Akintola: What the next governor of Lagos State should do for us

Governor Fashola once indicated that he had concerns that legal actions from affected property owners would stop the execution of the re-construction of the Ozumba Mbadiwe, Victoria Island to Lekki to Epe expressway.


This expressway and the Lekki Phase I to Ikoyi link bridge are the two items of transport infrastructure on which the Lagos State Government, LASG, collects tolls.


There have been protests from residents of the Lekki peninsula about these tolls.

The reconstruction of the expressway started as a concession financed through bank loans but during 2014, the LASG has had to acquire the concession.


Is the acquisition of the concession by the LASG not influenced largely by the unfavourable toll levels into the future? If Governor Fashola had anticipated public opposition to the tolls, would the project have been started and carried through to where it is today?


One bright Saturday afternoon in May 2014, I made a return journey between Iponri and a point on the Lekki expressway about 8km from the Ajah roundabout travelling towards Epe. I spent 5 hours on this journey.

My primary impression was that traffic flow on this expressway could be improved if bridges were provided to take traffic above the roundabouts. The question is whether the residents of the Lekki peninsula would be willing to pay additional tolls to have these bridges built or they would protest that the tolls are suffocating as they are already.


It all comes down to consultations with the affected residents. Would the residents have been in favour of a toll road if consultations had been carried out before the concession law was passed by the House of Assembly? Probably not. Do the residents consider the current traffic flow any better than the flow before the reconstruction? Road construction costs in Nigeria plus bank interest charges on loans in the region of 20% per annum essentially result in road toll charges considered to be on the high side by the public.


The Federal Government of Nigeria, FGN, has a 4-year reconstruction programme for the Lagos to Ibadan expressway to be financed by the FGN providing N50billion in its budgets and with loans of N120billion put together by the Infrastructure Bank.

This arrangement implies that tolls would be charged on the Lagos to Ibadan expressway in the not too distant future. Lagos State residents who would be using the expressway between Ojota and Ojodu Berger would probably have to pay as much as someone going as far as Sagamu.


Two weeks ago, this column recommended the construction of the Isheri North River Ogun crossing as a toll bridge. The next governor should initiate designs and consultations on this project and on projects for the improvement of traffic flows in the Lekki Peninsula. We must begin to take into consideration that fact that there is a price we pay when we fail to execute in good time projects that would bring substantial benefits to us.


This past week, there was an announcement on the public display of the Environmental Impact Assessment report for the construction of buildings, bridges, roads, utilities infrastructure on reclaimed land adjacent to Bar Beach, Lagos otherwise called the Eko Atlantic City. We may have an opportunity to consider this report in the weeks ahead. Next week, we shall start with housing in Lagos State, 2015 and beyond.