Kemisola Oye
MR John Daramola on 2nd December 2022 had no choice but to wade through Oduyemi Street in the Anifowose area of Ikeja, Lagos State, with the hope of connecting Agege Motor Road, at Ile-Zik Junction. It was his first time.
Although he was not a visitor to Ikeja, the truth is that he hardly made use of the inner roads within that particular area as a connection route to wherever he was going in the last few years.
What Daramola knew about Ikeja was usually the traffic gridlock which has always made him carefully plan his journey to avoid it. But on 2nd December he had no option but to look for an alternative route to connect Agege Motor Way owing to the ongoing construction work along Awolowo Way.
On getting to Oduyemi Street, the first rhetorical question he asked himself was whether the area was indeed part of Ikeja, the capital of Lagos State. He was stunned to realise that the street is only a stone’s throw from the Ikeja Local Government secretariat and headquarters of the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), both on Obafemi Awolowo Way.
The two questions that agitated his mind were why the bad state of roads, the refuse dump inside the drainage and the nauseating odour oozing from the blocked drains, despite proximity to these important government institutions.
As Daramola bumped from one stone to another while trying to avoid muddy and deplorable sections of the road or falling into the blocked drainage on both sides of the street, he told Eighteen-Eleven Media correspondent, who was equally wading through the road that such unsightly sight does not speak well of government functionaries, particularly as the seat of power in Alausa, is only a few metres away.
Just as Daramola was expressing his disgust, some other aggrieved residents who also use adjoining Afisman Drive the same day complained about the collapsed state of the road and the stagnant drainages.
The street is about 100 meters long but not memorable. The slabs on the drainages have been removed possibly by residents trying to provide passage for drainage water. A cursory look at drains revealed green stagnant water, undoubtedly a breeding spot for dreadful mosquitoes aside from other dangerous reptiles said to have taken up shelter inside the drainage.
Some of the residents lamented the bad state of the road, and in particular the drainages which have turned life into a nightmare for them.
It was learnt that several business owners have relocated as they progressively recorded low patronage no thanks to the deplorable state of the roads.
One of the residents on Afisman Drive, while interacting with Eighteen-Eleven Media said, “You have not seen anything. If there is a little drop of rain, I mean a small raindrop, we are in for trouble here. As a matter of fact, most vehicle owners could no longer bring in their cars in the first instance. Where is the road to drive on?”
Pointing to some of the structures to indicate how the degraded and waterlogged environment is gradually compromising the walls of buildings, the angry resident said, “You could see that the waterlogged environment is already affecting our buildings. Anifowose area is simply unbefitting of any place expected to be this close to Government House.”
In a similar vein, residents of Bayo Shodipo Street within the Anifowose also urged Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to come to their rescue and fix the road.
Eighteen-Eleven Media correspondent observed that the issue of deplorable roads and bad drainage have negatively affected commercial activities, among others in the otherwise busy commercial area.
The situation is not different at Ojulowo Imoshe Street where motorists and pedestrians could hardly navigate the road.
While the roads are bad our correspondent further observed that most of the rubbles removed by EFAG officials from the drainage are left right on roads without proper evacuation thereby finding their way back into drainages.
Some of the residents are also complaining about the danger the poor state of the environment poses to their health and especially those of their children, who daily have to commute to and from school.
However, a source from the ministry of works, who said he was not authorised to engage the press, said efforts are been put in place to address inner roads that are bad across the state.
He said the government is already attending to such roads at Bariga and other places and that very soon the government of Babajide Sanwo-Olu would address the crisis.