Motorists, commuters groan as Mushin-Agege Motor Road deteriorates

Oshodi portion of Agege Motor Road
before its rehabilitation. This is a replica of
the situation at Oloosa at present.

Oluwaseun Ayantokun reports on how Agege Motor road, which is in a deplorable state, has been hindering free flow of human and vehicular movement in Lagos State.

During the last administration in Lagos State, new roads were constructed while a number of existing ones were reconstructed or rehabilitated. The Agege Motor road, especially the portion between Oshodi and Mushin happened to be one of the lucky ones that were touched. The Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration in 2005 did a good job on the road. Aside putting a good layer of asphalt on the road, the drainage systems were also cleared. Not yet done, the state government went further to really make it a scene to behold by installing street lights along the road.

Even when there was blackout in the night around the adjoining streets, the then excellent state of Mushin area of Agege Motor road was always a delight for pedestrians and motorists alike who drove along. The only worry then was that no sooner was the project completed than the market women went back to occupy more than 70 per cent of the road from Post Office area to Ojuwoye Market and down to Oloosa, thereby narrowing it and making passage difficult for both human and vehicular traffic. And what about the street lights? A foregone issue. Street lights need not be mentioned in a country where there is a low level of maintenance culture and in a particular area that is being occupied by marijuana–addicted vandals.

The road, which is the primary concern of motorists and Lagosians in general, has begun to deteriorate two years after it was reconstructed . Specifically, from Regina Mundi Catholic Church to Oloosa, traffic is always at a standstill, courtesy of the deplorable state of that portion of the road. In front of the Obafemi Awolowo Market, the road features deep potholes which serve as temporary reservoirs for water from inside the market and adjoining streets.

To avoid the foul-smelling water, passers-by hop from one safe spot to the other, hissing and wishing that the government would look in the direction of the worrisome part of Agege Motor Road. Some of the people who live in the area told Lagos Life that the situation gets worse when it rains as the road becomes practically impassable, forcing both private and commercial motorists to divert, manoeuvring through nearby streets to link Oshodi. Lagos Life observed that one major contributing factor to the problem was the way people who live in the area make use of the drainages, as all sorts of things, such as empty sachets of water, plastic bottles, polythene bags and faeces are dumped in them.

A passer-by who met Lagos Life at the spot described it as a sight uncomely for a pregnant woman “if she doesn’t want to fall into premature labour.” Mr. Isiaka Aremu, one of the taxi drivers that use the taxi park close to the market, also blamed the problem on the shoddy job done in the area by the contractors responsible for the clearing of the drainages. “Most of the time, the clearing is not done properly. The sand and refuse dug out are left by the side of the road and after some days, they find their way back into the drainages,” he said. He added that the state government and Mushin Local Government Council under which the place falls has to enforce environmental and sanitation laws so that residents and market men and women in the area could properly dispose of their refuse.

He said, “the channels are not deep enough but there is also the need for the government to ensure that the channels and drainages are cleared at least twice in a month instead of waiting for a call for help. In the word of a commercial motorcyclist who also works in the area, “Ogunmokun road is already a problem that needs a special attention from the state government.” He said though Mushin Local Government had tried to alleviate the problem by putting some stones in the gullies which are in the middle of the road, more efforts have to be made to fill the potholes. Another resident of the area said that any effort to control the flow of water on the road might not be fruitful if something tangible is not done to put Ogunmokun road in a proper shape.

He opined that the channels and drainages along the road, like every other adjoining street, serve as tributaries to Agege Motor Road, but they also habour great water reservoirs through which every motor vehicle navigates before getting to the major road, which belong to the Federal Government. “The water which flows from blocked channels around is responsible for what we are experiencing on this road,” another resident lamented. Some people have started querying the quality of work done in 2005 when the road was rehabilitated. “We can now see how thin the asphalt overlay is and it leaves no one in doubt as to why it deteriorated quickly,” one of them said.

All said and done, Lagosians are earnestly waiting for the kind gesture of either the Lagos State or the Federal Government to salvage the situation before it turns worse.