A couple of months ago, I went to see a client at Lekki. I have not been to the area for over a year before then. Before getting close to Mobil House on Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, I thought I had missed my way, though I was born and bred in Lagos. I felt a bit embarrassed that I missed my way, but looking closely again I realized that I was on the right, but new path. Like a Yoruba adage says, whosoever perceives the dead with the eyes of the past, will be unclothed by the ghost. I was stunned at the transformation of Lekki-Epe expressway.
I told the driver to stop at the toll gate, while I took time to savour the atmosphere. I felt for the first time as if I were in London. Though uncompleted, one will see the invincible outline of how it will look like at completion. I could not hide my excitement when I got to the client’s office and openly made comments about the road, it was then they began to educate me that it was a Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement reached by Lagos State Government and the Lekki Concession Company (LLC) to Build, Operate and Transfer the road back to the government after 30 years.
I cannot but commend the state government and LLC, for this creative and innovative idea. I concluded that it is just a mater of time, Lagos may soon be better than London, if the state maintains the current impetus for change. I read an article on page 45 of Thisday of Tuesday, 3 August 2010, entitled, ‘Lekki Residents Angry with Lagos over Toll Road’. The article, written by Benneth Oghifo, said some residents of Lekki have vowed to disrupt toll collection on Lekki Toll Road and advised the Lagos State Government to cause the developer, LCC, to dismantle the toll plaza already built. According to one of the residents, who spoke to the correspondent, one Mr. Adenusi Patrick, a road safety crusader said residents of estates along the road, such as Goshen, Still Waters, and Victoria Garden City amongst others are complaining. He said, ‘there is no right thinking person on this axis saluting the project…all the residents’ association are networking to put up a common front’.
In that article, dedicated only to Mr. Patrick, because only his comments ran throughout the article, he said again that the way out of the impasse is ‘to stop the project and let LCC pack their things and go and then the government should pay them back on yearly basis. After all, they (the government) are making money from us in the form of taxes. There is no public water supply beyond Lekki Phase One. We fetch water in our estates as well as construct our road. I became more uneasy while reading the article, when Mr. Patrick said the construction company was not doing much since it was only adding a lane each to the existing road. “They scrapped about two inches of the asphalt that was on the existing road, resurfaced it and added one lane and they are going to have the road for that reason for 30 years.”
For two or three reasons I will enumerate later, I feel so bothered about the article and thus feel the need to respond, analyzing the contents of the article. With due respect to Mr. Patrick, as I particularly respect his rights to free speech, thought and opinion, I see his comments as cruel, insensitive and of very bad taste. Again, I strongly do not want to believe that his comments and opinion is a total representation of all the people living on the Lekki axis. To say LLC is not doing much is very far from the truth. It is actually cynical, biased and misleading. I would have believed all he said if I had not recently been to that route. I beg to differ that a right thinking person will not call what I saw from Law School ‘not much’, what I saw myself is a massive construction project. It is important to articulate clearly what the issues are in this matter, which in my opinion is about the road, the concession, and the toll fees, rather than muddling things together. We are all Nigerians and it is good that we try to be fair and think ‘if it were you’.
LCC and Lagos State Government entered into an agreement before the commencement of the project, and even the Lagos State House of Assembly, representing the people of Lagos State passed a law to the effect. For the government to tell LCC to park their things and go, that the government will be paying LCC yearly for what they have spent, as suggested by Mr Patrick, will be a clear cruel breach of contract. Again, what were the residents of Lekki doing since LCC started the construction of the road, why is it that it is towards the tail end of the project, Mr. Adenusi Patrick is now saying they should pack their load and go, irrespective of their huge investments? Would it not have been better for a public outcry at the inception of the project for residents to register their grievances and it would have been easier for the termination of the project?
