Traffic jams are undoubtedly a big challenge in Lagos State. Every day, commuters lose several man-hours on the road. Among the main reasons for this are poor roads, obstructions, disobedience of traffic laws and indiscriminate parking of vehicles on main roads by motorists.
With the government working hard to reduce congestion caused by some of the factors, the activities of the two transportation unions operating in the state have contributed to the bottleneck.
Unions include the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN). They operate garages, motor parks, and bus stops throughout the state through their officers, also known as agberos, or representatives who are park resellers.
But, in recent times, some of its members are using makeshift iron barricades to demarcate sections of the highway to serve as loading docks for commercial purposes, causing other road users to struggle in the narrow, unblocked lanes, which causes terrible jams.
Newslodge noted that touts already at 5:00 am use those points to collect tolls. From Okokomaiko to Alaba Rago, Alaba International, Iyana Iba, Ojuelegba, Mushin, Oshodi, Ikotun, Egbe, Iyana Ipaja and Ile Epo in the Oke Odo State local council, the experience is the same as that of the illegal barricades, nowhere small measure, to the untold hardships that motorists experience on a daily basis.
Interestingly, in some cases, the illegal activities of unions take place in the presence of police officers or near police stations.
Concerned about the worsening traffic situation in Lagos State, former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu had created the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to help maintain some level of sanity on the roads.
But it seems that agency officials are unable to curb the excesses of the agberos.
One motorist, who gave his name as Eze Kalu, said the touts’ activities are becoming unbearable, adding that the government must control them.
He pointed out that the income generated by the resellers did not go into government coffers but into private pockets. He questioned the habit of using personal matters to annoy other people.
According to a small trader, Idayat Kolawole, who sells second-hand clothing on the roadside, the barricades have caused accidents in some cases, with touts attributing most accidents to drivers or pedestrians.
She pointed out that the police are also part of the business as thugs give ‘returns’ after the day’s work.
Another driver, Ibidun Lawal, claimed that if NURTW’s Lagos chapter, locally called Agbero, could generate around N123.08bn annually, a sum of money that could cover the annual budgets of Nasarawa, Niger and Yobe states combined, would It might be interesting to find out how the money is spent, shared or distributed. He wondered why the transport union could not buy land with part of the fund earmarked for parks and garages to ensure that its activities did not disturb the residents of Lagos.
When Newslodge spoke to one of the union members, he explained that his members do so due to a lack of spaces in car parks.
He said that in most areas of Lagos where barricades are not erected, touts use commercial vehicles and tricycles to obstruct the free flow of traffic by taking over part of the road as a loading dock.
Remember that the traffic situation in old Oshodi caused headaches for residents and successive governments before the state government headed by Babatunde Raji Fashola brought the situation under control.
For Lagos to achieve true megacity status, observers have expressed the view that the state government must eliminate unnecessary and avoidable traffic jams on its roads, just as it is making concerted efforts to reshape its transport system in accordance with modern trends.