LASG AND AJAH-ADDO-LANGBASA- BADORE ROAD

The Lagos State government has a duty not to allow the axis to become another huge ghetto, write Eniola Uthman and Esther Owolabi

We would like to begin this brief message by putting it on record that since the return of democratic rule 24 years ago, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has become the first and only governor to spend his entire first term without bothering to visit the Ajah-Ado-Langbasa-Badore axis of Eti-Osa LGA. It would seem that he does not care about us. Eti-Osa leaders have in the last two weeks been speaking in public about how there are none of our indigenes in his regime. He needs to do something about how he is perceived here. The optics are not good.

President Bola Tinubu began the process of turning this critical axis into a middle-class environment when he was the governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 by building a standard eight-kilometre road there, complete with excellent drainage. His successor, Babatunde Fashola, not only completed the road but also built the main road of First Unity Estate, an important residential area of Badore, as well as two roads in Langbasa. 

What is more, Fashola built the Badore Mini-Water Works and the Badore Jetty to enable people to get to Ikoyi and Lagos Island without having to go through Lekki Phase One and Victoria Island. Fashola’s successor, Akinwunmi Ambode, built the Jubilee Flyover at the Ajah Roundabout which has gone a long way to ameliorate the traffic gridlock there.

It would seem, however, that the Ajah-Addo-Langbasa-Badore axis has now been allowed to turn into a massive ghetto. Last 20 August, for instance, motorists, including tricyclists, spent at least one hour on one spot, specifically at the Anglican Church of Ascension and the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Church junction in Badore because of the potholes in front of these churches, which have now developed into a crater. Since then, people have been spending more than one hour on this spot. More potholes on the Ajah-Addo-Langbasa-Badore Road are expanding rapidly and new ones are created almost daily as the rains continue to fall.

As if frightened by the outcome of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, the Sanwo-Olu administration hurriedly awarded the contract for the patching (not rehabilitation) of the road to a contractor who did not start any work till the gubernatorial and State House of Assembly polls of 18 March were over. The contractor, whose name was neither made public by the government nor displayed anywhere during the patching, managed to fill less than five per cent of the potholes on the road and then disappeared. The consequence is the notorious gridlock practically asphyxiating everyone.

To be able to get to the office punctually and return home early enough to prepare for work the next day, residents of the Ajah-Addo-Langbasa-Badore axis have been leaving for other parts of the Lekki Peninsula in droves. This development means massive depreciation of properties and other assets in the area. Some have their properties at less than the market value. Frankly, very few things can be depressing to a person to be a landlord for decades only to become a tenant in another part of the same place.

To worsen life in the Ajah-Addo-Langbasa-Badore axis, all the amenities provided during the Tinubu and Fashola days are in a decrepit state. Take the Catholic Mission Street in Badore which Tinubu tarred after building a settlement for fishermen around the Tarzan Jetty in Badore –  It is probably the worst road in the whole of Eti-Osa LGA not just because of the utter mess the road has become but also because it has been overtaken by all manner of illegal structures and shacks. It is now a mini shanty town.

All the street lights provided in this axis are gone! Not even during the electioneering campaign did the street lights come up for a night. And this was the first time since the restoration of democracy in 1999 that we had an election and celebrated Christmas and New Year without streetlights being switched on.

Needless to state, the Badore Jetty built under Fashola by PW, the highly regarded Irish multinational construction firm, has become one of the abandoned projects. The result? Undue congestion and pressure on the Lekki-Epe Highway, with all the grave economic, political, and social consequences. Yet, the Lagos State government speaks endlessly of its commitment to water transportation development. And again, the Badore Mini Water Works built by Fashola has fallen into great disuse due to non-maintenance—in fact, outright abandonment.

From the look of things, Sanwo-Olu is not alone in the neglect of the Ajah-Addo-Langbasa-Badore part of Eti-Osa. We don’t even know the name of our National Assembly members, including the senator who has been there for years. He doesn’t visit us and he doesn’t ask for infrastructure in our place. The House of Assembly member is not known to us. The same goes for the Chairman of Eti-Osa LDA. Under Fashola, both local government and development area chairmen worked hard for the benefit of Lagos people. The health centre in Badore and the roads constructed by Alhaji Owolabi Yisa, a former LDA chairman, in Ajah, Addo and other places are still there. Governor Sanwo-Olu can direct the Eti-Osa LDA chair to do something about the infrastructure and shacks in these parts.

The Lagos State government has a duty not to allow the Ajah-Addo-Langbasa-Badore axis to become another huge ghetto. The place has deteriorated enough on his watch.

Chief Utman, an engineer and Mrs Owolabi, a pharmacist, are both based in Badore-Ajah- Lekki Peninsula of Lagos State.