Forty-nine-year-old Gabriel Tihunu was happy that the day’s work had ended. He exchanged pleasantries with his boss and colleagues before hurriedly packing his bag. But as he approached the office’s door, the excitement with which he had carried out the day’s work suddenly disappeared. Sights of his colleagues driving their cars home compounded his misery.
Unlike dozens of his colleagues who drive their cars home at the close of each day’s work, Tihunu cannot – he has never. Since moving to Badagry, a border town in Lagos famed for its rich cultural heritage, bad roads dotting the axis have prevented him from ‘cruising’ his saloon car home. As a result, he spends needless and agonising hours on the road hopping from one bus to another as he heads home. He is finding it tough enduring the situation.
“How long shall we continue to bear this terrible condition?” Tihunu mumbled. “What is the purpose of buying a car that you cannot drive home just because of bad roads? This suffering is too much; I have a car but I can’t take it home. It is either I abandon the car on the road or I sleep inside it anytime I attempt to take it home. Is this normal?” the obviously frustrated man asked our correspondent who engaged him in a chat.
Samuel Ekundayo Road at Fanayon, Badagry New Town, in Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State, has become an albatross for many of the community’s residents. From the beginning of the nine-kilometre road at the popular Mobil Bus Stop to its end at Limca Junction, nowhere was passable – everywhere was muddy. During a visit to the area recently, our correspondent saw several cars that had been stuck in the muddy road for weeks after the bad state of the road forced its owners to abandon them.
A banker, Mr. Temitope Ogunsefunmi, is one of such unlucky persons. He said he could not recall the exact day he drove his car to work even in spite of the vehicle’s sound condition. He told our correspondent that his car spent nearly four months in the muddy road last year when it was stuck there.
“My car was once stuck on this road for nearly four months last year. You can only see about 19 cars stuck in different portions of this road now, you need to come here two years ago and see what we passed through,” Ogunsefunmi said while sympathising with a visitor from the Egbeda area of Lagos State, Pastor Akande Adeogun, whose car got stuck in the mud on the road the previous night. “This is why visitors hardly come to this community. Even our colleagues at work hardly come to the town anytime we invite them to our ceremonies because of the terrible condition of this road. We are used to abandoning our cars either at home or in the office to avoid being stuck,” he said.
Akande, who said he spent the night inside the car, was further shocked when Ogunsefunmi told him not to worry about looking for a tow vehicle to help him pull out the car from the muddy road.
“Sir, I can only advise you to go home and rest; no driver or tow vehicle will take the risk of coming to this place. Tow vehicle drivers are afraid of coming to this place; you may need to wait till late January or early February before you can get any tow vehicle to help you to pull out the car,” Ogunsefunmi told Akande, who expressed concern that his car might be looted by hoodlums should he leave it there for that long.
My cars have started rusting
A resident, Mr. Pesu Podonu, said a first time visitor to his house would think that the compound is a car mart as six different vehicles have been “abandoned” in the premises. Of the six cars, he has two, while the rest belong to his three tenants. His major worry now is that the cars have started rusting where they are parked.
The 50-year-old Podonu recalled that the last time he drove to work was May 5, 2014, when a bus load of school pupils fell in the middle of the road. He said but for the prompt intervention of the people who rushed the children to the hospital that morning, the incident would have claimed the lives of the pupils.
Podonu said, “It took us more than 30 minutes to rescue the pupils from the gully where the bus that was conveying them to school fell that day because of the poor condition of our road. We had to beg commercial motorists to help us take the children to the hospital when drivers were not ready to risk their vehicles on the road.
“None of the cars in my compound is faulty; they are all in good condition. We will regret it if we take the risk of putting them on the bad Samuel Ekundayo Road. Many people in this community have abandoned their cars in their work places or with relatives.”
Similarly, Mr. Olatunji Oladiran has not driven out his car for many months. He said before he stopped driving the car, he had abandoned it more than 20 times at a filling station, a distance of about 11 kilometres to his house and rode on commercial motorcycles instead for fear that the car might be stuck on the road.
“What we are passing through in this community is becoming unbearable. For the past 10 years, we have been calling on the Lagos State Government to help us fix this road; this is the only road that connects us to other parts of the Badagry Local Government Area. Ambulance operators don’t come here to help us convey patients during emergency; they always complain that our road is bad. On many occasions, we have used commercial motorcycles to take our pregnant women to hospital for the delivery of their babies,” Oladiran said.
Another resident, Mr. Raji Ishola, had his vehicle looted and vandalised by hoodlums late last month where he parked it at his workshop in the Igando area of the state. Ishola, who decried the plight of the people of the community, said the radio and battery were stolen by hoodlums.
