By
Coker Onita
Anytime I have cause to pass Nigeria’s longest bridge, my heartaches. It pounds heavily, almost entering my mouth. Honestly, this is no exaggeration!
The bridge, about 11.8 kilometres long, was until 1996, the longest in Africa.
This record has since been overtaken by the 6th October Bridge in Cairo, Egypt.
While Muhammadu Buhari’s administration would like to count its rehabilitation, done between June 2020 and January 2021, as one of its achievements, I shudder to view it from the contrary. Indeed, I beg to differ. The reasons are not too far to seek.
While l acknowledge the seven months gruesome, partial closure of the bridge in order to effect repairs on its bearings, expansion joints and underbelly, which has made it more stable and solid, the same cannot be said of its bare surface.
With billions of naira pumped into its repairs, I have been wondering whether the work ought not to have been done more perfectly to give Lagosians a pleasurable ride. This is to save motorists the drudgery and heartaches it throws them into while plying the bridge. Driving on it is far from smooth and pleasurable. The entire bare surface of the bridge needs complete asphaltic overlay. Or how do civil engineers describe this critical aspect of the job, which is definitely a way to improve its smoothness and solidity?
Any casual observer would find travelling on the bridge not only upsetting but also totally harrowing! The bridge harbours visible cracks and potholes beyond description. The pavements are worn out and become slippery during the rains. I am informed that the potholes have become a veritable source of avoidable vehicular crashes, particularly at night. Hundreds have innocently lost their lives for this carelessness on the part of the Federal Ministry of Works! Just last month, a whole PSP Compactor Truck crashed into the lagoon while plying the bridge from mainland. Only God knows the number of people who crashed and perished with it.
The bad portions on the bridge are more noticeable when travelling from Lagos Island and as you run into those portions, you wonder whether you are truly on a bridge with deep lagoon underneath or on Ikorodu road on solid mainland. The other side when approaching the bridge from Oworonshoki, Lagos Mainland is not better either.
I have been wondering why the bridge surface has shamelessly been left in that level of disrepair or how else do we describe a bridge you ply only to regularly find yourself at the mechanic workshop? Why?
Having fixed the underbelly with not less than seven months, how much will the surface paving cost in terms of both time and expenditure? If the excuse is that the budget seems humongous, why delay the repairs? The longer you delay, the higher and more prohibitive the cost gets.
Nigeria’s Federal Government should not wait until every motorist begins to moan and complain of hardship or vehicles begin to skip off the bridge into the lagoon before they make repairs . The agony of commuters on Third Mainland Bridge is already loud enough!
A stitch in time saves nine, so says the common adage. Over to you, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, our Minister for Works and Housing, you can still do something before your tenure expires.
FORMER EDITOR OF PRIME PEOPLE AND PUBLISHER/CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF TODAY’S CHOICE MAGAZINE (TC), COKER ONITA IS DIRECTOR, INFORMATION AND STRATEGY OF THE ATIKU PEOPLE UNITED (APU)