The State called Lagos (Introduction)
Lagos
State is no doubt what I call the most activity inclined State in
Nigeria. From sports to entertainment, trading, corporate business to mention a
few and to other of business and leisure activities that defines an individual,
ones career, personality and a geographical location. All these account for why Lagos is the commercial nerve
centre of Nigeria.
With
the commercial
nerve centre/hub status on Lagos State that sheds more light on the
definition of Lagos, the State has over the years had a high influx of people
and in no time, may just experience a population explosion, as the number of immigrants,
both locally and internationally have over the years increased at a geometric level.
From rural - urban migration, to immigration and whatever yardstick that defines
the movement of people from one geographical location to another, the State is
overwhelmingly growing economically and population wise. The latter increase,
though advantageously as it guarantees the availability of human resources to
take the very few jobs available, its disadvantage brings to birth the caption
of this work.
According
to lagosstate.gov.ng as sourced on 19 Jan., 2013, the estimated population of
the state is 17,552,942, which it states is
due to the population growth rate in the state that is about 600,000 per annum.
In
my opinion, these staggering figures have many reasons among which is the
perception of Lagos State “being” London by some indigenes of others states and
towns, thereby making the state to serve as a point of “greener pasture”. With
the underlining statement, the geometrically progressive population growth rate
of the state is among the many reasons for the traffic gridlock in Lagos being
the way it is.
The
traffic jam in Lagos is one of a kind, one not good enough for anyone to have a
feel of nor experience, especially if one isn’t just used to traffic jam but a
gridlock iced with drama, a drama of a kind by the impatient motorists who try
to outsmart one another as they believe patience has no place to stay in the
state for as long as traffic jam is concerned or the traffic law enforcement
agency, notably the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) which has
many of its personnel employing what I call a drably mediocrity inclined
approach
to easing up the traffic headache in the state. With these dramas
freely watched each time with new casts in different episodes, one is most
times left with no choice but to wish one could teleport oneself out of the
state, but unfortunately since one isn’t Mortal Kombat’s Reptile, that will
be impossible as one will be stuck in the impromptu drama experience, befitting
a good bed time story for your kid(s).
The
traffic in Lagos in my opinion has many sides, which obviously are widely
perceived to be on the disadvantage but, I just figured out the advantage side
of the traffic.
I
am not going o let the cat out of the bag but keep you reading this in suspense
as I drive you through the many sides of Lagos Traffic Jam.
On
the traffic jam (suspense) with regards to the aforesaid, just have a ride
reading this as you will get there in no time.
The Many Sides of Lagos State
Traffic
Inefficiency/production
decline rate: The
traffic in Lagos has overtime had a horrifying effect on productivity. This is
attributed to the lateness of people to work and in a bid to adequately cover –
up for the earlier lost time when one is left with no choice but to spend extra
time with no overtime compensation. Not everyone stays beyond the walking hours
but irrespective of what the case is, productivity is adversely affected me.
Tiredness:
This is somewhat in
line with the aforementioned point but it goes down to stress the fact that
every individual need rest and though the traffic could ironically serve as a
good time for one to catch some good sleep, staying in traffic for so long,
perhaps 4 – 5 hours for a 30mins journey is a strongpoint to one sleeping
uncomfortably, having body and most especially, neck aches. I have been a
victim of this many times. This tiredness, I believe, goes a long way in
explaining why people at times feel so tired at work or in the evening when
they get home, this I am very guilty of.
Vehicular
damage/breakdown: No questioning,
the high population rate in Lagos is predominantly responsible for the huge
traffic jam experienced, however, other factors like road accidents and
vehicular breakdown is also responsible.
But,
for the purpose of this work, suffice us to pay attention to the “population
cause” which further has a resulting effect on the high numbers of cars on the
road. Times without numbers, Lagos traffic adversely gets a handful of cars
breakdown and adding being the bottleneck to what ought to have eased the jam. With
such an occurrence, one would have expected the towing service to be on their
toes to swiftly respond to such situation but their response is at times slow,
discouraging and very annoying.
Slow
down to rescue effort/emergency response: This
is a very critical argument to the traffic and will be more stressed than the
others as it no doubt accounts for why Lagos state loses its best brains, its
future and a slowdown in the emergency response effort of the available
emergency response units like the Fire Service, Police and Ambulance Service.
The slow down effect of the traffic jam cannot be undermined and it underscores
the reason why it is high time the government of Lagos State employ an
alternative to embarking on the aforementioned emergency response activities. I
posit that the way in view is an aerial approach, with the aid of helicopters.
