Transportation in a megacity

Planning for future needs of the society is the hallmark of an effective government. It ensures the orderly growth, progress and development of the society with few discomforts and disruptions. However, there are other societies that have no business with planning and are always reactive to problems. Planning is alien to them and even if, for political or publicity reasons they draw up a plan, the plan ends up just as a plan and never gets implemented.
Sadly that is the case with Lagos, which frequently claims to harbour the dream of becoming a mega city, like New York, Vancouver, Tokyo, Moscow, Los Angeles, Cairo among others. Of course, one of the major problems of all megacities is that of transportation and traffic management. These cities therefore have transportation master plans to help them organise effective and efficient transportation for millions of the city’s dwellers to prevent unnecessary sufferings and loss of man-hours resulting from traffic congestions.
Lagos, the most populous city in Africa with an estimated population of over 20 million, is renowned for its severe and business-crippling traffic congestions. It is estimated that the state loses over N250 billion to traffic annually. Hence the decision of the state government to come up with a transportation master plan as far back as 2006 to provide a framework for the effective management of transportation in Lagos state. The transportation master plan aims to integrate road, water, rail and cable car mode of transportation to end the city’s transportation woes.
The key however, was known to be the rail transportation system. Captured under the Integrated Rail Transport System, the plan was to link the major population and activity centres in Lagos state under seven lines. These include: Red line from Agbado to Marina (31 kilometres long), Red Line extension (6 kilometres) to local and international wings of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Blue Line on Badagry Expressway from Okokomaiko to Marina via Iddo (27 kilometres), Green Line from Marina to the proposed Lekki Airport (26 kilometres), Yello Line from Otta (Ogun state)/MM Airport to Iddo (34 kilometres), Purple Line – from Redemption Camp (in Ogun state) to Lagos State University, Ojo (60 kilometres, Orange Line – from Redemption Camp to Marina (42 kilometres), and the Brown Line – from Mile 12 to Marina (20 kilometres).

However, the huge financial outlay forced the Lagos state government to prioritise the project and begin with the 27-kilometre Badagry line running from Okokomaiko to Marina via Iddo. The contract was awarded to the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) in 2008 at the cost of $1.2 billion and was to be due in 2011.
However, since then, the delivery dates have continued to shift right. From 2011 it was shifted to 2012, then 2013, then 2014, all to no avail. Upon the inception of the Ambode administration, the governor himself promised that the line will be completed in December 2016. But just like before, a month to the completion date, the government or its minders again have said it could not be completed at that date and cited financial and other logistical reasons for the delay.
The government has been at pains to stress that it is yet to secure the buy-in of the private sector and investors in the project. But how would right-thinking investors invest in a country where policy summersault is the norm? If the Lagos state government, despite all the efforts it took it to negotiate the Lekki-Epe Expressway road project could still turn round and buy back the concession, what assurances can it provide to investors that their investments are secure from government flip flops? Truth is; due to policy flip-flops, discontinuities and reversals, the country has become one of the riskiest place to invest and investors are now preferring other low yields but with stable and predictable policy environment.
To further deepen the pains of already pulverised people who spend a chunk of their time on traffic gridlocks daily, the Lagos state commissioner for transport, last year, announced that the full implementation of the Lagos State Strategic Transport Masterplan (STMP) has been postponed from 2020 to 2030. He said the postponement was to perfect plans for the project and to allow all mass transit schemes to take off. The new transport plan of this administration, according to the governor, is to flood the streets with modern buses. What this means in simple language is that this administration is not ready to implement the transport master plan and the residents of the state will have to continue to endure the terrible traffic gridlocks until a government willing to implement it comes on board. So much for the often trumpeted megacity status of Lagos!