Lagos: The Burden Of A Commercial Nerve Centre By Kazeem Akintunde

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By Kazeem Akintunde

Many residents of Lagos State who work on the Island but reside on the mainland, last week Wednesday, went through a harrowing experience after being caught in a deadly traffic gridlock that has come to define the essence of the city. As early as 2P.M. after a little rainfall that lasted for just 30 minutes, most of the roads in and around Falomo, Ikoyi, Victoria Island, and other adjourning roads became a no-go area as there was no movement on either side of the roads.

The unusual traffic gridlock was compounded by the fact that a major artery that took vehicles out of the Island – the Independence Bridge – had been closed to motorists for urgent repair works earlier in the day. By 5P.M., when most offices close for the day, there was bedlam on the entire road network on the Island which forced many workers that ply the routes to pass the night either on the road or in their offices. Some of those who slept in their offices left very early the next morning, but the traffic was unrelenting. In actual fact, there was little or no reprieve on Thursday until Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Governor of Lagos state and Dave Umahi, the Minister of Works, had to rush to the scene to take charge of the sordid situation.

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A hapless Sanwo-Olu had to plead with Lagosians to stay away from the Island if they did not have urgent assignments there. He also pleaded with employers of labour to consider allowing their staff to work from home pending when the repair works on the bridge would be completed. Many of the workers spent an average of eight hours on the road for a journey of 30 minutes. Some did not get home until 4 A.M. the following morning.

The crisis on the road would have been avoided if those in charge of the repair works on the Independence Bridge had done the necessary sensitization and carried Lagosians along. The repair works were meant to save the bridge from total collapse. Sanwo-Olu, alongside Umahi, said that the federal government could no longer postpone the repair works on the bridge in order to avoid a major catastrophe. The duo considered opening a section of the bridge for motorists to ease what was anticipated to result in a gridlock, but a section of the bridge had been dug, making the option unviable. However, they were forced to reopen a section of the bridge when the toll on human lives became unbearable. For the next two months, that is likely to be the fate of residents of Lagos working on the Island.

Perhaps, it is time to tell ourselves the truth. Lagos is congested, and this is the time to start taking drastic actions. With a land mass of 1,292 square miles (3,345 square km), it is the smallest state in terms of land mass in the country, but amongst the top in terms of population density. With a projected population of over 24 million residents, Lagos is the commercial nerve centre of the country, hence, the influx of people to the city on a daily basis. On the average, an estimated 6,000 people arrive Lagos daily, and around 3,000 are settling in the city without a known address.

Most public facilities in the state are overstretched. Like most urban centres the world over, social facilities such as housing, schools, hospitals, water, roads and the likes are in short supply with the state gradually turning into an urban slum. Despite the huge internally-generated revenue, most facilities in the state are overstretched by the large number of people requiring essential services.

In 2024 alone, the Lagos State Government targeted an internally-generated revenue of N1.251 trillion to fund its budget, representing a 17.35 per cent increase from the N1.066 trillion in the 2023 budget. That is asides the huge revenue it receives monthly from the federal government. But this appears to be like a drop in the ocean compared to the provision of services in taking care of the huge number of people coming to Lagos on a daily basis, most of whom have no idea where they are going to stay, especially our friends and brothers up north who troop into the city in trucks and lorries. Shanties and makeshift apartments have sprung up and there is a constant war between the builders of the shanties and members of the state task force on environmental sanitation.

Many Lagos roads are narrow and can no longer take care of the numbers of cars that ply them on a daily basis. On the average, a total of 2.5 million vehicles are on Lagos roads daily, including weekends.

A metro line project that could have solved half of the present crisis facing the state was jettisoned on the altar of politics by the Muhammadu Buhari government in 1985, at a loss of over $78 million to the state tax payers. Although the then government of Bola Tinubu revived the rail network for the state in 2003, much damaged has been done to it, with successive administrations after him simply trying to play catch up.

As it stands, the rail line network is being developed, with the red and blue rail lines working, while plans are underway to add the purple line. While the red line takes passengers from Agbado in Ogun State to Oyingbo, the blue line moves passengers from Mile 12 to Lagos Island. The 57-kilometer purple line rail transport project is expected to move commuters from Redemption Camp in Ogun State to Volkswagen area on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway as part of a broader rail expansion programme to ease congestion on Lagos roads.

