It is not difficult to see the depressing spectacle as you worm
your way into the womb of the state with an estimated 22 million people, from
the Berger end of the endlessly rehabilitated Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, and
traverse its aquatic landscape, The expressway, as important as it is to the
nation’s economy, has taken the whole of the last 22 years, involving all the
administrations that have ruled the country since then, to fix. Every New
Sheriff in Town comes with a new completion date that never happens. Agony
subsists. Incidentally, the Abeokuta end of its entry point isn’t exciting
either.
As you descend from the scary Long Bridge that has now turned into
a haven for herdsmen killers and night marauders, then to Kara Bridge, and face
what ordinarily should be the allure of Lagos, pockets of cudgel-wielding
fierce-looking youths, menacingly commandeering buses and trucks bearing farm
produce and sundry products meant for the millions of residents, welcome you
instead. The brazenness is unimaginable. What a contradiction it is, the centre
of excellence introduced by a less than excellent visage.
If it is at dusk, it is even scarier and messier. The traffic on
the road is obstructed, so the wearied drivers could compellingly pay
unreceipted levies. But, at all times, it is a spectacle that tells the tale of
a state whose government, as an institution for law enforcement, fights a
losing battle for space with unaccountable non-state actors, and most times and
in many places, surrendering the space to them |||READ
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