MY TEN KOBO; BEFORE WE START FLYING OVER AT ABULE EGBA

The Lagos Governor, Bros Akin Ambode, was on a snap visit to the Abule Egba flyover yesterday evening, obviously to see things for himself before the official commissioning later this month.

For the record, the Abule Egba Flyover was one of the very first projects embarked upon by this administration, and it was billed for completion within an 18 month period.

It was also one of the projects I had advocated for, along with the reconstruction of Brown Street in Oshodi, the expansion of the Lagos Airport Road and the regeneration of Oshodi as a all in one transportation hub, that led to the erroneous belief in some quarters than I had some sort of influence in this government.

But I digress.

For the past eighteen months, the people of the area have endured the physical hardship stoically in the belief that no amount of sacrifice is too much for such a gigantic and life altering project.

Even most of the people who lost their shops and source of income due to the destruction of structures violating the road lay back rule, took it all in their stride.

Now that the project is 98% completed, it has thrown up a whole new set of challenges.

While I commend the officers of LASTMA, the Police Traffic Unit, and the Civil Defence, for giving the area priority attention during this trying period, and the contractors for always creating diversions for drivers, the state of the inner roads that bore the brunt of the diversion needs to be addressed, and urgently too.

Charity Road, Olayiwola Street Social Club road, Santos Avenue, Sani Balogun, Ahmadiya road, Olaniyi Street, Karimu Street, Jibowu Estate Road, Ekoro Road, Abbatoir Link Road to Fagba, and of course, Agbe road, are some of the roads that have totally collapsed due to the heavy duty trucks, trailers, tankers and high volume traffic they absorb on a daily basis.

So, while we thank Bros Eh for this monumental infrastructural masterpiece, which has automatically transformed AE City to the Commercial Nerve Center of that axis, the job will be half done if these roads are not immediately attended to by the government after the commissioning.

After all, what is the fun in living in a neighborhood that guarantees access to anywhere in the World within minutes (MMA is 25 minutes away, two rail stations are less than 20 minutes apart), the highest concentration of Residential Estates in Lagos West, a world class abattoir, the biggest second hand market in Lagos at Kantagwa, and soon, the arrival of a modern computer village, if it takes you two hours to get out of the craters on the inner roads.

I am sure that Bros Akin Ambode will not let this happen to his people in Ambode Country.

My Ten Kobo±