Also in the pipeline is the Green rail line project, which is a 68-kilometer rail line from Marina to the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Although listed as one of its top infrastructure projects for 2025, it is doubtful if much work would be done on it this year.

The state has also taken advantage of being surrounded by water to develop its ferry services, but it is still not very popular among the people for obvious reasons, as many have phobia for water transportation.

As expected of most urban centres, the crime rate in the city is also getting out of hand, as young boys without any means of livelihood are daily turning to crime and drugs. There are no streets in the state now without young boys and girls terrorizing passersby once it is dark. They snatch phones and molest young girls. Woe betides you if your car breaks down on the roads in Lagos now. If you are lucky to escape LASTMA officials and their towing vehicles, you won’t escape area boys and touts who will demand ‘protection fee’ from you. The perplexing thing about this is the fact that many of those Area boys and touts are non-indigenes of Lagos State. The Raji Fashola administration embarked on deporting those unwanted guests back to their states of origin, but it created enmity amongst states, leading the policy to be jettisoned.

While many government officials are aware of the challenges posed by street gangs and urchins, the state government has pleaded with the federal government to grant the state a special status that would provide a new stream of funding to Lagos in a bid to shoulder the responsibility of providing social services to Lagosians.

Lagos State is a confluence, no doubt! It is home to a diverse population that cuts across ethnic, religious, political, and socio-economic backgrounds. Little wonder it is generally referred to as a ‘Mini Nigeria’, considering its amalgam of tongues. This diversity nevertheless needs to be addressed within the context of the needs and aspirations of the varying groups that crave for education and other services in the state. And for this to be realisable, Lagos deserves a special status that recognises and acknowledges its unique circumstances and peculiarities.

Although Lagos State is committed to the provision of quality education and other essential services to all in the state, the demand for education alone far exceeds the financial resources available to the state. With over 24 million residents, there is no way this reality will not put a strain on the city’s education system.

A 2009-2020 Lagos Sector Education Plan, which captures Lagos State expenditures, revealed that most school children in Lagos, for instance, are originally from other geo-political zones of the country. The document states that of the 133,516 junior secondary school pupils in Lagos State, only 13,756, amounting to 10.30 percent, are Lagos indigenes.

Pupils across other South-West states take the next chunk, with 68,511, amounting to 51.31 percent. Their counterparts from the South-East follow, claiming another huge 23,979 population, representing 17.82 percent. South-South is 8,355, indicating 6.26 percent, while North-East has 1,008 pupils, amounting to 0.75 percent.

North-West has 136 pupils, representing 0.10 percent, while North-Central comprises 374 pupils, amounting to 0.82 percent. According to the document, total student enrolments into higher educational institutions in Lagos for part-time and full-time programmes skyrocketed from 76,697 to 118,466 between 2001 and 2005. Beyond inter-state migration, Lagos State is also attracting large numbers of expatriates who daily throng the state for Golden Fleece. As a result, the city’s population is constantly growing and changing, making it difficult for the education system and other social services to keep up.

In the health sector, Lagos State presently has 30 state-owned secondary health facilities comprising General Hospitals, two stand-alone Maternal and Child care Centres and the Accident and Emergency Centre. It also boasts of 194 Primary Health Centres across the state, but the quest for better life by medical workers have turned the health care sector in the state into shambles. Many of the Doctors and Nurses have left the shores of the country, and the few remaining are overworked and underpaid. They do the little they can, and simply give up when tired. Stories of avoidable deaths are told on a daily basis. The bed space in those hospitals are simply insufficient for the huge population in the state.

Provision of housing is another major challenge in Lagos state, as well as the unavailability of clean drinkable water. With the stress most Lagosians go through on a daily basis, it is not surprising that the average lifespan of Nigerians has plummeted to 56 years, with Lagos and its lifestyle a major contributory factor. Spending between eight to 10 hours in traffic for a journey of less than 10 kilometres will definitely reduce a chunk of a person’s life.

Indeed, Lagos is a mega city with mega challenges!

See you next week.