On the road, only a road construction expert can say the road is not good. From what I see as a layman, I think it’s a well-built and beautifully constructed road, and even then, LCC will be managing the road for the next 30 years and it will be their job to manage and maintain the road. On the concession period, it may be argued that 30 years is much but then, I guess the government and LCC must have based the duration on certain factors, so an estate resident cannot say the duration is too long and, therefore, the project should come to a halt. That will not be progressive; we can come to a possible negotiation.
Finally on the toll fees, which I believe is the main issue that directly affects the residents of Lekki and some of us who visit Lekki, Mr. Patrick gave a cost analysis of the implication of the toll to his family by calculating that he will be spending N18, 000 a month on a car and by implication since he has two cars, he will be spending N36, 000 monthly. I agree with him that N36, 000 from a family purse a month on toll fees is much. Would it not have been fair to base arguments on how to reduce these fees for residents or families with more than one car? Or residents pay lesser fees in advance annually in form of stickers than to dehumanize a company doing a legitimate business and offering premium services?
Before Tinubu-Fashola administration, we all know how roads have been in Lagos, people were paying taxes then at least those in the civil service, should government now spent all monies on road constructions and ignore other important sectors like healthcare, education and etc?
Most of the best roads constructed by Fashola administration are in Victoria Island and Ikoyi axis, the government should again construct the Lekki-Epe road at this time? Is Lagos alone for people in Lekki axis? I personally believe the Lagos State government should not award any contract for road constructions in the meantime and focus on other areas like education, healthcare and etc. There have been plans several years ago to construct the 4th. Mainland bridge to reduce the congestions and strains currently on the 3rd. mainland bridge, but the project has not started several years after it was conceived and it must have been because of the financial toll it will take on the government purse, so if tomorrow a private concern comes up to construct the road and charge toll fees for the next 50 years, should we reject the idea? Should we support some people in Ikorodu if they begin to say how much it will cost them because they have more than one car and live on estates or that they are the traditional land owners and should ply the bridge free?
I remember over a decade ago when I used to go to Chevron. It was like I am traveling to a company in the middle of a wilderness, there are very few cars on the tiny road then but now, millions of people have relocated to that axis and several estates and thousands of modern buildings and installations have sprang up creating a serious traffic. If all the estates and residents of Lekki since a decade ago envisioned the present explosion, they could have done something to the footpath called road that leads into Lekki, what they did rather was each person to concentrate on his own house or estate. In all developed economies, public private partnerships are integral parts of the system. Nigeria is just beginning to imbibe the concept and I think we should encourage good initiatives, the current PPP between the state government and LCC may have certain flaws but in all, the good outweighs the deficiencies. 30 years sounds farfetched but it will soon come to pass, a year or so is already gone and the company has not even started making any money from the project, nobody comes to count bridge in Lagos. For Mr. Patrick to be able to build a house in Lekki and have two cars shows he’s pretty a comfortable man and I am sure he will be a pauper by now if he was dealt with in his business the way he’s canvassing LCC should be dealt with. How would our lives become if a private concern comes to Lagos to offer us electricity? If LCC works, other local and international investors may begin to come to Lagos to deliver services that will ease our lives and thus give us all a longer life expectancy. In closing, the implications of Lekki-Epe Toll Gate Concession is far beyond residents of Lekki alone, is about the totality of Lagos and her future prosperity. That road will fast track the Lekki Free Trade Zone, the proposed refinery by the federal government will be in that axis too and Mr. Patrick should know that the LCC toll gate has caused the value of his property to appreciate.
I see Lekki-Epe axis to be the most expensive and most sought after business destination in Africa in the next 10 years, at least in Nigeria. A residential area with a free trade zone, refinery and high end international business transaction location, it should have toll gate if at least to reduce unwarranted travel and access. I pray the people of Lekki will revisit their decision of hostility towards LCC and encourage the company, dialogue on grey areas and we all collectively move towards the future, a future that is boundless and limitless, when Lagos and Lagosians will live their dreams and explore their potentials, welcome to change, welcome to Lagos, EKO O NI BAJE O!!!
