. Often the queues can be unfathomable: a rainstorm, a breakdown or a public holiday can condemn a driver to hours in horn-honking hell. Tardy workers proffer one irrefutable excuse: “Traffic is bad.”
Yet the gridlock that Lagosians have suffered in recent weeks is noteworthy even by the city’s horrendous standards. Rush hours have lengthened, and vehicles back up at unusual hours along the bridges linking the mainland with an island business district. Safety concerns are mounting as armed robbers pillage stuck cars while police are far away. Security experts reckon this is symptomatic of a broader increase in organised crime under a new and less competent state government.


[b]Lagos is a hub for investors in Africa—it is a bigger economy in its own right than most countries on the continent, so this is of serious concern. The state’s former governor, Babatunde Fashola, who left office after elections in March, was lauded for improving traffic and security. He curbed dangerous motorbike taxis and brought local “area boys” (street children), under control. Cars were terrified into order by a state traffic agency, LASTMA, whose bribe-hungry officers flagged down offending drivers.
His successor, Akinwunmi Ambode, is full of excuses, but few solutions, for the worsening gridlock. Traffic is always bad during the rains, he says. Nigerians are migrating to Lagos en masse in search of work in a worsening economy, his office adds. Yet the root of the problem is in policy: Mr Ambode cut the powers of traffic controllers by banning them from impounding cars. In retaliation, officers have refused to enforce the rules.


Reform in a culture riddled with corruption is never easy. Mr Ambode’s office says the measure was intended to create a more “civil society”. Less fastidious types think it amounts to weakness, and would prefer that he focused on public transport instead. The biggest concern is that the gridlock is a sign of a breakdown in relations between security forces, government agencies and the new governor. If that is the case, there could be worse to come. That is bad news not only for Lagosians, but all Nigerians too.[/b]
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21677665-why-nigerias-largest-city-even-less-navigable-usual-paralysed?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fpe%2Fed%2Fparalysed
Cc lalasticlala

Judge him After 4yrs

u don't mean it

Akinwunmi Ambode destroyed in less than 140 Characters....Gv it up to the west, they are simply amazing....

Where is lalasticlala sef

APC should prepare to get another candidate before 2019.

- full of excuses
- few solutions
- worsening gridlock

Ambode and Economist sef

Lol. When the figure head is as incompetent as a snail facing a cheetah in a death race, what do you expect?
Like Buhari, Like Ambo. .. Ati De O!

Eko ni Baje O!!


www.nairaland.com/attachments/2092636_my_jpeg32c947b9a6de6f2209b785db74601af5

His successor, Akinwunmi Ambode, is full of excuses, but few solutions, for the worsening gridlock. Traffic is always bad during the rains, he says. Nigerians are migrating to Lagos en masse in search of work in a worsening economy, his office adds.

SenseiX:
"Nigerians
are migrating to Lagos en
masse in search of work in
a worsening economy, his office adds."

Igbos not Nigerians.

Cc lalasticlala, obinoscopy

Go and take it up with your traditional ruler Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu’s his death threat and curse that Igbo will drown in Lagos lagoon within seven days if they did not vote for the All Progressives Congress has now backfired in every way possible.
What ever you put out there comes back to you.
The Law of Attraction is Real!

hahaha! I knew he was not the best choice after watching the debate vs PDP contender! but Tinubu will vote for lagos, the most progressive state of Nigeria is controlled by an emperor, an I always pray he chooses the right one for Lagos!

Tinubu's ATM

Ambode is a tax consultant, so lagosian should prepare themselves for a new tax regime. The controlling elites in lagos cannot be satisfied till all extractive economic institutions that improverishes the people is under thier total control.

That's what you get when you do what you did

SenseiX:
Vote for JK we said, they refused and chose to play ethnic politics electing a clueless stooge.
For all his flaws, no one would doubt Fashola's competence, composure and intelligence, can't say the same for Ambode. He seems to be on a mission to best Aregbesola's records in bad governance

Who are you to tell people who to vote for ? People have their choice and they go for it. You can't force your choice on others and others can't force their choice/opinion on you and moreover election is about winner/loser.
IMO ,Yes, Ambode might not be performing to expectation but still yet JK will not outperform him if he has the opportunity. JK that promises free wifi to Lagosian but yet JK pharmacy has no website as at electioneering period. For JK, it easier said than done may be because he is good as an orator.














GBN

This is what happens when people sit in far flung places of the earth and dictate for Africans/Nigerians without experiencing first hand the problems being faced.
Nigeria has a traffic police department mandated to tow vehicles, fine and imprison offenders but they seem to spend more time negotiating bribes with drivers on the road and ignoring traffic offences and the real reason for this is simply because the police is highly centralised with the state government lacking powers to forcefully compel them to act without receiving instructions from Abuja the Nations capital.
LASTMA over reached their powers during the reign of fashola, besides LASTMA was never a money making agency and Fashola has a lawyer should know that when you act outside the ambit of the laws such actions are illegal but in Nigeria anything goes.

CharlyNick:
Judge him After 4yrs

By that time all of us don die finish, so who go come judge am.

E no mean am abeg

CharlyNick:
Judge him After 4yrs

Abi o.

Which time e start?

Tinubu was angry that Lagosian loved Fashola more than him so this time around he decided to bring someone useless so that Lagosian won't come up with stories that the two governors after him were better..

[size=18pt]MTN TRU TALK[/size]

This is politically motivated

Isn't too early to judge

Its rather too early?

pls who is Ambode?

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