The
state and other states, not exempting the Federal government may dodge this
approach by claiming it will take a huge financial commitment but; “hello, if the government is sincerely and prudent
with its expenses, and corruption being widely frowned at and encouragingly
getting the nation taking a new leaf, embarking on this approach will be a
piece of cake as Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole can afford it.
A
typical Lagos traffic jam situation
Crime: This
is a 2 faceted point on the traffic and no doubt the bedrock to this work
coming to life. The 2 sidedness of this point is on the merit and demerit but,
we will start with the negative perspective.
On
the negative,
the traffic situation in Lagos has overtime, been “advantageous” to criminals who
swiftly employ it as a means of robbing motorists stuck in the traffic. With
this pitiable act being a recurring incident, the need to have an aerial crime
fighting approach is expedient, as it will always give these “men of the night”
a food for thought, as they will have it at the back of their minds that the
possibility of them getting killed or arrested is close to certainty.
On
the flip side, we have the positive crime effect. On this, it is not an
advantage to the motorists nor the criminals but the government. Lagos drivers,
chauffeurs and many others on the steering are guilty of breaking traffic
rules, notably the traffic light and the stop directive from the traffic
warden (traffic light controlling cop) just because the latter is not
armed with the necessary equipments to bring these traffic offenders to book.
This
ignorance and perhaps, blind eye to the traffic light,
added to the disrespect of the traffic warden which arises due to him seen as a
statue
by the traffic light offenders is speedily having a huge drop in the state. One
may ask, is the drop attributed to the fact that Lagos drivers are now obedient
to traffic laws? The answer, No!
What
has skyrocketed the traffic obedience is the fact that the growing traffic
level across the state, has produced a no hiding place for traffic offenders as
most times, the perpetuators of the act in no time get caught up by the law
enforcement agencies, due to them sooner or later being held up in traffic jam
while trying to avoid arrest.
With
this, as bad as the traffic jam in Lagos is, the single advantage it has is to
the law enforcement agencies that have their trail on traffic offenders
smoothly executed.
These
views of mine shared, it is so interestingly amazing to note that Lagos State
is not listed in the ranking of world cities with regards to traffic jam.
Being
a resident of Lagos and having a countless stuck in traffic for long hours, I
had always felt that no mega city can be like Lagos. This indeed is a wrong notion
as 2 major sources, allworldcars.com and bbc.co.uk shut my thoughts up.
Allworldcars.com
had a top 20 ranking of traffic jam cities. In this publication, tagged “the
world’s 20 cities with the worst traffic jams”, Lagos was noticeably absent but
rather, Tokyo was in the driving seat with Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Bangkok,
Moscow, Shanghai being in second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. Others are Mumbai,
Mexico, New York, Seoul, Chicago, Manila and London in seventh, eighth, ninth,
tenth. Eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth place. In fourteenth, fifteenth, down
to twentieth had Jakarta, Osaka, Venezuela, Athens, Auckland, Rio de Janeiro and Kathmandu.
On the
other hand, the survey by bbc.co.uk which it dubbed; 10 monster traffic jams from around the world had Bangkok, Thailand; Jakarta, Indonesia; Nairobi,
Kenya; Manila, Philippines and Mumbai, India in the order of first to fifth
place. Concluding the list in sixth to tenth place had Kampala, Uganda; Lexington,
Kentucky, US; Austin, Texas, US; Seoul, South Korea; Dhaka, Bangladesh and Megeve,
French Alps.
As observed, both
analyses had variations in placement which could be attributed to the yardstick,
point and approach employed by these individuals in the course of their
analysis. That of the bbc was released on 30 September, 2012 while allworldcars,
on December 10, 2008. Definitely a huge timeframe between both analysis and
notably, the traffic jam in Lagos has been on the rise long before 2008 but
interestingly not deemed good enough for a top 10 placement.
But irrespective of these
variation, significantly, it is observed that Lagos State is not on either list
and when given the opportunity to drop by in any of these traffic jam concerned
cities, I will have my own analysis to compare and find out what make Bangkok,
Jakarta, Dhaka among others way ahead of the city of Lagos.
In conclusion, from the
one and only football
analyst diva, Anita Agbakoba, “our (Lagos) traffic jam here is even heaven to
those places”.
To check out Anita Agbakogba’s why she is the one and only
football analyst diva, please follow the subsequent link;
Sources:
“The
world’s 20 cities with the worst traffic jams” allworldcars 10 Dec.,
2008. 19 Jan., 2012 < http://allworldcars.com/wordpress/?p=11866>
