By Tayo Ogunbiyi
May 26, 2011 02:29AMT
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When in May 2009, the federal government signed a concession agreement with Bi-Courtney Limited for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway modernization project, the general consensus across the land was that help was around the corner at last. Two years after, the hope has given way to despair.

The age-long traffic problem on the Expressway, particularly at Ibafo and Ogere, has continued to pose a great challenge to the socio-economic development and security of not just Ogun State but Nigeria, considering the importance of the route.

Having successfully rehabilitated Murtala Mohammed Airport 2 to international standard, the government believed that what is unarguably Nigeria's busiest expressway, could be well managed by Bi-Courtney. The project is aimed at improving the current geometric standards of the road; expanding the carriageway into a limited access eight lanes divided highway between Lagos and the Shagamu interchange and a limited access of six lanes divided highway between the Shagamu interchange and Ibadan. Modern services and facilities to be introduced include: dawn lighting, improved and new interchanges, a new drainage system, recessed service areas, lay-by emergency parking areas, footbridges in heavy pedestrian areas, weigh bridges, electronic traffic control and obligatory/informative signs. Under the DBOT, there will be no monetary costs to the government. Bi-Courtney is to raise all the required funding, largely through equity and long-term loans and to a much lesser extent, from revenue generated from the operation of the highway.

No one knows what the situation is with the FGN- Bi-Courtney pact. What is sure is that the road is still in dire need of help. Those who ply the route care less about who is not doing what, and are more interested in how soon the work is done. The emergency situation cannot be subject to the usual Nigerian style of foot-dragging. If indeed, human lives mean anything to us, the time is ripe for the government to tackle issues relating to the road head-long. For all our cry about attracting foreign investments into the country, if we cannot take care of minute details such as improving a major highway that could enhance such investments, then we had better forget it.

The state of the Expressway is also a serious damage to the much publicized rebranding Nigeria project. Being the primary link between Lagos, a major commercial centre and other parts of Nigeria, and hence, a road of primary economic and social importance to the nation, it is imperative that the government take urgent steps to ensure that the situation of the road improves.

The federal government might have the perspective that the road is no longer its responsibility while the Ogun State government lacks the needed capacity to provide the needed intervention. Bi-Courtney, the concessionaire, seems not to be getting its act together. The consequence is that travelling on the road has become a nightmare . Indeed, the road is fast turning into a centre of un-ending carnage. Three people were recently killed in an early morning explosion that resulted in a multiple vehicles accident on the road. Three articulated tankers laden with petroleum products and another truck were also completely burnt in the accident that created serious panic for early users of the ever-busy expressway.

The issues with the road are varied. For one, it is in a real bad shape and needs urgent rehabilitation. No more, no less. Second, trailer drivers are a nuisance. Not only do they drive recklessly, but they pack their trailers indiscriminately. Nobody seems capable of getting them to act responsibly. On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, there appears to be one law for other drivers and a different one for trailer drivers. The indiscriminate packing of trailers on either side of the road is a serious factor in the painful traffic gridlock that commuters regularly suffer on the road. Third, incessant cases of abandoned vehicles constitute a major hindrance to motorists.

Also, the transformation of the axis into a vast business and residential hub, with emerging communities such as Arepo, Magboro, Ibafo, Asese, Olowotedo, Pakuro among others, has equally heightened traffic chaos along the road; as well as the location of the international headquarters of many religious bodies along the axis. Even though the religious organisations have evolved strategic means of traffic control to ensure the free flow of traffic during their programmes, improvements are still needed.

The attendant road crashes occasioned by the dilapidated state of the road and the deaths, injuries and destruction to property (vehicles, goods, etc) have come with enormous economic costs. In its most recent record, the Federal Road Safety Commission disclosed that Nigeria lost 3 per cent of her GDP which translated to 17 per cent of current national reserves, through road traffic crashes in 2009. The income loss from 2009 road traffic crashes in Nigeria was more than the GDP of over 20 individual African countries. No nation that is desirous of economic development and growth will handle with levity a situation where its vibrant work force and other citizens are wantonly wasted through otherwise avoidable occurrences.

To put the Nigerian economy on the lane to speedy recovery and growth, the federal government has to immediately commit itself to a result-driven programme that would make the road a driver's delight. There must be a timeframe known and acceptable to Nigerians for the completion of this road if the government must convince the people that we are in a new dispensation. It must do everything to ensure that Bi-Courtney wake up from sleep, or cancel the agreement with the concessionaire and re-award same to an able and competent company.

Tayo Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Opinion/5704860-182/story.csp

So why hasn't Bi-Courtney fixed the road? What is going on here?

Is there no clause in the agreement with Bicourtney that specifies the maximum period of inactivity or non-performance? The road has become a death trap.

^-- Good question

ekt_bear:

^-- Good question

Can you believe that the concession agreement was signed in May 2009? Yet two years after, the expressway remains a mere stretch of tattered and expired asphalt that claims several lives on a regular basis; no thanks to the countless potholes and craters that have been etched on the highway by over three decades of heavy use without regular maintenance.

As unfriendly as the expressway is, many of the motorists who ply it are poorly skilled in driving and are without caution. It's exasperating to see many truck drivers drive permanently on the left even when they are not overtaking. And wait for this one, driving on the road at night is hellish and nightmarish - the expressway is pitch dark and broken down vehicles hardly give any sign of the obstacle they have become.

And there are other issues too numerous to mention apart from the menace of trucks and trailers - spurious police check points, uncontrolled religious activities and events, pedestrians running across the highway , etc.

There should be more efforts like this (your post) to mount pressure on FG/Bi-Courtney to do the needful. Enough of this avoidable loss of lives.