F rom ages, vehicle manufacturers intended that the moving machine would help to ease hellish movement system at the time which used to result in time wasting and fatigue among people. However, as helpful the automobile has been to the human race in about two centuries, it would be an irony to find the device itself getting embroiled in similar, if not the same problems, that occasioned its invention.

Going around major highways in Nigeria, most roads are burdensome with hectic traffic logjam in its trail. Indisputably, Lagos is the worst hit in this horrible traffic menace. It is also an incontrovertible fact that Lagos is the commercial nerve centre of the nation. But just like other major economic capitals of the world, the precarious traffic situation in the state perhaps has defied all known human solutions.

Think of an active road in Lagos state you can hardly find any. Innocent pedestrians are made to suffer this ineptitude on the part of the authorities. Motorists do not go unpunished for an offence they did not engineer. In specific terms the traffic situation around Orile-Iganmu and Okokomaiko parts of Lagos is just an eyesore. Orile is situated in between mile 2 and Nigerian Breweries bus stops along Badagry expressway, sharing boundaries with areas such as; Sari Iganmu, Amukoko, Coker Village and Aguda. The two areas would boast of no less than three and half million inhabitants and the headaches they are made to encounter are really unbelievable.

The uniqueness Orile and Okokomaiko have in terms of traffic cramp is rare comparing it to other bus stops, in that what you find on one side of the road is what you get on the other side; this has been the case for as long as anyone can remember. More worrisome is the Okokomaiko road, which is the transit link between Nigeria and Benin Republic.

One Waidi, a commercial bus driver said of his experiences, “I don tire for this Orile self, every time person come here, our time go waste, when I don suppose don go two turn.” Meaning every time he drives and get to Orile bus stop, he loses time because of the heavy traffic, costing him the required money to be delivered to the bus owner.

John Okeke is also a commercial bus driver. He attributes the ugly daily traffic situation to lack of cooperation from his colleagues. He believes drivers do not follow traffic rules and signs scattered across the area when they want to pick or discharge passengers. Hear him, “The Danfo and the Coaster drivers are the cause of this matter. Most times you see them emptying their vehicles even when they have not got to the designated bus stop, which is at the front, just because they want to quickly load up or rather because they want to get their vehicles filled up before their other colleagues can do so, which is bad and this is the result we are seeing,” John said.

Sunday Onos lives at Afromedia, Okokomaiko and works at Apapa. Onos lamented when he spoke of his predicament while going and coming from work every day. Onos’ woes may have been compounded now that the rains are here. In his words, “It appears that the government has forgotten about the famous, international road which leads to Cotonou, Benin Republic. Sometimes, we do not bother to come home from work because of the traffic situation on the road.”

The Okokomaiko road is notorious not only for heavy traffic build up, but for daily robbery cases on motorists and commuters. Bose Ojo is a fashion designer at PPL area of Okokomaiko. Recounting her ordeal, Ojo faults federal government’s maintenance of the road, saying that residents live in perpetual fear of daily cases of gun attacks from dare devil robbers. Speaking to NewAge, Ojo said, “We residents of this area are at a loss whether we are part of this country called Nigeria. In spite of all the levies and taxes we are made to pay, yet we can not enjoy smooth drive to our houses. It is high time government did something on this road,” said the visibly furious resident.

Yes the government should carry some of the blames for this crisis. However, Nigerians are also culpable for this mess. Road users are part of their own problem in this regard. Lagos is notorious for street trading and these traders cause no mean hazels to the situation. Everywhere you go in the self-proclaim Centre of Excellence, you find hawkers doing their things on major roads to no remorse. What you find beside the road from morning till night are tables and trays displaying different petty products to passersby and people alighting from buses, invariably competing with the other road users.

When asked why risking his life to sell by the road-side, a hawker by name Felix, said, “I make much profit selling my product here than selling in a shop, you know here is a major area, people from all parts of Lagos pass through here, so they see what I am selling, if they like it then they buy it, at the end of the day I make much money, and for the danger? Don’t worry I am always at alert, I have been selling here for the past two years now and nothing has happened to me.” You are sure would get this kind of response from most streets traders in the state. They choose to risk their precious lives on account of what to eat. Maybe they should not be blamed too.

Traffic and regular police should also take their own share of the blame for the menace. Across Lagos, these ‘Men in Black’ and ‘Yellow Fever’ as they are often addressed are a huge stakeholder in this mess. Instead of directing and ensuring free flow of traffic, they are most times extorting money from motorists and this cause no mean traffic build ups along these roads. A commuter who identified himself as Femi said of the traffic wardens, “In truth, the traffic police are doing their bit to make our roads free of traffic build ups, but it seems their bests are not enough. Oftentimes, the police are culprits in this menace now confronting us. They help collaborate to impede free flow of traffic.”

It is a fact that the notorious Lagos urchins otherwise called Area Boys are part of the problem especially in these areas.

Ask them why they take laws into their hands and obstructing traffic, these miscreants are quick to tell you that they remit huge sums of money to some government quarters and as a result are not to be blamed for traffic build ups. Vociferous they are, but they are really press shy. Ask to get their opinions on an issue that concerns them, they take offence and may threaten to have you beaten up. One of them however who summoned enough courage to talk to NewAge, but would prefer anonymity said, “This is Lagos. As people go to their shops and offices, we also do our own work here. After all we know how much we cough out to the government. Go ask them (government). The veracity of his claim is not easily determined as no government official would want to comment on matters affecting the street urchins. However, on several occasions, the Lagos state government had made policy statements concerning these sets of people, condemning the Area Boys way of ‘work.’

Recently, governor Batunde Raji Fashola of Lagos, in his bid to rid the state of traffic mess, earmarked some houses and religious houses for destruction. A number of structured have been marked for demolition and work on this may have started in earnest. While some have hailed the idea, the affected people expectedly flay the Lagos move, saying it is anti-people in nature. They cite the purported demolition of the iron market in Orile, the Idi Ose market also in Orile, a popular hospital and other commercial and bank buildings.

Without mincing words, the Okokomaiko road and Orile axis in the state are nothing short of embarrassment to the Fashola administration. Granted that the new governemtn at the Round House in Alausa is already making inroads in the area of street construction and maintenance, it is equally a fact that the Okokomaiko and Orile roads deserve urgent attention, may be more than some areas that the government is currently putting its resources. As said earlier, the Okokomaiko road borders Nigeria and another sovereign nation, while Orile road is another alternative route to the Lagos Island after the Apapa road, which, on its own, is at the mercy of tanker drivers. The time can not be more ripe than now for the Lagos government to urgently address this trend which if allowed to degenerate, could spell more doom for residents and the government too.