While showing the picture of the car on his mobile phone to our correspondent, Ishola said, “My car would have been intact if our road was passable as I would have driven it home. I am not the only person whose vehicle was vandalised; many other people in this community have had their cars vandalised where they parked them. We have our houses yet we can’t bring our cars there. If the side mirrors are not removed, the battery will be stolen by thieves where we park them outside the community.”
Badagry New Town gradually becoming a den of criminals
The poor state of the Samuel Ekundayo Road is not only denying residents of most parts of Badagry the opportunity to enjoy their cars, criminals have capitalised on the situation to attack many passersby and households, too. The damage has been indescribable.
Badmus Kabiru and Alhaji Sikiru Ogunlana are among victims of recent armed robbery attacks in the town. They had been attacked twice in four months. Narrating his harrowing ordeal in the hands of the hoodlums, Kabiru said, “When the robbery was on, my neighbours called the police, but the police did not come until we went to their station the following day to report the incident.
“The police only came and inspect our house and went away; they said they were helpless because of the poor condition of our road. The armed robbers had a field day because they knew that the police could not come and arrest them.”
Ogunlana struggled to narrate his own ordeal as he battled the injury he sustained on one of his legs. He said though the police took him to the hospital for treatment after the armed robbery attack, he would have been rescued by the police had the road been passable.
Ogunlana said, “The armed robbers jumped the fence and forced their way in. They bound my hands and legs before they began hitting my head with heavy objects. They demanded what I didn’t have; they were demanding money and gold after they had collected my phones and the laptops of my children.
“The robbers have come here twice in three months. I built this house 10 years ago and I don’t know what to do. The police said they couldn’t patrol this community because of the bad road.”
Pregnant women relocating
Pregnant women in the community have started relocating to their relatives’ houses to ensure accessibility to hospital on their delivery dates. Apostle Benjamin Ogundipe, a church founder, said most pregnant women adopted the measure to prevent a recurrence of a recent case in which a nursing mother fell into a flood while being taken to the hospital on commercial motorcycle for post-natal care.
He said, “I pity our pregnant women who could not go for their ante-natal care. Sometimes, we have to beg commercial motorcyclists to help us convey them to the hospital.
“The promise by the state government to fix the road by the end of June 2014 has lapsed. We are still expecting the government to fulfill the promise; we have been appealing to the state government for the past 10 years now to build the road for us.”
Community leaders recall past government’s promises
A former Chairman, Fanayon Community Development Association, Chief Akwemaho Daniel, said the government had promised to build the road on more than 10 occasions but is yet to fulfil that pledge. According to him, after many letters of appeal in the past, a former Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, came to inspect the road, but when he got to the half way, the former governor turned back and said he had seen our plight.
Daniel said, “When Fashola also came to inaugurate Market and Agbelata roads, he equally promised to build our road, but nothing was done till he vacated office. The road has been in that terrible condition for over 10 years. We have contributed money; we have tasked the rich among us who have contributed money to buy sand to fill a portion of the road, but how many trips or loads of sand can we buy to fill a nine-kilometre road?
“Samuel Ekundayo Road is the most popular road in Badagry because of its stretch. Tenants have been parking out of the community, while new landlords are not willing to occupy their buildings.
“Go round the town, you will discover many new and completed houses that are yet to be occupied by their owners. Sometimes, we ask ourselves whether we are part of Lagos State. Our children don’t go to school during rainy season for fear of being drowned. Our economic activities have also been affected, there are many lock-up shops in the town and tenants are not ready to put their money where there wouldn’t be value for it.
“We will continue to appeal to the Lagos State Government to fulfill its promise to build the road. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode promised to mobilise contractors to fix the road in June, but as we speak, we are yet to see any sign that work will commence anytime soon on the road. Ours has become a community where nothing works.”
The road approved for rehabilitation in 2007
Responding to one of the appeal letters the community wrote to the Lagos State Government in 2007 in which the CDA drew the government’s attention to the deplorable state of the road and the need to fix it, the state government told the residents to exercise patience as it had approved the road for rehabilitation.
A copy of the state government’s letter dated August 15, 2007 and signed by the then Special Adviser to the Governor on Works and Infrastructure, Mr. L. A. Lawal, sought the residents’ understanding over the poor state of the road.
The letter titled, “Re: Total reconstruction of Samuel Ekundayo Road, Badagry New Town, Badagry Local Government Area,” read, “I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated August 9, 2007 on the above subject matter.
“I am further directed to inform you that the road has been approved for rehabilitation and it shall soon be advertised for tendering.
“In view of the above, I have been directed to request you to exercise patience and bear with the government. Thank you.”
But eight years after the state government lifted the spirit of the locals with that pledge, the residents said their agony over the road has yet to abate.
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